Stendhal Takes Paris

I wish my French was good enough to see if Stendhal reads as hilariously in French as he does in English. A few more examples from Charterhouse,

"The Marchese professed a vigorous hatred of enlightment. 'It is ideas,' he would say, 'that have been the ruin of Italy.' He did not know quite how to reconcile this holy horror of learning with his desire to see his son Fabrizio perfect the education so brilliantly begun with the Jesuits."

"Two or three times a year Fabrizio, dauntless and hotheaded in pursuit of pleasure, would come very near to drowning himself in the lake."

"Throughout the thirteen years from 1800 to 1813, (The Marchese del Dongo) constantly and firmly believed that Napoleon would be overthrown before six months had passed. Judge then of his rapture when, at the beginning of 1813, he learnt of the disasters of the Beresina! The taking of Paris and the fall of Napoleon almost sent him right off his head; he then allowed himself to make the most outrageous remarks to his wife and his sister. At last, after fourteen years of waiting, he had the inexpressible joy of seeing the Austrian troops re-enter Milan."

"(The Marchese) had one consolation. After the fall of Napoleon, certain powerful personages in Milan had arranged for Conte Prina, a former minister of the King of Italy, and a man of the highest merit, to be brutally assaulted in the street. Conte Pietranera risked his own life to save the minister's, who died from blows received from umbrellas, after an agony of five hours' duration."

A love letter, which reads,
     "Will you for once act like an intelligent being? Pray imagine that you have never known me.
     I am, with perhaps a little trace of contempt, your very humble servant.
                                                       GINA PIETRANERA
      After reading this note, Limercati set off for one of his country seats; his love rose to frenzy, he became quite mad and talked of blowing out his brains, a thing unheard of in countries where people believe in hell."

Can't wait to see where this ironic touch ends up. One of the most bizarre things Hitchens ever said was his challenge to the public to find one worthy, quotable line from then candidate Obama's Philadelphia speech on race, as if the complete absence of a Kennedy phrase or two is equatable to a rhetorical deficiency. Persuasive power doesn't require quotability; that should have been obvious to someone who has made a career fighting back fascism, especially where it doesn't exist, like in the Clintons' bedroom. It's much more impressive to me that a historical, ironic power which Stendhal displays here, carried out consistently while telling the simplest of tales (so far, about a boy who is born into a historical moment and grows up into it), can even exist.