Stendhal is an outstanding French critical realist writer in the nineteenth century.His life was not long, less than sixty years, and he started very late in literature, only in his thirties when he began to publish works.However, he has left a huge spiritual legacy to mankind: several novels, dozens of short stories or stories, millions of words of literary theory, essays and essays, and travel notes. Stendhal's real name was Henry Bell. Born in Grenoble, France in 1783.His father was a bourgeois, but he supported the royal power and the church, and his mind was full of noble ideas.Stendhal's tutor was a priest.The priest gave him a strict aristocratic education and forbade him to play with ordinary children.The greatest influence on him was his mother's maternal grandfather.His mother is of Italian descent, with a lively nature and relatively free and open thinking, and can read works by Dante and others in Italian.But she died when Stendhal was seven years old.Stendhal's maternal grandfather was a doctor.He is very open-minded, a follower of Rousseau and Voltaire, and a Republican.When Stendhal was a teenager, he often lived in his grandfather's house and read a lot of masterpieces there.

Stendhal's childhood was spent in the turmoil of the French Revolution. From 1796 to 1799, he attended the central school in Grenoble, which was a new type of school established during the French Revolution in accordance with the bourgeois revolutionary trend of thought and educational thought.In it, Stendhal systematically learned new ideas and knowledge, and became very interested in French literature and materialist philosophy. In 1779, he came to Paris, intending to apply for the famous polytechnic school, but inspired by the revolutionary situation, he joined the army led by Napoleon. In 1800, he followed the army led by Napoleon to Milan, Italy.The people of Milan, long under Austrian rule, looked to Napoleon's army as their savior.Their enthusiasm for the French Revolution and their excellent cultural traditions had a profound influence on Stendhal.After that, he lived and wrote in Milan for a long time, and regarded himself as a Milanese.

From 1806 to 1814, Stendhal moved to the European continent with Napoleon's army.During the great evacuation from Moscow in 1812, he served as a logistics officer.The long-term struggle practice has made his republican views more firm, and he hates the decadent feudal aristocracy and the dark rule of the church.Therefore, it is not surprising that when he took off his military uniform and devoted himself to literary creation, his criticism always pointed to the nobility and the church. Napoleon resigned in 1814 and the Bourbon dynasty was restored.The revolutionaries of the bourgeoisie were suppressed, while the feudal princes and nobles celebrated with each other.Under such circumstances, Stendhal felt that "there was nothing he could gain except suffering humiliation", so he left his motherland and lived in Milan, Italy.Here, he had great sympathy for Italian patriots and had close contacts with the Carbonari who were fighting for national liberation.His actions attracted the attention of the Austrian military police who ruled Italy.When the Italian Revolution of 1821 failed and many patriots were imprisoned, he too was deported by the police as a sympathizer of the Carbonari.He did not return to Italy until 1834, when he was appointed as the French Consul in Civitavecchia under the Pope.

Stendhal began publishing works in 1817.The debut work was completed in Italy, entitled "History of Italian Painting".Soon, he used the pseudonym Stendhal for the first time to publish his travel notes "Rome, Naples and Florence".From 1823 to 1825, he successively published articles that were later collected in the collection of essays "Racine and Shakespeare".After that, he turned to novel writing. Published "Armance" in 1827 and the famous short story "Vanina Vanini" in 1829.His masterpiece was written in 1829 and completed in 1830. The period from 1832 to 1842 was the most difficult period for Stendhal, with financial constraints, illnesses and harsh environments.But it is also his most important creative period.He wrote the novel "Lucien Louvin" (also known as "Red and White"), "The Abbey of Parma", the long autobiography "The Biography of Henri Bruira", and more than a dozen short stories.When Stendhal died on March 23, 1842, he still had several unfinished manuscripts.

Stendhal is famous for his novels.His full-length masterpiece has been handed down for more than a hundred years, and its charm has not diminished.However, his short stories are also wonderfully written.His representative works, such as "Vanina Vanini" and "Ailey" (literally translated as "Abbot Castro"), are vividly written and well-known, and they can be called wonderful flowers in the garden of short stories in the world.Together with Mérimée's Matteo Falgonne, Tamango, and Balzac's Gobsec, they mark the maturity of French short story creation. This book collects thirteen short stories by Stendhal.Among them, "The Past" (literally translated as "Memories of an Italian Gentleman"), "The Box and the Ghost", "Mina de Wanger", "The Love Potion" and "Philippe" were translated from French Serbian. "Stendhal's Selected Novels" published by Yi Press, and the other eight translated from "Italian Anecdotes" published by Gallimard Press in France, are introduced one by one according to the writing time: It was serialized in London Pictorial. In 1826, the French translation or rewritten version met readers in the British Bookstore in Paris. At the beginning, no one knew that the author was Stendhal.After Stendhal's death, his cousin Colombo discovered part of the draft of this work when he was sorting out his posthumous manuscripts, and included it in the 1854 edition of "Stendhal's Fiction Collection".

This novel describes the social customs and human conditions during the period when Napoleon's army occupied Italy.Conservative people gathered under the banner of the church in an attempt to pray for the blessing of the Virgin Mary to stop the rolling wave of revolution, while the church forces took the opportunity to create miracles and fabricate lies about the so-called apparition of the Virgin Mary to deceive the ignorant people; young people, be sensible Some people opposed the church's attitude, and they welcomed the arrival of Napoleon's army.The novel narrates a major historical event—the hijacking of the pope, and has some wonderful descriptions of heroes in troubled times.In short, the Italian society described in the novel is a conservative and ignorant society, and the general public regards the pope as the representative of God in the world.Therefore, Napoleon's army failed in Italy, the Pope was restored, and it was inevitable that a revenge movement would be launched.

"The Box and the Ghost" was written at the end of 1829.Stendhal had read it to Merimee at Christmas that year.This novel exposes to readers the cruelty and dominance of the Spanish restoration forces through the story of a police chief who uses his power to occupy a civilian girl and break up a pair of lovers alive.As the opposite of this evil force, the purity and kindness of the two lovers, and the plot of shedding blood for love, are extremely touching. Love Potion was written in January 1830 and published in The Paris Review in June of the same year.Stendhal claimed to write this work to "cure headaches and relax".And he admitted to referring to a work by the seventeenth-century French writer Scarron.He said: "The sauce is different in each era. I just replaced the 1660 sauce with the 1830." This work describes a young Spanish woman who is obsessed with ghosts and abandons her wealthy but old husband.The story of elope with a circus performer who runs the rivers and lakes, but still doesn't change after being cheated.Perhaps this is indeed a pastime work with mediocre thoughts, but it has unique writing techniques, especially the beginning and the end are praised.The time, place, atmosphere and plot described at the beginning are very coordinated, which can catch readers; the ending is concise and meaningful, leaving room for imagination.

"Mina de Wanger" was written between December 1829 and January 1830.It has been revised several times since then.But Stendhal did not publish it during his lifetime.It was not published in the Review of Two Worlds in Paris until eleven years after his death.In Stendhal's works, this is one of the few works that depicts the Germans.Mina de Wanger was born into a noble family in Germany.Her father was watched by the court because he hated unjust wars, and finally died of depression.In order to pursue her own happiness, she left home and abroad, came to Paris, and fell in love.In order to achieve her goal, this fanciful German girl did not hesitate to condescend, disguised herself, and came to the house of the person she fell in love with secretly as a maid. Unexpectedly, because of excessive happiness, she revealed her secret, which led to tragedy, and finally died in love.Through this sad and tortuous love story, Stendhal shows the differences in character and attitudes towards love between Germans and French.The heroine of the novel, Mina de Wangere, is a flesh and blood and radiant figure in the author's character gallery.

When "Philipe" was formed, experts have not yet reached a conclusion.Some people think it was between 1827 and 1830.Others think it was in 1839.However, the French literary historian Crucian analyzed the character traits of Philippe and Lucien, the protagonist in "The Red and White", and felt that the two were similar, so he believed that it was formed between 1835 and 1839.Strictly speaking, this article may not qualify as a short story, it can only be regarded as a short story, and it is also a bit like a Chinese notebook novel.The content is exactly like the subtitle. It is a few fragments of life of a young boy from Gaoliang, such as business, love, moving, etc., written in a relatively extensive way.In the field of Stendhal's short story creation, it may only be regarded as a grass, but it is beneficial to us to fully understand Stendhal's creation, so we also include it in the collection.

Among the eight short stories included in "Italian Anecdotes", except for "Vanina Vanini" which was completed in 1829, the rest were written after 1833.Some facts about these novels need a little introduction. In 1833, after Stendhal came to Italy again, he found a batch of "ancient manuscripts" in the library of a friend's house.These manuscripts truly recorded some important "social news" in Italy in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries.After reading it, Stendhal was very interested, thinking that they are "a beneficial supplement to the history of Italy in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries"; He spent a lot of money to buy the right to transcribe, asked people to carefully transcribe some chapters, kept them with him, read them repeatedly, and rewritten these manuscripts into short stories by means of part translation and part creation.When he was still alive, he selected and published three collections of "Ailey", "Victoria Acromboni" and "The Sancy Family".Twelve years after his death, his cousin sorted out his seven short stories rewritten accordingly, and added "Vanina Vanini", which describes the Italian love story, to form an episode named Published for "Italian Anecdote".

"Vanina Vanini", published in 1829, is a masterpiece of short stories.Through the love between the Carbonarist Pietro and the Roman aristocratic lady Vanina, it sings the praises of the Italian national liberation movement and the Carbonarers who sacrificed their lives for national liberation.Vanina is an alluring beauty.Although she came from a noble family, she regards wealth as floating clouds, and willingly pursues a fugitive from a humble background who is seriously injured and wanted by the government.For love, she is willing to give up everything, even at the expense of her own reputation.But in order to get Pietro's love, she actually betrayed Pietro's soldiers and destroyed their uprising.She fell in love with Pietro at the beginning because she admired his senseless spirit of fighting for national liberation.But due to the domination of selfishness, her love turned into an obstacle to the just cause in the end. As her antithesis, Pietro showed epic patriotism. He loved Vanina more than his own life.But when he had to choose between the fate of his country and his own happiness, he gave up the latter.For the sake of national liberation, he was willing to endure hardships. When his soldiers were arrested and the uprising failed, he resolutely surrendered himself to avoid being suspected of being a traitor.When he learned that it was his sweetheart who had informed him, he angrily refused her rescue and broke off his relationship with her.His awe-inspiring righteousness and extraordinary personality make him a dazzling image of a patriot in the history of literature. "The Church of San Francesco on the Shore" is a novel describing "Italian Passion". The Pope's niece, Princess Campobasso, is superficially indifferent, aloof, and adhering to women's morals, but she is actually full of uncontrollable lust.She secretly communicated with the French embassy attache in the Holy See, the illegitimate son of the French regent.But she wanted to enjoy her lover's love alone. Once she learned that he had empathized elsewhere, she colluded with careerists in the church and sent someone to assassinate her lover.When Stendhal described the ups and downs of the young couple's love, he added a few strokes to fully expose the ugly fact that the church at that time practiced cronyism, weaved nepotism, and made private transactions with each other under a high-sounding banner. "Victoria Accolomboni" is written about two vendettas committed by court nobles for love and profit.The novel is written in the style of describing "social news".Although the case is very tortuous and the way to solve the case is thrilling, the most exciting thing is the description of Montato, who was first a cardinal and later Pope Siristus V.Felix is ​​Montato's nephew and adopted son.The cardinal regarded him as a master in his hand.However, after hearing the news that his adopted son had been assassinated, he "didn't change his face" and showed no shock at all.The next day the Vatican held a cardinal church, people thought he would not be there, but as usual, he was the first to attend the meeting, and when the Pope himself comforted him with tears, he was also as usual, very calm, and asked The Holy One doesn’t order an investigation into the case, saying he has forgiven the killer. These performances of his won the favor of the Pope and others.Everyone said he was a great priest.Shortly thereafter, he was elected pope (his performance after the death of his nephew undoubtedly paved the way for his election), an immediate change of face that drove those suspected of being involved in his nephew's murder to flee Rome.His various performances vividly show the hypocrisy of an ambitious senior priest who does everything he can to climb up. "The Sancy Family" describes the misfortune of Beatrice and her family in a sad and moving style.She is a beautiful girl, just at the age of flowers and jade, she should have fully enjoyed the love and affection of her parents.Unexpectedly, her father was a beast in clothes, trying every means to abuse her and spoil her.She couldn't bear it anymore, and together with her stepmother, they asked someone to kill this whore.There was a reason for this murder case, and the judge deserved the sympathy of the judge. However, the church's referee, in disregard of the laws of nature and humanity, sentenced the girl and her family to death.Here the author expresses his strong indignation against the injustice of the judiciary, and expresses his deep sympathy for the unfortunate girl. "The Duchess of Pagliano" narrates a common thing in aristocratic families: the hostess has an affair with a young male servant.Stendhal did not describe the scene of the affair too much, but described the process of handling this matter in detail, and spent a lot of ink and ink, vividly showing the life-and-death struggle within the Holy See.The two cheaters were of course executed.Not even the fetus in the womb was spared.In a large feudal family, this brutal and inhuman lynching system is shocking. "Ai Lei" is a tear-jerking love tragedy.The noble lady Alley fell in love with the "bandit" Yura, but was strongly opposed by her father and brother.Unfortunately, in a battle, her brother was killed by Yula's sword.The heartbroken parents sent her to the monastery in order to cut off the love between her and Yura; Yura failed to attack the monastery, and in order to avoid being held accountable, Yura went away and lost contact.After parting from her lover, living in a harsh environment, and in a very painful situation, Ai Lei willingly fell into depravity. She first spent a lot of money in bribes to become the abbot, and then lost herself to a sanctimonious bishop.In the end, because of the pregnancy incident, he was sentenced to a heavy sentence.When she heard the news that Yula led people to rescue her, she left a long letter and committed suicide.Through the misfortune of Ai Lei, a noble lady, this masterpiece profoundly reveals that the feudal concept of family status is the murderer that kills the happiness of young people; the hypocritical church and monastery are the root of people's depravity. "Blood Stained Love" (literally translated as "Excessive Love Against the Victim") and "Suola Sklartica" have similar themes.Although the stories happened in different ages, one is before and after, and the other is before and after, but both novels have written about the inhumanity of the feudal system and the shady scenes of the aristocratic monastery.In order to ensure that the family's property would not be dispersed, those noble families with many children often only passed the property to the eldest son, and only gave a certain amount of living expenses to the remaining sons, and all daughters were expelled from the house.Or marry and exchange for a fortune, or send them to a noble nun's house specially set up for these people.Entering a convent is tantamount to entering a grave, and all ties with the outside world must be cut off.As the nun said in "Blood Stained Style", "Our parents sent us to the monastery, and the family property was taken over by our brothers. We were locked in this grave of the living, and there was no second way of life." But the girls are all A living person, unwilling to sacrifice his youth, love, and happiness, tries every means to have a tryst with a lover outside.However, once this kind of behavior is discovered, it will be regarded as a crime of blasphemy, and it will be thrown into a dungeon in the lightest case, imprisoned for life, and in the worst case will be executed. "Blood Stained" and "Suola Sklartica" are about the lives of noble nuns, their longing for happiness and their struggle against fate.The author expresses deep sympathy to the nuns who are persecuted by society and family, and enthusiastically praises their heroic resistance and pursuit of happiness and freedom. pioneer". The translators are engaged in translation and teaching, although each has a history of more than ten or twenty years.But in the face of such a great master as Stendhal, the translator is indeed "as if walking on thin ice in an abyss" when translating, fearing that there will be mistakes in the communication, and I will feel sorry for both the author and the readers.But desire does not equal knowledge level.The translator knows that his knowledge is poor, and mistranslation and poor translation are inevitable.I hope readers will criticize and make corrections so that the translation will continue to improve.