I keep meaning to read Stendhal. I got a good distance into this book before I googled myself (by means of this blog) and found out I have in fact already read Stendahl.
And not just Stendahl, but THE CHARTERHOUSE OF PARMA. In my defense, last time I apparently gave up on p225. This time I got to p265.
Yes, I’m not into it. It’s just sort of hard going with lots of silly swashbuckling. This blog is now almost ten years old and I see it is such a long time period that I have forgotten entire books, but not such a long time that I have changed as a person. Creepily, not just my verdict and quit point are about the same, but so too are the parts I enjoyed. Both this time and last I noted this rather fun line, which shows cities don’t change so very much:
In front of each of these cafes, crowds of the inquisitive are installed on chairs in the middle of the street, eating ice-cream and criticizing the passers-by.
“But when he is front of the prince, or even in front of me, he can’t say no. Truth to tell, if I’m to produce my full effect, I have to have the big yellow sash on over my tunic. In a frock-coat he’d contradict me, so I always put on a uniform to receive him. It’s not for us to destroy the prestige of power, the French newspapers are demolishing it quite fast enough. The obsession with deference is hardly going to survive as long as we do, and you, nephew, will outlive deference. You will simply be a man!