The Red and the Black ~ Marie-Henry Beyle (Stendhal) ~ popular 1980, Easton Press ~ Red Leather ~ Illustrated - As New

The Red And The Black

by Marei-Henri Beyle (Stendhal)

Translated by C.K. Scott-Moncrieff

Introduction by Hamilton Basso

Illustrated by Rafaello Busoni

The 100 Greatest Books Ever Written

Collector's Edition

Bound in Genuine Leather

1980, The Easton Press
Norwalk, Connecticut

Sewn binding. Red leather over boards with gilt decoration on front and back and design and lettering on spine. Integral ribbon marker sewn in. Four spine hubs. All edges of leaves gilt. Moiré endpapers. 10.5", 450 pages, publisher's preface, table of contents, introduction, illustrations

Near New. Ribbon bookmark looks to have never been disturbed. A few tiny spots of white (paint?) on the lower portion of the back board (see image 3). These can be carefully picked off but I leave that to the new owner's discretion.

From the Publisher's Preface

The real name of the popular French author of this volume was Marie-Henri Beyle. The German pseudonym "Stendhal," which he used for his two finest novels, was the name of the birthplace of Winckelmann, whose influential studies of classical art he deeply admired. Though he wrote in French, he prefaced his books with a dedication in English: "To the Happy Few." For his gravestone, Stendhal had composed an Italian epitaph in which he declared himself a citizen of Milan. Given his international learnings and his constant travels through Europe, it is not surprising that he is credited with having introduced the word 'tourist' to French usage.

The author of two of the most highly admired novels in western literature - "The Red and the Black" and "The Charterhouse of Parma" - was a native of Grenoble, a tourist center in southeastern France noted for its glove manufacturing. Stendhal was born there in 1783 and attended its Ecole Centrale from 1796 to 1799. Through a powerful relative in the government, Pierre Laru, he obtained a secretarial post at the War Office in Paris, and then a commission in Napoleon's army, which he joined in Milan in the spring of 1800. In Milan, too, at the opera house of La Scala, the young man - who had already dreamed of writing stage plays - was enabled to indulge his live for theatrical spectacles.

Stendhal resigned his commission in 1802, returned to Paris, and made an intensive study of French literature. It was not until 1814 that his first books appeared.

BEP