ABSTRACT
Chérubin Beyle is the embodiment of the provincial bourgeois, pigheaded, miserly, crafty, wholly devoted to money-grubbing. At an early date little Henri showed a preference for his mother. Indeed, as he himself confesses, his love for her was tinctured with passion. His father is the object of a jealous and scornful hatred, a hatred which is coldblooded, inquisitorial, and cynical. Stendhal is not conquered by his opposites, nor is he torn to pieces by them. The epicurean creature is protected from the more tragical blows of destiny by a certain ethical indolence and a coolly observant curiosity which is ever on the alert. Stendhal's formulas, therefore, always result in a fraction, never in an integer. Only in a cloven world can he fully realize his personality. It is owing to systematic and refined technique of self-fulfilment that Stendhal is able to attain to so high a degree of spiritual delicacy.
