Stendhal's Parallel Lives (review)

Francesco Manzini's Stendhal's Parallel Livespersuasively demonstrates the considerable though previously underestimated influence of Plutarch's Liveson those of Stendhal's works written between 1829 and his death in 1842. Beginning with an overview of the evolution of Plutarch's reception in France and the rest of western Europe, Manzini goes on to tackle the classical historian's shaping influence on Stendhal's 'biographical sketches' (including Promenades dans Rome, Souvenirs d'égotisme, Vie de Henry Brulard, Mémoires sur Napoléon, Historiettes romainesand Voyages en France), before turning to the expression of that influence in the novelist's 'imaginary biographies' ( Armance, Vanina Vanini, Mina de Vanghel, Le Rouge et le Noir, Lucien Leuwen, L'Abbesse de Castro, La Chartreuse de Parmeand Lamiel). In the section devoted to the non-fiction, Stendhal's repeated recourse to Plutarch and echoing of Plutarchan archetypes (mainly Julius Caesar, Marcus Brutus and Epaminondas) are examined. In the section on the fiction, subsequently, Manzini's Plutarchan Stendhal is shown to be an optimistic defender of the possibility of passionate heroism in contexts hostile to expressions of energy. At the origin of the singularity of characters such as Julien Sorel, Lucien Leuwen and Lamiel, according to Manzini, is a particular form of mimesis, namely emulation. Emulation is presented as the affective manner in which the heroic figures of Stendhal and Plutarch identify with their chosen exemplars and as the mode of Stendhal's relationship to his own literary exemplars, including Plutarch. For Manzini, emulation is distinct from imitation in that it permits self-invention and self-renewal, instead of condemning its proponents to the mechanical reproduction of prescribed models. This distinction between emulation and imitation is undoubtedly a useful one, having the potential to reveal the guiding logic behind Stendhal's superficially contradictory treatment of mimetic attitudes. The notion of heroic emulation can also lead Manzini to challenge conventional interpretations of Stendhal's heroes; Lucien Leuwen, for example, is innovatively presented as 'a novel of heroism perfected' (p. 342), on account of the hero's successful combination of differently sublime Plutarchan qualities. However, in concentrating its attentions on the novelist's schematizing tendencies, the study runs the predictable risk of reduction. Characters are repeatedly measured by Manzini against a set of prescribed and closely interconnected paradigms ( dupe/ fripon, Marcus Brutus/Julius Caesar, Rousseau/Napoleon, Girondin/Jacobin), and are frequently judged either to occupy one pole of the opposition or, in the case of the most successful heroes, to fuse the two poles. The choice of intertext is itself somewhat prescriptive, given that Plutarch was primarily interested in great men; female heroic prototypes and female heroism in general are given relatively short shrift in this lengthy study of the Stendhalian hero, as suggested by the (admittedly not entirely representative) claim that Armance, Vanina Vaniniand Mina de Vanghel'together pose the problem of the male Restoration hero, a problem the female titles of these works were presumably intended to underline' (p. 280). Nevertheless, this densely scholarly, intricate study offers a valuable resource to the committed specialist.