In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:

76 3 Performances: Horses, Optical Telegraphs (Stendhal) In the first part of Stendhal’s novel Lucien Leuwen, when the principal female character, Mme. de Chasteller, begins to fall in love with the male protagonist, Lucien Leuwen, she tries desperately to understand who he really is and what he might be worth, both from a moral and from a social perspective. One of her greatest fears is expressed in the following manner: “Perhaps he’s simply a cavalry officer, like all the others.”1 Mme. de Chasteller wants to know whether Lucien is nothing more than a man adept at riding and maneuvering a powerful horse, or whether there is considerably more to his character (which is, of course, what she hopes). Her first reaction to him is almost inevitable in the narrative logic of the novel, because whatever other personal qualities and distinctive attributes Lucien possesses, one thing is certain and is a given from the start: he is at the very least quite un homme de cheval, quite an expert horseman. In his inimitable way, Stendhal will go about demonstrating this in a series of comical sketches that are something like the exceptions that prove the rule. Lucien Leuwen is justly famous for his falls and near falls from his horse—more often than not right beneath Mme. de Chasteller ’s window and thus in full view of the very woman he wants to impress with his dexterity as a rider. But, of course, that is the point: she wants to see more in him than his riding skills, and his failures fuel her desire. In any case, as early as the first description of Lucien in the novel , while he is still in Paris and well before the scene of the first fall in Nancy, the narrator makes horsemanship a crucial element in the pre03 .76-102_Bell 9/11/03, 1:30 PM 76 Performances 77 sentation of his protagonist: “In fact, he was rather tall and was a perfectly trained rider” (1:170). Later, as we shall see, his entry into Nancy and the first hours he spends there are filled with incidents and comments regarding his prowess on a horse. Assuredly, there is something profoundly biographical here. Stendhal’s readers know that the novelist was an experienced rider, if not the elegant horseman that he paints in the person of Lucien Leuwen. It is worthwhile recalling that with the help of his cousin, Pierre Daru, Stendhal became a cavalry officer and served in Napoleon’s armies from 1800 to 1802. After resigning his commission, he was reintegrated in 1806 into what we would call today the quartermaster general’s office, the section of the army in charge of getting men, equipment, and supplies to the right place in the timeliest manner. As a result of his military experiences, Stendhal knew intimately what it took to travel on the system of roads that existed in France during the Napoleonic period and afterwards. He observed at close range the exigencies of the emperor, who wanted troops and supplies to move quickly and expeditiously. Among other highlights of Stendhal’s military career of travel through various Napoleonic theaters of war, his difficult trip back from Russia on clogged roads—some of which were barely passable—after the defeat of the imperial army was certainly an experience that marked him. Among many memorable moments in Stendhal’s autobiographical texts recounting trips on horseback, moreover, La Vie de Henri Brulard ends with a description of the difficult passage through the Saint-Bernard pass across the mountains into Italy: “My horse seemed like it was going to fall, the captain was swearing and filled with gloom. . . . I was soaked, we were constantly encountering obstacles” (377). Fittingly, then, Lucien Leuwen opens with a story of troops on the move, albeit not during the Napoleonic wars but rather during the Restoration . After the political problems that led to Lucien’s expulsion from the École Polytechnique are briefly described in the novel’s incipit, followed by Lucien’s incapacity to decide what might be a possible career in a post-heroic (meaning postimperial) Restoration society, the narrator outlines Lucien’s father’s solution to the dilemma. He purchases for his son a charge as a second lieutenant in a cavalry regiment to be stationed in Nancy. The regiment sets out for Nancy before Lucien can complete his preparations for departure, and he therefore has to ride in a coach with his immediate superior, Lieutenant Colonel...

Share