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New York. 1950. New Directions. 1st American Edition. Very Good in Dustjacket. Translated from the French by Louise Varese. 388 pages. hardcover. Cover art by Lustig & Connor. keywords: Europe France Literature Translated World Literature. DESCRIPTION - Besides his incomparable masterpieces, THE RED AND THE BLACK and THE CHARTERHOUSE OF PARMA, Henri Beyle (who used the pen name Stendhal') left the draft for a third great panoramic social novel - LUCIEN LEUWEN. In France, this book is widely read in many editions, but up till now it has not been available in English - a grave injustice to American admirers of French literature, and one which New Directions is now proud to remedy with this superb translation of the work by Louise Varèse. The Green Huntsman, a complete novel in itself, is Book One of LUCIEN LEUWEN. Its sequel, entitled THE TELEGRAPH, will be published in matching format within the year. It has often been observed that Stendhal's heroes are partly himself. Julien Sorel and Fabrizio del Dongo have a similarly engaging blend of the innocent and the impetuous. To them Lucien Leuwen adds a further dimension - a quality of self-analysis which types him as a forerunner of the twentieth century hero who can never get far from the psychic mirror. Attractive, clever, a cavalry officer and very rich, young Leuwen had everything necessary for happiness and success - everything, except belief in himself and the social order of his time. It is the period of King Louis-Philippe, when an induced conservatism was atrophying France after the cataclysm of the Revolution and the glorious illusion that was Napoleon. Here is au historical novel which is the real thing - a portrait without equal of a time, a place, and the way conflicting groups of Frenchmen felt about each other and themselves. Lucien Leuwen comes down from Paris to serve with a regiment garrisoned in the provincial city of Nancy. There, though he is only a rich bourgeois, not of the nobility, he cleverly makes his way into society and dares to fall in love with the blue blood belle of the town. It is a love story of utmost fascination. Paul Valery has written that he learned much about the subtleties of love from reading LUCIEN LEUWEN. It is an experience which others may well share. For seldom has a deep passion of the emotions and the spirit been anatomized in such minute detail and with such psychological fidelity. The magic of France's greatest novelist transports us completely into the hearts of Lieutenant Leuwen and the beautiful Bathilde de Chasteller as their love affair follows its tortuous course. Yet how different is this historical novel from the plodding, heavy-handed productions of our day! For Stendhal was always the ironist. His sense of humor compelled him to see life in terms of comedy. Man struggles, woman suffers and the artist smiles. On every page of THE GREEN HUNTSMAN Stendhal is smiling his inimitable Gallic smile. And the reader's reaction can only be described as a kind of pernicious gaiety. Let us be lowbrow arid say it: here is a novel that bubbles like the best champagne. inventory #19592.
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