Armance (novel)
Encyclopedia
Armance is a romance novel
set during the Bourbon Restoration
by Stendhal
, published anonymously in 1827. It was Stendhal's first novel, though he had published essays and critical works on literature, art, and travel since 1815.
, who is attracted to Armance Zohiloff, who shares his feelings. The novel describes how a series of misunderstandings kept the lovers Armance and Octave divided. Moreover, a series of clues suggest that Octave is impotent as a result of a severe accident. Octave is experiencing a deep inner turmoil; he himself illustrates the pain of the century's romantics. When the pair do eventually marry, the slanders of a rival convince Octave that Armance had married only out of selfishness. Octave leaves to fight in Greece, and dies there of sorrow.
Armance is based on the theme of Olivier, a novel by the Duchess Claire de Duras
, whose scabrous nature forbade publication. But Stendhal has very quietly inserted the secret, without talking about it openly.
regarded this novel as the best of Stendhal's novels, whom he was grateful to for having created a helpless lover, even if he reproached him for having eluded the fate of this love: "I can hardly convince myself that Armance, as painted for us by Stendhal, would have been suited by it."
In Umberto Eco's novel The Prague Cemetery
, the protagonist Simone Simonini pleads with another character, Yuliana Glinka
, that he suffers the same fate as Stendhal's Octave de Malivert -whose readers had long speculated about - and thus can't pursue the offer she had made him.
Romance novel
The romance novel is a literary genre developed in Western culture, mainly in English-speaking countries. Novels in this genre place their primary focus on the relationship and romantic love between two people, and must have an "emotionally satisfying and optimistic ending." Through the late...
set during the Bourbon Restoration
Bourbon Restoration
The Bourbon Restoration is the name given to the period following the successive events of the French Revolution , the end of the First Republic , and then the forcible end of the First French Empire under Napoleon – when a coalition of European powers restored by arms the monarchy to the...
by Stendhal
Stendhal
Marie-Henri Beyle , better known by his pen name Stendhal, was a 19th-century French writer. Known for his acute analysis of his characters' psychology, he is considered one of the earliest and foremost practitioners of realism in his two novels Le Rouge et le Noir and La Chartreuse de Parme...
, published anonymously in 1827. It was Stendhal's first novel, though he had published essays and critical works on literature, art, and travel since 1815.
Plot
It concerns Octave de Malivert, a taciturn but brilliant young man barely out of the École PolytechniqueÉcole Polytechnique
The École Polytechnique is a state-run institution of higher education and research in Palaiseau, Essonne, France, near Paris. Polytechnique is renowned for its four year undergraduate/graduate Master's program...
, who is attracted to Armance Zohiloff, who shares his feelings. The novel describes how a series of misunderstandings kept the lovers Armance and Octave divided. Moreover, a series of clues suggest that Octave is impotent as a result of a severe accident. Octave is experiencing a deep inner turmoil; he himself illustrates the pain of the century's romantics. When the pair do eventually marry, the slanders of a rival convince Octave that Armance had married only out of selfishness. Octave leaves to fight in Greece, and dies there of sorrow.
Armance is based on the theme of Olivier, a novel by the Duchess Claire de Duras
Claire de Duras
Claire, Duchess of Duras was a French writer best known for her 1823 novel called Ourika, which examines issues of racial and sexual equality, and which inspired the 1969 John Fowles novel The French Lieutenant's Woman.-Biography:Claire de Duras left her native France for London during the French...
, whose scabrous nature forbade publication. But Stendhal has very quietly inserted the secret, without talking about it openly.
Critical reception
André GideAndré Gide
André Paul Guillaume Gide was a French author and winner of the Nobel Prize in literature in 1947. Gide's career ranged from its beginnings in the symbolist movement, to the advent of anticolonialism between the two World Wars.Known for his fiction as well as his autobiographical works, Gide...
regarded this novel as the best of Stendhal's novels, whom he was grateful to for having created a helpless lover, even if he reproached him for having eluded the fate of this love: "I can hardly convince myself that Armance, as painted for us by Stendhal, would have been suited by it."
In Umberto Eco's novel The Prague Cemetery
The Prague Cemetery
The Prague Cemetery is a novel by Italian author Umberto Eco published in October 2010. The book is a worldwide bestseller that sold millions of copies .-Plot summary:...
, the protagonist Simone Simonini pleads with another character, Yuliana Glinka
Yuliana Glinka
Yuliana Dmitrievna Glinka was a Russian occultist born to a prominent family in Orel, Russia.Her grandfather, Colonel Fyodor Nikolaevich Glinka was investigated as a leader of "a secret society of mystics" during Prince Alexander Nikolaevich Galitzine's investigation of masonic lodges following...
, that he suffers the same fate as Stendhal's Octave de Malivert -whose readers had long speculated about - and thus can't pursue the offer she had made him.
External links
- Full text of Armance in English.