Life of Rossini
By Stendhal
1824
First Published
3.80
Average Rating
384
Number of Pages
Rossini’s popularity in Italy in the early 1820s was certainly not echoed in France, where he was regarded as “an ill-bred parvenu, whose cheap popularity was an insult to a great musical tradition. Stendhal, always an obstinate individualist, was the first of his contemporaries to recognize the genius of this important Italian composer. Details of Rossini’s early life are followed by penetrating discussions of the operas, libretti, personalities of the period, and Rossini’s own character. Besides being a fascinating account of the Italian composer’s most creative years, and of contemporary musical events and opinions—this work is one of the finest items in the Stendhalian literary canon. Richard Coe’s elegant revised translation and careful annotations do full justice to the incandescent strength of Stendhal’s prose style.
Avg Rating
3.80
Number of Ratings
49
5 STARS
24%
4 STARS
41%
3 STARS
27%
2 STARS
6%
1 STARS
2%
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Author
Stendhal
Author · 38 books
Henri-Marie 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 (The Red and the Black, 1830) and La Chartreuse de Parme (The Charterhouse of Parma, 1839).
