C. K. Scott-Moncrieff

Julien Sorel, the handsome, ambitious son of a country carpenter in nineteenth-century France, understands that the only way to insinuate himself into Parisian society is through hypocrisy--a skill at which he excels until scandal brings his social climbing to a tragic end.

Written in just fifty-two days in the year 1839, "The Charterhouse of Parma" has since become known as Stendhal's finest work. Evidence of haste is infrequently apparent in this remarkable story, which follows the eventful life of the young Italian nobleman Fabrizio del Dongo. From his childhood in the family castle by Lake Como to the battlefields of Waterloo, Fabrizio proves himself charmingly headstrong and painfully naïve. Upon returning injured...