STENDHAL Henri Beyle dit (1783-1842).

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STENDHAL Henri Beyle dit (1783-1842).
Autograph notes on 2 L.A.S. from Angela PIETRAGRUA addressed to him, December 1815; 1 page in-8 each, the 1st with address; the letters in Italian. Letters of rupture, bitterly annotated by Stendhal, the only two known documents keeping the trace of the first and one of the biggest passions of Stendhal for Angela Pietragrua, final point of a love of fifteen years. [It was during his first stay in Italy that Stendhal, then 17 years old, met Angela Pietragrua (whom he most often called the Countess Simonetta), and fell madly in love with her. Married to a modest employee of the weights and measures, she led a full gallant life and counted, it is said, the painter Gros among her lovers. It was only in 1813, "after eleven years not of fidelity but of a kind of constancy", that Stendhal found this not very shy beauty, and began a stormy affair with her, to which these two letters put a definitive end]. [December 1, 1815]. Letter signed "Luigia Cerami" [for "Dear Friend"], addressed to "Monsieur de Beyle at his home". Translation: "You behave with me in such a way that I must have neither love nor friendship for you anymore. The last of these feelings deluded me on the loss of the other, and I endured with more reason a separation very painful for my heart! But even with only the latter feeling you have treated me in an unworthy manner! In order to avoid some of the pain I suffer, which is renewed every moment by seeing you, I beg you (at least in this I hope you will want to please me) to avoid seeing me. From this moment on, we are dead to each other! If, as I hope, there comes a time when I can see you with indifference, I shall then seek your society as that of a kind man... At the top of the letter, Stendhal wrote in red ink this cynical comment: "Costs 4000 F. more than an ordinary dancer at 200 F. per month"; and at the bottom: "I return, on December 12 after the salasso, Rey present who had spoken of her alleged passion, she repeats to me this beautiful letter and I reduce myself to the third fever. Eadem dies I take up the p. to the two sisters "; and on the sheet of address: " Leave 1st Xbre 1815. Costs 4000 F." December 28, 1815. Letter signed "Gina"; translation: "I do not believe that you have reasons to speak badly of me as one wants me to believe and I believe you to be honest enough not to be able to do it without reason. As for giving credence to this gossip, I am putting into practice the advice you gave me in your last letter: do not fail to give me bad words. Check before you believe. One is always irritated when one is abandoned without reason! This is my case and not yours! You left me and it is up to me to suffer all the evils. Don't be unfair to me! I don't deserve it. At the top of the letter, Stendhal noted: "December 28 and the threat of the police"; and at the bottom, he marks the final point to this love relationship which agitated him for fifteen years: "On December 22, I believe, in the presence of Count Bolognini, Folciule &c. she told me that she would denounce me to the Police. Since this scurrilous remark I have not seen her again. March 9, 1816 ". General correspondence, t. II, nos. 1039- 1040.
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