In the past, on other blogs, I have run a series called Sundays with Stendhal — quotes from the Master’s various writings. You either love it or you hate it. With the new year, I have decided to resurrect it — sometimes just quotes, sometimes with commentary. But I’ve decided to make it Saturdays with Stendhal, as we already have the pleasure of Sunday Song Lyrics. But let’s declare today an honorary Saturday, and start with this quote from The Red and the Black, apropos of the chapter on human rights and the UN that I am currently completing — my translation is, um, a little loose (“human rights” for “liberties”):
“Julian fell asleep, dreaming of honors for himself, and human rights for everyone else.”
Malvolio says:
“Julian fell asleep, dreaming of honors for himself, and human rights for everyone else.”
I’ve been thinking about this one a long time (well, an hour). FWTW, my thoughts, in order:
1. That’s nice of Julian.
2. “Liberties” is better than “human rights”, less bureaucratic.
3. Wait a minute — why does he want honors for himself, but not for others?
4. Of course, if everybody gets honored, no one does — it’s the Brad Bird problem.
5. So why doesn’t Julian want freedom for himself? Aren’t most dreams dreams of freedom?
6. Julian must be a shallow person.
7. Unless he already feels free...
8. Yeah, let’s go with that, it’s the least cynical.
“There is much less envy in American than in France, and much less wit.”
– Stendhal
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January 3, 2010, 2:45 pmMartinned says:
Why not give the original French with the translation? Surely there are plenty of readers on VC who understand enough French to be able to appreciate the original?
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January 3, 2010, 4:01 pmKenneth Anderson says:
I will when i’m not posting from my ipod — too hard to get to the online french ed.
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January 3, 2010, 4:27 pmTweets that mention The Volokh Conspiracy » Blog Archive » Saturdays with Stendhal 1 -- Topsy.com says:
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Martinned says:
It’s on Wikisource. (I would look up the quote myself, but I don’t know which chapter it is from, not having an english e-edition.)
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January 3, 2010, 6:04 pmtamerlane says:
It’s been about forty years since I last read The Red and the Black but I’m guessing that this is from near the beginning of the book where the young Julien runs away from home to join Napoleon and winds up wandering through the outskirts of Waterloo. By the way, the quote seems to capture wittily and accurately an example of adolescent liberal/radical fantasizing.
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January 3, 2010, 8:23 pmtamerlane says:
Oh, never mind.....With extreme embarassment, I’ve just realized I confused The Charterhouse of Parma with The Red and the black.
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January 3, 2010, 8:38 pmKenneth Anderson says:
tamerlane that’s an impressive kind of confusion!
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January 3, 2010, 10:34 pmmetro1 says:
Interestingly, all of these books and authors are discussed in “The Club Dumas” by Arturo Perez-Reverte. That’s my favorite book. It was also made into a great movie: “The Ninth Gate” with Johnny Depp.
Anyway, my book club is going to be reading “The Red and The Black” ... http://www.meetup.com/Alexandria-Book-Club/
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January 3, 2010, 10:56 pmRandy says:
Tamarlane: “By the way, the quote seems to capture wittily and accurately an example of adolescent liberal/radical fantasizing.”
It makes me wonder — what would be an accurate example of adolescent conservative/radical fantasizing be? Dreaming of taking away liberties from everyone else?
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January 4, 2010, 12:42 amfrancophobe says:
I HATE hate hate — loathe — Saturdays with Stendhal.
Nausea overcomes me as I type this.
If you have to resurrect the blogging equivalent of a putrefying corpse filled with five strains of ebola and the bubonic plague at least confine it to Opinio Juris!!!!!!
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January 4, 2010, 6:15 amKenneth Anderson says:
Francophobe: I share your pain because I am driven to do this by a mysterious but unalterable inner compulsion, but, alas, to quote the great Dogbert ... “Well, you can’t please everyone.” :)
Don’t worry, it won’t be every Saturday, and it will give you an excuse to skip VC that day and do something healthy and out of doors and build up your immune system against ebola and bubonic plague and, following up on Stewart Baker, anthrax!
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January 4, 2010, 10:53 amAnderson says:
Lighten up, Franc.
Stendhal is splendid. Just avoid the Richard Howard translations. The new Penguins and the Oxford World’s Classics are much better.
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January 4, 2010, 10:56 amFrances Smith says:
Please do read the Richard Howard translation — vivid, yet sensitive and poetic. Also, his translations of Baudelaire are fine. (Full disclosure — I know him slightly but not enough to slant my judgment.)
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January 5, 2010, 3:40 pm