Chartreuse of Parma (The Charterhouse of Parma), The by STENDHAL

This book is more often called The Charterhouse of Parma in English, because Charterhouse is the English word for a Carthusian monastery, whereas Chartreuse is the French word. The book tells the life of a Lombard nobleman, born soon after the appearance of Napoleons army in Italy. He has many adventures in love, war, politics, and the Church. The politics and the Church part of his life result from his doting aunts becoming the Prime Ministers mistress, and the power behind the throne, in the Duchy of Parma. The Prime Minister is a wish-fulfillment depiction of the author. Although nobody lives happily ever after, it is a happy book to read, quite unlike The Red and the Black. (Summary by Antony Brown) Proof-listened by abigayl & Kimberly Krause