\b0 Born in Grenoble in 1783 and the son of a magistrate, Henri Beyle took part in the military campa
igns of the empire, surviving glorious battles and the disastrous campaign in Russia. Living in Milan from 1814 to 1821, he wrote several books under the pseudonym of \i ôStendhal,ö\i0 the name of a German town he had passed through while in imperial un
iform. He then moved to Paris and published his first masterpiece,\b \cf4 \ATXht474 \b0 \i \cf0 \ATXht0 Le Rouge et le Noir \i0 (\i The Red and the Black\i0 ), in 1830. The same year, he launched on a modest diplomatic career as consul in Trieste and, l
ater, in Civitavecchia. Back in the French capital from 1836 to 1839, he wrote the \i Chroniques Italiennes\i0 (\i Italian Chronicles\i0 ) and above all \i La Chartreuse de Parme \i0 (\i The Charterhouse of Parma\i0 ), which established his reputation,
after his death in 1842, as one of the great writers of his time.\par
