How Stendhal's Charterhouse rings true for contemporary American readers

Obviously Stendahl's The Charterhouse of Parma (1839 - and, yes, it's a ridiculously bad title - who knows what a Charterhouse is? And it doesn't figure in the novel until, literally, the last paragraph!, and then only en passant) is a novel of political and court intrigue, of class prejudice, of romance in its various guises, and of what Flaubert would later call the Sentimental Education of a young man. It's also quite cinematic, as noted in previous posts, and satiric, in a sly manner. At various moments Stendahl steps away from his narrative and jokes that this is how things are done in that wild and crazy Italy; of course, we know he is saying that w/ a wink - as these are how things were done throughout Europe, including France, but it's a bit cooler and safer to push that all off in the Italians. Interestingly, in many ways this novel will strike a contemporary note for American readers: hand-picked judges coming up w/ the verdict that they know their benefactor, the Prince, will prefer; jobs and titles awarded based entirely on political and family connections rather than merit; do-nothing sinecures; contempt among the highest-ranking for the working classes and the mass; malleable religious leaders; politicians feathering their nests, so to speak, before leaving government service; women forced to promise sexual favors to advance their causes (only one instance in this novel, though); demonizing of free expression (in this novel, the voice of a radical poet - oddly, there's almost no mention or perhaps no mention at all of the free press); a simple-minded leader (a Prince) demanding deference but essentially incapable of running a government; extravagant expenditures by the super-wealthy, met w/ contempt by the working poor; a system of justice that hands out punishment unevenly, based entirely on class stature, i.e., a member of the nobility killing a working man gets a slap on the wrist, but imagine the other way around - probably more aspects that will strike contemporary readers as apt and prescient. The time may seem remote and the setting may seem exotic, but I think Stendahl used time and setting as a cover behind which he could score points that still ring true for us today. 

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