Stendahl's writing at its most hilarious and at its cinematic best

The most memorable and unusual scenes in Stendahl's The Charterhouse of Parma - the ones every reader remembers as the political machinations that dominate most of the novel recede from the memory - are the late chapters in which the hero, Fabrizio, is imprisoned in the Farnese Tower. He's sent up to the tower on a murder charge, a complete sham in that everyone knew he was acting in self-defense (combined w/ some hideous thoughts about well, why should one of the nobility like Fabrizio ever be charged w/ a crime when the victim was a poor, gruff itinerant actor) - but Fabrizio's court faction is on the outs w/ the Prince so he's sent up to the tower w/ the possibility that at any time he might be executed. While imprisoned he sees the jailer's daughter, the beautiful Clelia, tending her orange groves in a bower beneath his window, and of course he falls in love w/ her. Hilariously, they set up some ridiculously complex means of communication involving codes, notes written letter by letter on the palm using a charcoal stub and, later, messages launched into F's cell by means of a lead balls and a catapult and system of signals from a tower about a mile away - it's all pretty funny, as well as in some ways exciting, when F makes his escape using hundreds of feet of rope that Clelia smuggles into his cell - completely ridiculous of course and kind of fun, Stendhal's writing at its most cinematic. All that said, can we, should we, believe for a moment that F really loves Clelia? He's gone through a # of loves over the course of the novel, and it seems clear that he falls for her because she's the only woman in his presence; she's right to be wary of his courtship. Once F does escape, there's rioting in the city (Parma), he's smuggled out to Switzerland, where his aunt, the Duchess, tries to break through his depression and reserve and take him as a lover - the 2 have been attracted to each other for years, but now that a relationship is possible F has lost all interest - there's a sense throughout the novel that he likes the pursuit and not the consummation. Meanwhile, the Prince of Parma dies and the city-state is in politial turmoil - far too complicated for this reader to keep straight in his mind - but the essence is that F is still in danger and he and Duchess and her patron, Count Mosca, had best stay in exile at least for the time being - as the novel enters its final phase.

To order a copy of "25 Posts from Elliot's Reading: Selections from the first 2,500 blog entries," click here.