[1]"Passion was his raison d'être, and that surely is the religion of all romantics-- exaltation through the passions... Stendhal was a product of the Napoleonic age, when the French saw themselves as world conquerors, and his attitude was such. But putting that aside one must admit that La Chartreuse is a good book in the romantic tradition... few men have conveyed passion with such intensity as he has... [examples] His description of their emotional frenzy is magnificent... Stendhal never became sentimental and soft the way Thackeray did, especially over women; in his greatest extravagance he remains hard and glittering... but Thackeray has something which Stendhal did not have: humour."
