We’re in Florence, but instead of doing a normal tourist thing today, we’re taking a detour to get inside the head of Stendhal – the writer who was so overwhelmed by the beauty here, he became seriously ill. Today, Stendhal Syndrome is considered to be a legitimate illness.
What kind of person could become ill just from being immersed in too much magnificent art in too short a time? Maybe by getting to know Stendhal’s most famous work, The Charterhouse of Parma, we can get some idea.
We started the story last time, so we’ll pick it up where we left off, but here’s a quick recap…
Our hero’s name is Fabrizio. He’s the black sheep in a 19th-century aristocratic Italian family. He’s a lamentable but lovable soul who thinks with his heart instead of his head.
After many an escapade, including fighting with the losing French army at Waterloo, he has found himself back home. But now the local aristocrats consider him a traitor. He’s imprisoned in a tower, awaiting a death sentence.
Life is Good?
But Fabrizio doesn’t care. In fact, he’s overjoyed. He has discovered that from his prison cell window, he can see the love of his life, Clelia, tending her birds. Here’s how Stendhal described the first time he spotted her.
“Finally, to his irrepressible joy, after so long a wait and so much gazing, towards midday Clelia came to attend to her birds. Fabrizio remained motionless, and did not breathe; he was standing against the enormous bars of his window and pressed close to them. He observed that she did not raise her eyes to himself; but her movements had an air of embarrassment, like those of a person who knows she is being overlooked.”
Fabrizio didn’t want Clelia to think he was spying on her. But at the same time he wanted her to be able to see him, too. Unfortunately, a carpenter showed up and installed a big wooden screen over the window. No more catching glimpses of Clelia. Oh no.
Not so fast! Our hero fashioned a saw out of a scrap of metal. Working patiently, he managed to cut out a square of the screen, which he could remove and replace at will. Eventually the two made eye contact, and started communicating silently on a regular basis.
There’s Hope!
Over the next weeks and months, thanks to a few well-placed bribes, and the fact that the jailer was developing a soft spot for Fabrizio, he and Clelia managed to work out a system for passing notes.
Even though he was locked up in a gloomy prison tower, as far as Fabrizio was concerned, life was great. His only care in the world was to get Clelia to feel the same way about him as he did about her. (She already did, but he didn’t know it).
One day, Clelia showed up to tend her birds, all upset. There was a rumor in the fortress that Fabrizio’s captor, (who happened to be Clelia’s father), was going to have Fabrizio poisoned. Clelia was frantic. She sent Fabrizio a long note telling him not to eat anything – she’d have bread, chocolate, and water smuggled into him.
Most men would be distraught to discover a plot to poison them. Not Fabrizio. His only thought was that for Clelia to take these risks and go to all this trouble, she must really be crazy about him. He was ecstatic!
But then…
The threat of poisoning passed, replaced by a bolder plot to murder Fabrizio. Everyone in town waited to hear the news about the prisoner’s demise. Clelia believed that Fabrizio had to escape or be killed.
Clelia and Fabrizio’s family devised an escape plan for him. But if Fabrizio escaped, he’d have to leave his beloved Clelia forever. He would have no part of it.
Clelia arranged a clandestine rendezvous for the two of them to meet in person. You can imagine that Fabrizio had a great deal to say to her, but she did most of the talking. Here’s how it went…
“I can only say a few words to you,” Clelia told him as she entered. “You are going to give me your word of honor,” she went on in a voice that was barely auditable, “you will attempt the escape that has been arranged, or else tomorrow morning I fly to a convent, and I swear to you here and now that never in my life will I utter a word to you again.”
Fabrizio remained silent.
“Promise,” said Clelia, the tears starting to her eyes and apparently quite beside herself, “or else we converse here for the last time.”
“What must I promise?” asked Fabrizio with a beaten air.
“You know.”
“I swear then to cast myself deliberately into a terrible disaster, and to condemn myself to live far from all that I love in this world.”
“Make a definite promise.”
“Very well. I swear to… “
You get the idea. Poor Fabrizio! And Clelia, too. She seemed to be destined for the convent one way or another.
Life is Complicated
Fabrizio did manage to escape, but he was miserable without being able to see Clelia. When the opportunity presented itself, he arranged to have himself recaptured, and back to the prison tower he went.
(Now that you know Fabrizio, are you surprised?)
After many more twists and turns, Fabrizio and Clelia do finally get together, but not under the best conditions. There isn’t what most of us would think of as a happy ending.
My guess is that Stendhal must have put a lot of himself into Fabrizio. I wonder how their two lives might have parallels. But we’re done with Stendhal and Fabrizio for now. It’s back to the simple life for us!
To be continued…
