STENDHAL
ISBN: 78-93-94223-12-7
 
Love is Stendhal’s extraordinary attempt to rationalise that
most complex of emotions: romantic love. Inspired by an
all-consuming unrequited passion, he brings together logical,
clear-sighted analysis and fervent adoration, to remarkable
effect.
 
Having classified the many types of love—passionate, phys-
ical, vain—Stendhal indentifies the seven stages by which
lovers fall under the spell of emotion. He here expounds his
celebrated theory of crystallisation, through which the object
of affection is transformed beyond all recognition, adorned
with a thousand crystals, in the mind of the lover. The pre-
science of his theories about the psychological state of loving
has astounded generations of readers.
 
Yet beneath these clever philosophical musings can be seen a
desperate attempt by Stendhal to reconcile and dispel his own
tortured emotions.