Details
STENDHAL [i.e. Marie Henri Beyle (1783-1842)]. Autograph letter signed ('Beyle') to an unidentified correspondent [Victor Réal], 18 rue Jacob, Paris, 23 January 1809, 4 pages, 4to (docketed by the recipient on 1st page); and three letters addressed to Réal by other correspondents from Burgos, Valladolid and La Bussière (Paris), 31 December 1808 - 11 March 1809 (two addressed to him as 'commissaire de Guerre de la Place de Briviesca [near Burgos]', 8½ pages, 8vo and 4to.
Informing Réal (apparently a close friend) of his new post and that he has been detained in Paris, 'ou plutôt ce hazard est un trait de bonté charmant de Mme D qui a daigné me présenter elle même au Min[istre]'. 'Monsieur D' was most welcoming, and he is to be employed in the commissariat of the Grande Armée, where Réal and his friends are invited to place their commissions with him. Social life is evidently wearying -- 'accablé de dîners et de visites qui pour la plupart sont des corvées'. Other comments refer to Réal's falls from his horse, and news of the fall in shares in the bank.
The reference to 'Madame D' is probably to Alexandrine Daru, wife of his patron, Count Pierre Daru -- Stendhal was briefly in love with her. Daru, his father's cousin, helped him to obtain the post of a commissioner for war in 1806, and in 1809 after transfers to Strasbourg and Vienna, he was appointed auditor to the Council of State. Victor Réal may have been a member of the family of Count Pierre-François Réal (1757-1834), Prefect of Police during the Empire. In the 1830s Stendhal fell in love with Count Réal's 46 year old widowed daughter (Eulalie Françoise Lacuée).
(4)
Informing Réal (apparently a close friend) of his new post and that he has been detained in Paris, 'ou plutôt ce hazard est un trait de bonté charmant de Mme D qui a daigné me présenter elle même au Min[istre]'. 'Monsieur D' was most welcoming, and he is to be employed in the commissariat of the Grande Armée, where Réal and his friends are invited to place their commissions with him. Social life is evidently wearying -- 'accablé de dîners et de visites qui pour la plupart sont des corvées'. Other comments refer to Réal's falls from his horse, and news of the fall in shares in the bank.
The reference to 'Madame D' is probably to Alexandrine Daru, wife of his patron, Count Pierre Daru -- Stendhal was briefly in love with her. Daru, his father's cousin, helped him to obtain the post of a commissioner for war in 1806, and in 1809 after transfers to Strasbourg and Vienna, he was appointed auditor to the Council of State. Victor Réal may have been a member of the family of Count Pierre-François Réal (1757-1834), Prefect of Police during the Empire. In the 1830s Stendhal fell in love with Count Réal's 46 year old widowed daughter (Eulalie Françoise Lacuée).
(4)
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Sale room notice
The detail shown of a female figure is part of lot 172.