La Chartreuse de Parme CHINESE VERSION Author:Stendhal CHINESE VERSION — About the author:Stendhal was the son of a wealthy landed gentleman, an attorney, but he was closest to his mother, who died when he was 7. He was raised by his maternal grandfather and left home at sixteen to join Napoleon's army. He remained in the dragoons for 14 years, then settled in Milan, where he began to write, returnin... more »g to Paris at the age of 38. Stendhal published six books in nine years, including his monumental novel THE RED AND THE BLACK; he wrote THE CHARTERHOUSE OF PARMA in 53 days. A dedicated realist writer, Stendhal said, "A novel is a mirror carried along a road." When he died, of a stroke, at the age of 59, only three mourners attended his funeral. He remained completely obscure during his short, sad life, but he is now considered a peer of Balzac and Flaubert. While still in his thirties, he composed his own epitaph: "He lived. He wrote. He loved."« less