The Bright Book of Life by Harold Bloom

STENDHAL, a pseudonym for Marie-Henri Beyle, died in Paris in 1842 at the age of fifty-nine. His death was caused by the absurd treatments for syphilis, a disease he had suffered for some time. Few major novelists have had a personality so winsome as Stendhal's. His vision of life is rather like a masked ball or a carnival performance. His torrent of letters are playful, wistful, and frequently a study in erotic nostalgia.

Paul Valéry, the major French poet and person-of-letters of the twentieth century, praised Stendhal for his gift of liveliness. That seems to me the first accomplishment of Stendhal, whose wit was endless and infectious, a gift given to "the happy few," as he characterized his ideal readers.