Novel by Stendhal, written 1834-6, set in contemporary France. Lucien, having been expelled from the Ecole Polytechnique for radicalism, is posted as an unambitious junior officer to Nancy, where he is welcomed by provincial ultra society and falls in love with a young widow, Madame de Chasteller. Tricked into thinking she has had an illegitimate child, he returns broken-hearted to Paris and civilian life and with the help of his father, a rich and cynical businessman, enters political life, an amoral game which he plays with brio. Stendhal never wrote the final section in which Lucien was to serve as a diplomat in Italy and be reunited with his love.
The first 18 chapters were published as Le Chasseur vert in 1855, but the novel as a whole has to be reconstructed from manuscripts; the best edition is that of H. Martineau (1952). Although unfinished, it is among Stendhal's finest works, remarkable for its leisurely depiction of a timid reciprocal love against a background of political intrigue, for the contrast between worldly-wise father and romantic son, and for its entertaining and acute view of Louis-Philippe's France, with a cast ranging from the king and his ministers to grotesque provincials of all parties.
[Peter France]
