Set during the second Bourbon Restoration in France (1815-30), Armance, ou quelques scènes d’un salon de Paris en 1827 (1827) [Armance: a novel] is Stendhal’s first novel, originally published anonymously. The only widely available English translation is by Charles Kenneth Scott-Moncrieff, first published in 1946. Stendhal, whose real name was Marie-Henri Beyle (1783-1842), is one of the most celebrated French writers of the nineteenth century: his most famous novels, Le Rouge et le Noir (1830) [The Red and the Black] and La Chartreuse de Parme (1839) [The Charterhouse of Parma], are often cited as among the earliest and most distinguished examples of realism. Generically speaking, Armance’s melodramatic action, heightened emotional plotline, and occasional improbability, conventionally preclude the novel from falling within Stendhal’s realist moment. Instead, Armance was read and received by modern-day critics as a...
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Citation: Jones, Sarah. "Armance". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 04 January 2017 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=11166, accessed 09 June 2026.]
