Armance (Annotated)

Stendhal's Armance (1827), his first novel, is a subtle study of desire, pride, and social paralysis in Restoration France. Centered on Octave de Malivert, a brilliant but tormented young aristocrat, and his love for the noble Armance de Zohiloff, the novel transforms a seemingly conventional courtship plot into a psychological investigation of secrecy and self-division. Its restrained, ironic pro...