Young Fabrice del Dongo runs away from his family’s castle on Lake Como to fight for Napoleon and wanders, bewildered, through the battle of Waterloo. Back in Italy, his aunt Gina, Duchess Sanseverina, and her lover Count Mosca steer his career at the scheming court of Parma, until a prison tower and Clelia Conti change everything.
Balzac called it a masterpiece; Lady Mary Loyd’s translation includes a life of Stendhal. Download the free EPUB.