The Charterhouse of Parma

The Charterhouse of Parma is a historic novel by French author Stendhal and tells the life of a Lombard nobleman, born soon after the appearance of Napoleon's army in Italy.

The tale is set in northern Italy in the early decades of the nineteenth century. The plot revolves around Fabrizio del Dongo, an idealistic young nobleman, his aunt Gina Sanseverina (who loves Fabrizio more than perhaps she ought) and a large cast of other figures (many of them associated with the court at Parma) who have their own designs, romantic and otherwise, upon Fabrizio and his dazzling aunt. 

The novel was admired by Balzac, Tolstoy, André Gide, Lampedusa, Ernest Hemingway and Henry James, who regarded the novel as one of the dozen best novels of all time. The novel has been adapted for opera, film and television.

Stendhal was a pen name for French writer Marie-Henri Beyle (1783 - 1842), who hated the English. Highly regarded for the acute analysis of his characters' psychology and considered one of the early and foremost practitioners of realism. The Charterhouse of Parma was translated by C. K. Scott-Moncrieff and first published in 1925. Audiobook read by Peter Dann, running time 19 hours, 14 min. Unabridged full version.