Stendhal - Première édition - Vie de Rossini - 1824

Extraordinary First Illustrated Edition: The Life of Rossini Between Theatre and Society
Masterpiece by Stendhal, suspended as usual in his early works between literary-philosophical essay, unauthorized biography, and grand narrative fresco.
The first edition of one of Stendhal's early works, in which Rossini serves as the starting point for a broad discussion of Italy, music, and the history of music, with the entire chapter four of the first part dedicated to 'Mozart and Italy'.
Stendhal's The Life of Rossini is one of the foundational texts of modern musical criticism: not a straightforward biography, but a hybrid, militant, and personal work in which the author projects onto the composer the very idea of romantic genius, creative freedom, and breaking away from academia. Published in Paris in 1824, when Rossini was still at the height of his European fame, the work reflects the feverish atmosphere of Italian and European theaters, the centrality of the singer, the taste for vocal virtuosity, and the emergence of a new musical sensibility. It is also, indirectly, an aesthetic manifesto of Stendhal, who uses Rossini as a mirror of his own idea of modernity.
Market value
In the international antique market, complete copies of the first edition from 1824, in two parts and with portraits, generally range between 1,200 and 2,500 euros, with higher prices for copies in contemporary binding, well preserved, and with fresh paper. Reprinted or incomplete copies tend to fall within the lower end of this range.

Physical description and condition
Contemporary half-leather binding, smooth spine with gilt fillets; wear at the edges and on the spine. Two parts bound into a single volume. Distinct title pages for the first and second parts, both dated 1824. Portraits outside the text on the frontispiece, drawn by Léopold Beyer and engraved by Ambroise Tardieu. Some scattered foxing. In old books with a multi-century history, some imperfections may be present, not always noted in the description. Pp. (2); 10nn; 624; (2).

Full title and author
Life of Rossini
Paris, at Auguste Boulland and Co., 1824.
M. De Stendhal

Context and Significance
This work was born at a crucial moment: Rossini dominates the European scene, and Stendhal, a deep connoisseur of Italy and its musical theater, feels the urgency to explain this phenomenon to the French public. The text alternates musical analyses, descriptions of performances, portraits of singers like Velluti, and polemical reflections against French taste and academicism. Its structure is free, fragmentary, almost improvised, and for this reason, it anticipates a subjective, emotional musical critique, distant from the learned models of the eighteenth century. The presence of Mozart in the second part reinforces the comparison between two ideas of genius and two musical worlds, the Enlightenment and Romantic, which Stendhal perceives as complementary but historically distinct.

Biography of the Author
Stendhal, pseudonym of Marie-Henri Beyle, was born in Grenoble in 1783 and died in Paris in 1842. A writer, critic, and tireless traveler, he was one of the leading interpreters of early European Romanticism. Deeply connected to Italy, he developed a personal view of art and music based on emotion, aesthetic happiness, and direct experience. Alongside major novels such as Le Rouge et le Noir and La Chartreuse de Parme, his critical works, including the Vie de Rossini, are now considered fundamental to the emergence of modern sensibility.

Printing history and circulation
The Life of Rossini was first published in 1824 in two parts, by Auguste Boulland in Paris. The work quickly saw reprints and reworkings, indicating immediate and widespread interest, but the first edition holds particular value for its fresh polemical tone and the still non-standardized form of the text. Complete copies with both portraits are now less common than later editions.

BIBLIOGRAPHY AND REFERENCES
Escoffier, The Romantic Movement, 511;
Cordier, Stendhalian bibliography, no. 64;
Carteret, Le Trésor, p. 347
Carter, Tim, Stendhal and Music, Cambridge University Press.
Reichardt, Joël-Marie, Stendhal musical critique, Paris.
WorldCat, Rossini's Life card, 1824 edition, Boulland.
BnF, Department of Music, registered copies of the original edition.