Armance

“Armands” is Stendhal’s first psychological novel (Henri Marie Beyle), subtitled “Scenes from the Life of a Parisian Salon in 1827,” and published in the same year, 1827. It is a story of love between the young aristocrat Octave de Malivert and his further and poor relation (half-Russian, half-French)—Armands Zoilova—who differ greatly from their surrounding circle in character and whose lives end up being shattered. The task the author set for himself is to reveal, in the brilliance and refinement of the “high society,” the emptiness of life, the baseness of interests, and the narrow-mindedness of the feudal aristocracy.