The novel about the two things that were most important in Stendhal's life: Italy and love. Far from his adopted home, in Paris in 1839, he wrote this work in just 53 days, which is now considered one of the greatest in world literature: the story of the young Fabrizio del Dongo between the domineering Duchess Sanseverina and the world-averse Clelia Conti. The uniqueness of the passionate, playful style has always been admired - a style that can now finally be read in all its modernity with this new translation. The rich appendix provides the reader with all the historical, biographical, and literary background of this incomparable novel.