list of the initials of the women Stendhal loved -->

(detail of a manuscript page from La Vie de Henry Brulard)


But the other day,  I was thinking about my life on the lonely road above Lake Albano and I found that my life could be summarized by these names, whose initials I traced in the dust, like Zadig, with my cane as I sat on the little bench behind the Stations of the cross in the Minori Osservanti, built by Urban VIII's brother, Barberini, near these two handsome trees enclosed by a small circular wall:

Virginie (Kubly)

Angela (Pietragua)

Adèle (Rebuffel)

 Mélanie (Guilbert)

Mina (de Griesheim)

Alexandrine (Petit)

Angéline (Bereyter)

Angela (Pietragua)

Métilde (Dembowski)

Clémentine

Giulia

Mme Azur (whose Christian name I have forgotten)
Extract translated from La Vie de Henry Brulard, Folio classique edition,
Gallimard, Paris, 1973,  p. 37.

Translation by J. J. Haldane.