Vanina Vanini

Vanina Vanini is a short story published in 1829 by Stendhal (1783-1842), the nom de plume of Marie-Henri Beyle. Set in 1820s during the early Risorgimento, when Italy was under Austrian control, it concerns the love affair of a young Roman princess and a revolutionary carbonaro. Vanina Vanini, the nineteen-year-old daughter of a Roman aristocrat, Don Asdrubale Vanini, is sought after by all the young princes of Rome, but refuses them all, for of "the same reason] that led Sulla to abdicate: her contempt for the Romans."