The Pink & the Green: With ""Mina de Vanghel''

Among the tantalizingly unfinished works of the great French writer Stendhal (1783-1842) are the opening chapters of The Pink & the Green (Le Rose et le Vert), which tell of the obsessions of Mina Wanghen, a young, intelligent Prussian heiress from Königsberg. Enamoured of everything French and determined not to be forced into marriage with any of her countless German suitors, she decamps to Paris, where her illusions meet with Gaelic realities. Stendhal abandoned the novel in 1837; however, its seeds are found in the finished story “Mina de Vanghel,” completed in 1830 and published posthumously in 1853. Both works appear here side-by-side in English.