Hypocrisy as the Key to Success

HYPOCRISY AS THE KEY TO SUCCESS:

SOME REFLECTIONS ON A PARALLEL BETWEEN

STENDHAL’S AND LARRA’S VISIONS OF SOCIETY

BENJAMI N KLOSS

Freie Universität Berlin, Institut für Romanische Philologie,

Hittorfstrasse 16, 14195 Berlin, Germany

E-mail: bennykloss@compuserve.de

Abstract

Although there is no evidence that Mariano José de Larra ever read any of Stendhal’s novels, the similarities between the vision of society the Spaniard expounds in his articles and the one conveyed in the French author’s Le Rouge et le N oir(1830) are indeed stunning. Taking into account the turbulent era in which they lived, it is certainly not too surprising that both of them depict society as a battlefield. What does come as a surprise, however, is their conviction that the only “weapon” guaranteeing success in the struggle for existence is hypocrisy. And what really makes one suspect that Larra knew Stendhal’s works quite well is the fact that both writers express their admiration for an exceptional individual and even give him the same name: while Stendhal speaks of the homme supérieur, Larra uses the concept of the hombre superior.

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I.

The reader of Larra’s articles cannot help being impressed by the number of French authors and literary works the Spaniard mentions or comments on. In fact, if one had to make a list of Larra’s favourite topics, French literature would definitely have to be included. The objection that Larra had a tendency to name-dropping is certainly justified. However, even though Larra may have referred to works he only knew second-hand, many passages of his texts reveal that he was indeed an expert in this field.

Larra undoubtedly had a certain predilection for drama. His analysis of Dumas’ romantic tragedy Anthony is only one of a great number of texts that can be produced as evidence of his profound knowledge of the tradition and evolution of this genre. Yet he was also well informed about the latest tendencies in narrative literature. Apart from contributing to the rise of the historical novel in Spain by writing his El doncel el Don Enrique el Doliente, he reviewed the works of the leading novelists of his time, such as Chateaubriand, Hugo and Balzac, to name but a few. Considering this flood of data and names, it is quite surprising that Larra should never mention the name of Stendhal.1How are we to inter-pret this fact? Does this mean that he did not know this author, or did

Neophilologus 88:165–179, 2004.

2004 Kluwer Academic Publishers. Printed in the Netherlands.