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Press, 28 February 1981, Page 17

Marie-Henri Beyle, belter known to the world as the French novelist Stendhal, is shown here at the age of 50 indulging in a dance during a trip down the Rhone in December 1833. The drawing, by Alfred de Musset, comes from "Stendhal; A Biography." by Robert Alter (George Allen and Unwin. 28(1 pp, index, $30.65). Alter describes Stendhal as an elusive, complicated and compelling figure. He demonstrates that the connections between Stendhal’s work and his life are complicated and ambiguous; this biography interweaves narrative and interpretation. Stendhal’s life is closely bound up with his pursuit of women, his driving ambition, and his determination to be part of the political movements fashionable in the years after the collapse of Napoleon’s Empire. His reputation continues to rest especially on two novels — "La Chartreuse de Panne’’ and “Le Rouge at le Noir’’ — and both are sometimes regarded as hard going by modern readers. Thev yield their rewards, however, to those who persist. Who could resist, for instance, a comment such as that in “Le Rouge et le Noir": "Priests are the only teachers of morals the people have, and what would become of the people without them’.’ Can newspapers ever take the place of the parish priest?"