Stendhal

French author born in Grenoble as Marie-Henri Beyle. His father was a lawyer. Beyle went to Paris as a young man where he was employed, because of his admiration for Napoleon, as a civil servant. During the Napoleonic wars he was stationed in Milan for a while, and during the course of Napoleon's campaigns he participated in a number of major battles including the invasion of Russia in 1812. After Napoleon's defeat he went back to Milan, but was forced to leave in 1821 because of his contacts with the Milanese revolutionaries, and he returned to Paris. After the July Revolution he was appointed French consul in Civitavecchia in the Papal States where he remained for most of the rest of his life.