Stendhal — The Charterhouse of Parma

The translator dedicated this very edition to a woman he never names, in a language that wasn't her own.

This Liveright Publishing Corporation edition — translated by C. K. Scott Moncrieff, better known for his Proust — follows young Fabrizio del Dongo through war, prison, and love, the gilt "STENDHAL" on its spine worn soft from being read. Scott Moncrieff's own translator's dedication, signed only with his initials and dated from Pisa, is addressed to an unnamed "Madame C.B." A later reader, Patricia Farewell, signed her own name inside.

A long novel for a long, unhurried read.