Title: The Pension Beaurepas
First published: June 30, 2004
Description: I was not rich - on the contrary; and I had been told the Pension Beaurepas was cheap.  I had, moreover, been told that a boarding- house is a capital place for the study of human nature.  I had a fancy for a literary career, and a friend of mine had said to me, "If you mean to write you ought to go and live in a boarding-house; there is no other such place to pick up material."  I had read something of this kind in a letter addressed by Stendhal to his sister:  "I have a passionate desire to know human nature, and have a great mind to live in a boarding-house, where people cannot conceal their real characters.
Subjects: Classic Literature, Fiction