Is there more to this quote? “My head thrown back, I let my gaze dwell on the ceiling…?
Favorite Answer
http://search.abaa.org/dbp2/book217496632.html
In the meantime, here’s some interesting notes:
From unreferenced sources in Wikipedia:
Stendhal syndrome or Stendhal’s syndrome is a psychosomatic illness that causes rapid heartbeat, dizziness, confusion and even hallucinations when an individual is exposed to art, usually when the art is particularly ‘beautiful’ or a large amount of art is in a single place.
The term can also be used to describe a similar reaction to a surfeit of choice in other circumstances, e.g. when confronted with immense beauty in the natural world. There have been many cases of individuals, for instance, experiencing the uncomfortable symptoms of Stendhal Syndrome in reaction to the mountains of British Columbia.
It is named after the famous 19th century French author Stendhal (pseudonym of Henri-Marie Beyle), who described his experience with the phenomenon during his 1817 visit to Florence, Italy in his book Naples and Florence: A Journey from Milan to Reggio.
Although there are many descriptions of people becoming dizzy and fainting while taking in Florentine art, especially at the Uffizi, dating from the early 19th century on, the syndrome was only named in 1979, when it was described by Italian psychiatrist Graziella Magherini, who observed and described more than 100 similar cases among tourists and visitors in Florence. The syndrome was first diagnosed in 1982.
From Anchor Books…
The symptoms are described in the novel “Diary,” by Chuck Palahniuk.
Diary is the eerie tale told by Misty Marie Wilmot, a waitress in a hotel, as her husband lies in a coma after a suicide attempt. Once she was an art student dreaming of creativity and freedom, but she hasn’t painted in years. With Peter in a hospital and his family’s fortune gone, Misty has to support her daughter and mother-in-law as she waits on tourists who visit the quaint but ruined Waytansea Island, where the Wilmot family has a two-hundred-year-old history. Two brilliant women painters, Maura Kincaid and Constance Burton, have also lived on the island and both died in mysterious circumstances long before Misty came to live there.
http://www.randomhouse.com/anchor/catalog/display.pperl?isbn=9781400032815&view=rg
From amazon.com
Terrence McNally, The Stendhal Syndrome: Two Plays
The Stendhal Syndrome is named for the French novelist, who on a visit to Florence had such a visceral and physical reaction to its beauty that he wrote, “I felt a pulsating in my heart. Life was draining out of me, while I walked fearing a fall.” Now Terrence McNally, one of our most beloved playwrights, has crafted two stunning and witty plays about art and how it transforms us. Full Frontal Nudity explores the reaction of three American tourists to the perfection and beauty of Michelangelo’s David. In Prelude and Liebstod, a renowned conductor watches his life unravel while conducting Wagner’s musical masterpiece. With its world premiere in the winter of 2004 starring Frank Langella and Isabella Rossellini, The Stendhal Syndrome will join the ranks of important plays by this American master.
Stendhal by Jonathan Keates
The author of The Red and the Black could ask for no more fitting homage than the lucid, breezy prose and shrewd psychological analyses of his latest biographer. British author Jonathan Keates nearly equals Stendhal (1783-1842) in his ability to dissect his subject’s fantasies, evasions and outright lies while retaining tenderness for the human yearnings that prompted them. Intended for the general reader, the book eschews lengthy literary exegeses in favor of a vigorous narrative that does full justice to Stendhal’s adventurous trajectory from the stultifying French provinces to Napoleon’s army, Italy’s romantic charms, and beyond.
From the website, Stendhal (1783-1842) – Pseudonym of Marie-Henri Beyle
…Stendhal decided to leave France and settle in Italy, the scene of his several love affairs. His travel book, ROME, NAPLES ET FLORENCE EN 1817, appeared in 1817. It was the first publication for which he used the pen name Stendhal. In Florense he visited Santa Croce. Overwhelmed by Giotto’s famous frescoes he wrote in his diary: “I was in a sort of ecstasy, from the idea of being in Florence, close to the great men whose tombs I had seen. Absorbed in the contemplation of sublime beauty . . . I reached the point where one encounters celestial sensations.” His psychosomatic reaction to the overdose of beautiful art, disorientation, powerful emotions from confusion to hallucinations, is nowadays called ‘Stendhal syndrome’.
http://kirjasto.sci.fi/stendhal.htm
