Abstract: The aim of this work is to bring together the historical references dispersed throughout two novellas by Stendhal, Le Coffre et le revenant and Le Philtre, and to analyse the author’s critical response to Spanish society. The author moves beyond the tragic passion of the two plots in order to evoke the black mood of Ferdinand VII’s Spain. As a short-story writer, Stendhal sticks closely to history and succeeds in grasping what Auerbach named “the modern consciousness of reality”.
