Vanina Vanini by Stendhal. Short summary

5 seconds

The aristocrat Vanina Vanini has fallen in love with the revolutionary Pietro Missirili. He also feels love for her, but chooses to serve his country. Vanina wants to keep him, which leads to the arrest of the revolutionaries.

1 minute

A Carbonari escapes from prison. In the morning, Prince Azdrubaleh Vanini’s only daughter, Vanina, notices that the door leading to the upper floor is locked. The girl found the key and discovered a wounded woman in the chambers. It was a disguised fugitive, Pietro Missirili.

Vanina nurses the wounded man and falls in love with him. Pietro reciprocates her feelings. But his duty to his homeland calls him. He goes to Romagna, where he becomes the leader of the struggle.

Vanina brings him money, with which Pietro buys weapons. But Vanina senses that her beloved´s thoughts are occupied by an impending plot.

She betrays the plot to a cardinal and tries to drive Pietro from the city. But he has heard of the arrest of his comrades and turns himself in. Vanina does everything to extenuate the death sentence of the revolutionaries. She even agrees to marry Livio Savelli, a relative of the Minister of Police.

With his assistance she infiltrated Pietro’s cell and confessed that she had betrayed the plot. Pietro in a rage wanted to strangle her with shackles. Broken mentally, she returned to Rome.