This book "Vanina Vanini" is a short story published in 1829 by Stendhal. It is set in 1830 during the Risorgimento, when Italy was under Austrian control. The plot of the story is focused on the love story of a young Princess romana and a revolutionary carbonari. Vanina Vanini, nineteen-year-old daughter of a Roman Aristocrat, Don Asdrubale Vanini, is sought after by all the young Princes of Rome, but she rejects them all. Vanina discovers a secret room in the father's House. There, she sees a wounded woman lying in bed, as well as the clothes of the woman who seems to have been stabbed several times with a knife stained with blood. She realizes her father come up to the room and talk to the woman, although she cannot hear what they say. Vanina is fascinated by the mysterious woman, and when, one evening, the woman sees Vanina was born between the two a secret friendship.
