Name: The Red and the Black
Rating: 3.525 (60 reviews)

Stendhal

James Madden

A major new translation of Stendhal's masterpiece by acclaimed, bestselling translator Burton Raffel, "The Red and the Black" tells of Julien Sorel, an ambitious young man from the provinces fueled by dreams of Napoleonic heroism.

A Chronicle of 1830

The Red and the Black

Ilya

I love the freshness of the woods and the peacefulness of the fields, exactly as you say. You’ve often accused me of being a romantic. For the whole rest of my life I don’t want to hear anything about politics, and yet it’s politics that’s chasing me away.

I think people should be reading more of the classics, least of all because a lot of them contain a good amount of humour. "The Red and the Black" is one of those - which is particularly impressive given that the tone of the prose does not appear to take away from the salaciousness of the plot and the portrait of French society that Stendhal paints.

That being said, random things that gave me whiplash and made me reconsider my ordering of historical periods in my mind:

- Cropped out printed words (from a book), pasted to form an anonymous letter

And at the end of the day, part of me cannot believe how Julien had so many people wrapped around his finger at an age of his early 20's. But at the same time, only someone extremely pretty 

 intelligent could cause such mayhem - and it was still not enough when faced with a society stratified by class.

I think there are several modern novels that I have read over the past couple of years or so trying to explore similar ideas - about the materialism of those who fashion themselves spiritual, about corruption, about the societal disadvantage in which poverty places people. "The Red and the Black" has made me realise that a big element that was missing from them, that could have made them into better novels, was a larger overview and commentary on society and historical context, replaced instead by too much internal retrospection of their respective lead characters.

And while I have reduce my rating as the novel failed to retain my attention at several instances, I still think that maybe "The Red and the Black" is the next great classic that derserves its revival.

I think people should be reading more of the classics, least of all because a lot of them contain a good amount of humour. "The Red and the Black" is one of those - which is particularly impressive given that the tone of the prose does not appear to take away from the salaciousness of the plot and the portrait of French society that Stendhal paints.

That being said, random things that gave me whiplash and made me reconsider my ordering of historical periods in my mind:
- The mention(s) of the USA
- Cropped out printed words (from a book), pasted to form an anonymous letter
- The amount of pistols in this

And at the end of the day, part of me cannot believe how Julien had so many people wrapped around his finger at an age of his early 20's. But at the same time, only someone extremely pretty and intelligent could cause such mayhem - and it was still not enough when faced with a society stratified by class.

I think there are several modern novels that I have read over the past couple of years or so trying to explore similar ideas - about the materialism of those who fashion themselves spiritual, about corruption, about the societal disadvantage in which poverty places people. "The Red and the Black" has made me realise that a big element that was missing from them, that could have made them into better novels, was a larger overview and commentary on society and historical context, replaced instead by too much internal retrospection of their respective lead characters.

And while I have reduce my rating as the novel failed to retain my attention at several instances, I still think that maybe "The Red and the Black" is the next great classic that derserves its revival.

Le Rouge Et Le Noir

Hannah Myhre

Very well written and interesting book, took some time to read, but it was worth it. The changes of point of views in the book and the parallel stories makes this book a very good and powerful read

Jeni Enjaian

I struggled with this book. The narrative is beautiful and flows well. However, the content of that narrative gave me pause. The main reason for the two star rating? The protagonist, Julian, is completely unsympathetic. The only thing that elicited the slightest amount of sympathy was his maligned childhood which occupies less than 10 pages of the 500+ page book. All of the characters appear weak and without strong values and convictions. 
Additionally, the narrative though quite descriptive lacks concrete details that help the reader understand the major events and relationships of the book. Many of these events happen without warni, explanation of motive or clear delineation of what exactly happened. 
All this makes e wonder why Stendhal even bothered writing the book.

Jeune ambitieux nourri à la légende napoléonienne, Julien Sorel entre au service du maire de son village, Monsieur de Rênal, comme percepteur de ses enfants. Cet ombrageux mais séduisant jeune homme, soucieux de faire oublier ses origines modestes, ne recule devant rien pour assouvir ses désirs d'élévation sociale. Deux femmes l'aimeront, qu'il aimera également : la douce Madame de Rênal, dont il devient l'amant, et l'intense Mathilde de la Mole, toutes deux instruments de son ascension - et accessoires, passionnés, de sa chute.

Chronique de 1830

Le Rouge et le Noir

Mathilde Fichant

The red and the black

Sarah Sammis

Ibragimova Renata

Jm Stendhal

Le roman est divisé en deux parties : la première partie retrace le parcours de Julien Sorel en province à Verrières puis à Besançon et plus précisément son entrée chez les Rênal, de même que son séjour dans un séminaire ; la seconde partie porte sur la vie du héros à Paris comme secrétaire du marquis de La Mole.

The Red and the Black A Chronicle of 1830

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