Reviews
praying that i wont have to write an essay on this for my exam bc ...
waste of my precious time, dont read that book the main character is distasteful and the whole plot is fucking boring.
I loved this story. It was really interesting to see what were the relations between liberals and monarchists in the ninetieth century in France. And I loved the love story! I was so engrossed and amazed by this book! Unfortunately, I think I missed and didn't know some historical events even though I studied it. Thus, it altered my reading and that's why I only give it four stars. I would recommend this book only if you know well the beginning of the ninetieth century in France otherwise you would fastly get lost.
inanılmaz zor okudum
I don’t like to finish a book by counting the number of pages left to go. But that’s what I found myself doing with The Red and the Black. Wondering, “when the hell is this going to end” and wishing that Julian would just die already. The first half of the copy of the book I checked out of the library included the penciled notes from someone who felt that even though the book wasn’t THEIR personal copy, they had the right (or probably, the need) to write things such as the definition of “Fie!” (expression used to express wild disgust, disapprobation, annoyance); “Wretch! (a person of despicable or base character); faldstool (chair used by Prelate when officiating in a church away from his throne). They also made these sorts of comments in the margin: When Julian and the mother of the children he is tutoring (Madame de Rênal) are in her bedroom and she is supposedly resisting his advances (that’s when the word Wretch! was used), the previous library patron wrote in all caps, SEX. It floated around at least 4 times in the margins as we read about Julian and Madame de Rênal in her bedroom alone, and even though we didn’t get any graphic details, it was pretty clear what was going on – and if it wasn’t clear you could just refer to the helpful little notes provided by this former reader who liked to read with her pencil in hand. Another comment appeared when the author referred to Julian as “extremely wretched" My friend (and I consider this former reader a friend) wrote: “J. for real!”. So the note taking reader would make little observations throughout the book and just write them out there for you. Instead of reviewing the book, I’d rather just tell you more about the notes I found throughout the novel, but that’s not what I’m supposed to be doing – and you probably won’t read this copy of the book anyway – so you wouldn’t have the benefit of these amusing and sometimes helpful little notes – but even more noteworthy is that the notes stop before Volume I is complete. And I’m assuming this previous reader stopped reading the book too – because there is as much need for little notes in the second volume as the first. I’m just assuming that she (and I feel like I can call this reader a she) just got plain tired of the damn book and quit. But I didn’t quit (although I did get tired of it). I read while Julian went to the seminary and met up with this abbé or that Perfect and then ended up at The Hotel de la Mole and first he really, really didn’t like the Mademoiselle de La Mole (Mathilde) because she looked rather masculine and she was arrogant and she had rather colourless hair. And then suddenly he loved her more than the moon and the stars. And Mathilde would be having these same thoughts about Julian – first she loved him, then she loathed him – then back to love (usually when she was convinced that he didn’t love her) and finally, I’m pretty sure they have sex – even though there were no helpful little notes in the margin – because she announces later that she is pregnant. I think the book is a satire about French society and the church and about the silly class system. I did find myself amused at some of the writing – and not just the observations of my reading friend (who abandoned me half-way through). The end of the book has a note from Stendhal “To the Happy Few”. To the happy few who finished the book? Or who understood what he was really trying to say? Or to those few who were wealthy? I’m not sure. I was just happy I was finished.
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
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.
