Customer Reviews

The Red and the Black (Second Edition) (Norton Critical Editions)

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This is a nice edition of the Red and the Black. It's compact and yet includes a number of additional materials including short historical and biographical sections, penetrating critical essays, and some excerpts from Stendhal's book on love and the autobiographical Life of Henri Brulard. I found the essays by Auerbach and Girard to be particularly good. Girard provides helpful historical/political context in his discussions of social psychology. His analysis, while being in accord with the tenor of Stendhal's own analyses, introduces a powerful terminology capable of addressing primary issues more explicitly. It's too bad that so much of his work remains untranslated. I think the essays are the real advantage of this edition. That said, I liked the translation, but I did not check it against the French or any other translations. It was clear and unencumbered by flowery or abstruse diction. My only point of comparison is the Oxford edition translated by Catherine Slater, which seems to match up well to the French. But this was some time ago. I couldn't really say if one was better than the other.

Stendhal's classic does not need my praises; undoubtedly, this is one of the greatest French novels. However, the quality of the translation is below Norton's standards. There are misunderstandings, mistakes, and typos in it.