Customer Reviews

The Red and the Black (Modern Library)

5 star:		(35)
4 star:		(13)
3 star:		(6)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

Strangely, all of my friends who were raised outside the United States are well aware of this book--everyone raised inside has no knowledge (even people who have taken three years of french in college!). If anyone has any theories on this I'd love to know. "Red and the Black" is a terrific look into the power structure of 19th century France, the wheeling and dealing of the church and aristocracy. Depictions of drawing room socials and seminary politics feel very right (though I wouldn't know much about either, as historical fact), and have a very engaging cynical edge to it.

In addition, it is about a man who is pulled by two opposing forces: an ambition to gain power (either through the church or state; it matters little to him which), and intense passions that are in his heart. He realizes from a young age that in order to succeed in the world, he must master the art of hypocrisy. And as he reaches the age where he first begins to explore his passions, this desire for hypocrisy and conquest get horribly mixed up, leading to horrendous self-analysis on the part of the main character, followed by equally strange actions. The personality of the characters are wonderfully believable--the interactions of these people, full of all sorts of emotions and ideas, are a good study in interpersonal dynamics (in a sort of extreme case) and emotional growth. The characters are alive, they grow and learn, and their excesses of suffering and joy make this a page-turner. To sum up: a well-written, engaging work that depicts 19th century power struggles, incredibly interesting characters, and a few ideas about life to chew on as well.

This book operates on two levels. First, it is a stunning psychological portrayal of Julien Sorel, a peasant who, despite his revolt against society, ends up succumbing to it through hypocrisy. Second, it is a biting satire of 19th century France: its elitism, its hypocrisy, its pretense.

Stendahl believed that bourgeois society rules dominate, and all one can do is try to succeed within it, and do what one must in order to move up. We see that manifested directly with Julien. He hates the world that has created him, yet he has no other choice but to act according to its rules. Social mobility hinges on flattery and calculation.

Why must Julien abide to these rules? Love. His love for women of high society chains him to the dictums of these very patricians. Ironically, this love is reflective of his values. Yet, in the end, he must sacrifice the values that have made his love possible. As we see, Julien hates himself because he must sacrifice his principles for the sake of love, which becomes in the process essentially meaningless.

This is a tale replete with splendid imagery, charming dialogue, and quick wit. It's a sad state of our times when books like "Catcher in the Rye" are conferred with the status of speaking for our generation. Books like "Red and Black" hit home harder, although roughly 200 years old. This book is truly timeless. I agree with the reviewers who claim that this book must be read twice in order to be appreciated. A veritable masterpiece!

The Red and the Black is a profound and witty book about the rise of a poor, handsome and intellectually gifted, young provincial into the salons of High Society in Paris. This novel is also a portrait of an era in 19th century France after the exile of Napoleon to St. Helena. The powerful, witty epigrams that appear in page after page of gorgeous prose left me almost as intrigued by the talent of the author as by the unexpected twists in the exhausting love life and fascinating careers in church and state of Julian Sorel. The language of the Gard translation was truly a joy to read -- it was lyrical and rich. Stendhal's novel is an astonishing but lesser read masterpiece from the salons of Paris, which produced Moliere, Balzac and Proust to name only a few. I can't recommend highly enough this worthy and rapturous novel by Stendhal. If this is Al Gore's favorite novel, then my respect for him has gone up a notch.

The Red and the Black is like no novel that I have ever read. The issues raised, and there are many, dealing with love, marriage, illusion, the role of religion in society, the nature of God, capital punishment, the role of class in society and countless others, are as relevant to life in America in 2006 as they were to France in 1830. The story not only has great intellectual depth, it is also wildly entertaining, as related by the sarcastic, cynical narrator who never seems to be able to decide whether he likes, or despises, his hero and those with whom he comes in contact. If I could give a rating higher than five stars, I would. This was the best book I have read in quite a few years.

About halfway through this arch and amusing tale of the foolish, machiavellian Julien Sorel we read: "He almost went mad with joy on finding an edition of Voltaire. He ran and opened the library door so as not to be caught in the act. Next he gave himself the pleasure of opening each of the eighty volumes." You too will almost go mad with joy when you slip into a book that can startle with its pulse, its passion, its ability to seem like a forbidden pleasure. You will smile with glee as you run your hands across pages racy enough to make you feel like you could be caught in the act. You'll find yourself sighing on page 248 when you realize Julien has a full eighty volumes of Voltaire to keep his fires burning, while you only have 500 pages of the Red and the Black. But don't give into that familiar panic--that it might end, that you will spend years regretting those 500 pages of momentary pleasure--because it only gets better with each successive read. Like Cleopatra, it doesn't cloy where most it satisfies, but leaves you short of breath, wanting more-

I really enjoyed this book. Unlike many reviewers, I feel the book does transcend time. American people and culture today, computers and all, are a lot like those in Stendhal's 19th century France.

The main characters strike me as real, and quite complex. Julien is a typical adolescent/ young adult: Idealistic, searching and unsure of himself. To me, it is amazing to what how the world interacts with and alters his self-image. Mathilde is equally interesting. She reminds me of a flighty alternative girl, looking for a dream of simmering romance. And MME de Renal is a wonderful, believable woman, falling in love late in life, victim of the missing husband syndrome.

Like people today, Stedhal's characters are a bundle of contradictions. Is Julien a villain, an angel, a self-serving climber or a man truly in love, searching for his higher self? Aloof or loveable? Is MME de Renal a devout, moral patroness, devoted to her family, or the vilest of adulators, ready to turn her back on duty for the simmer of love? Is Mathilde submissive, or arrogant and dominant?

The answer to all questions is yes. We are all divided.

Be honest with yourself for a minute. Aren't people sometimes cruel, and sometimes kind; Sometimes, honest, sometimes mildly deceitful, telling white lies, and sometimes bold-faced liars? Since Stendhal is faithful to this, and does not give us character in black and white, he has produced a masterpiece.

One last point: You do not need a lot of historical background to understand the author's critique of society. The basic overview laid out in the introduction, and my college course in Western Civ gave me the jist of the cultural goings-on. I even found French culture around the time of Stendhal remarkably similar to our own. The emphasis on external instead of the internal (Brittany Spears, try as she might, is not near as powerful as Bob Dylan, though a good deal more polished and wealthy) strikes home. In our culture, all heroism is gone, and we are left with shallow clubbers, athletes and supermodels as role models. How like Stendhal's effete social elite.

I highly recommend this book because it does transcend time.

This novel has everything: political intrigue, the psychological detail of detective work, the ambiguity of love and romance; it's a comedy of manners, but also a saga of helplessness and tragedy, incisive social commentary. Published in 1830, The Red and The Black, is timeless: its relevance to contemporary Westernized or Americanized, bureaucratic, and capitalist-developed nations is both a condemnation and a triumph.

The Red and the Black first caught my attention 25 years ago in January 1983; a stack of copies were set out on a table in the Tattered Cover Bookshop, Denver (then on 1st Avenue in the Cherry Creek area). At that time, the Penguin edition was a new translation to commemorate the 200th anniversary of the birth of the author, Henri-Marie Beyle, January 23, 1783. I don't know how or why I decided to buy a copy; maybe it had something to do with the brief review on the back cover, which was perhaps then as it is now: "Handsome, ambitious Julien Sorel is determined to rise above his humble provincial origins." Maybe I saw something of Julien in myself, or maybe like Mathilde de la Mole, I was looking for a life outside the script dictated by parents and society, or trying to find a world beyond materialism and utilitarianism, something inspirational and possibly Romantic. It was with this novel that I first realized that a writer could communicate intimately across centuries; I fell in love with Stendhal. I wanted to know about his life. He wrote with integrity; he wrote what he knew to be true about life, and he did not let the marketplace dictate what he should write. Beyle was a human being first, then a writer.

In January 1983, as now in January 2008, reading The Red and the Black, I am astounded with the author's ability to move smoothly from the character's interior thoughts into action or landscape while encompassing his characters in their political/social matrix. Whether in a high-society drawing room or in the stillness of night, Stendhal gave his work movement, dynamism. There is something uncanny about the author's ability to draw characters like Madame de Renal and her husband, a small-town merchant, politician, religious hypocrite. It is the Renals of the world who have the power to destroy the Romantically inspired Juliens and Mathildes, and yet a market-driven nation doesn't seem to function without the Renals. An unusual but appropriate companion reading to Stendhal's work might be Tocqueville's Democracy in America; volume one published in 1835.

Stendhal was the sobriquetof Henri Beyle from Grenoble. Stendhal was a ladies man, a solider, diplomat and man of affairs. This Napoleonic Wars veteran knew society and the human heart. The Red and the Black was the best book to emerge in the post Napoleonic generation. It is a long work of over 500 pages but worth the ride from the beginning in a small French village to the final somber moments.
The novel is the story of Julien Sorel.Julien is a young intellectual who is raised by an illiterate and cruel father whose only thought is amassing a fortune. The Red and the Black refers to the uniforms of red worn by soldiers and the black worn by the clergy. Julien becomes a student at a local seminary but detests his time there. He is extremely ambitious seeking to be a cold, calculating social climber.
Julien becomes a tutor of Latin to the mayor of a small town's children. During his tenure he seduces the mayor's wife whose name is Louise Renal. He will leave this hothouse environment wheh the chance develops to serve as the secretary of a rich marquis in Paris. Julien has an affair with M. De La Mole's daughter Mathilde. Mathilde is one of the most complex female characters in French fiction. She can charm but also freeze you out of her space. Julien has many challenges in conquering this French belle of the aristocracy. Throughout the book Julien the peasant's son shows a hatred and desire to triumph over the wealthy rulers of French society.
All seems to be going well as Julien's star ascends but then he makes a tragic decision. To give away this journey taken by Sorel is to ruin the novel. Read it and savor its pages!
Stendhal is a master at understanding romance and courtship. He is a cardiologist of the human heart.. Sorel is a mixture of emotions, ambition, lust, greed and generosity. He is a figure of paradox; for instance he knows the Bible by heart but is an unbeliever who favors Voltaire and rationalism. Julian is both romantic and cyncical. He is also a man of the head but also of the heart.
The Red and the Black can be read with enjoyment many times. It is one of the greatest of reading experiences. It is a mirror of life.

The title of this book can refer to the red uniforms of Napoleon's soldiers and the black robes of priests or to colors on a roulette wheel or perhaps the colors of blood and mourning, death. The main theme here seems to be desire, or desire beyond our basic instincts, how we come to desire what we do by imitating culture, history, and selected others. The fictional town Verrieres, a panoramic view of which we see in the opening pages along with hearing the loud sounds of the mayor's nail factory, in French means windows. Stendhal boosts us up to a window and we see Julien Sorel who crafts his desires from Napoleon's Memorial de Saint-Helene, Rousseau's Confessions, and a collection of bulletins of the Grand Army. He moves from being the despised son of a saw mill owner to a tutor for the mayor's children and onward from there as the novel progresses. As we read and the author lets us peer through more windows we realize that we are witness to a comic opera as well as to a study of human motivation and desire. The narrator who often speaks to us and takes us under his wing with a confidence or two likens a novel to a man carrying a mirror on his back down a muddy road, sometimes we see the clear blue sky sometimes the muddy road. Is this a reliable narrator to tell us this? You read and decide. If there is a moral for me to be had from this novel it is that people will always get their desire from somewhere whether it's novels, history, or other people but if we can be aware of this process then we can select our influences more consciously.

Truly a great book. I don't have much to say but that it keeps you captivated and enchanted while you are reading it. (the first 3 chapters are a bit boring but from then on it storms). Julien is a truly loveable character to me. Charming in his oprtuinism and unflinching attitude towards life. He preys on life. Also a very educative book - i've learned and got interested so much on the subjects of france of the french revolution and the restoration. A must to read. mind and spirit agitating.