The Red and the Black (Penguin Classics)

Book Description

Handsome and ambitious, Julien Sorel is determined to rise above his humble peasant origins and make something of his life-by adopting the code of hypocrisy by which his society operates. Julien ultimately commits a crime-out of passion, principle, or insanity-that will bring about his downfall. The Red and the Black is a lively, satirical picture of French Restoration society after Waterloo, riddled with corruption, greed, and ennui. The complex, sympathetic portrayal of Julien, the cold exploiter whose Machiavellian campaign is undercut by his own emotions, makes him Stendhal's most brilliant and human creation-and one of the greatest characters in European literature.

Translated with an introduction by Roger Gard.

Customer Reviews:

"Hypocrisy is the respect vice pays to virtue.".......2006-11-21

Hypocrisy, or "frontin," is one of the least respected vices today. However, hypocrisy was much worse during the Victorian age, where its exaggerated concern for the external appearance of virtue led to insincerity and deception. This concept is brilliantly exemplified in The Red and the Black, a magnificent representative of 19th century French literature. Stendhal's claim to immortality lies in his perceptive writing that balances social commentary with psychological insights of the main characters, the arrogant yet clueless Julien, the virtuous Madam de Renal, and the impulsive Mademoiselle Mathilde de la Mole.

What I found most interesting was the portrayal of "hypocrisy" according to the protagonist's perception and as the overall characteristic of society during the Restoration period. The trouble is, Julien despises hypocrisy, but at the same time, he realizes that in order to acquire success he has to give in and be hypocritical. He holds a romantic view of Napoleon, but conservativism has forbidden such sentiments. Since the only possible route for the son of a bourgeois is the priesthood, Julien learns Latin in order to impress Chelan, the local priest, and this is only the first of a long series of insincere acts that helps him to get ahead. Authenticity is cheap.

Rousseau, one of Stendhal's philosophy muses, claims the source of hypocrisy is society itself because it is artificial and its members develop deformed natures. Society is deemed artificial because it imposes inequality among its members, especially when inherited social rank and inherited rank have nothing to do with the innate abilities of the person. Also, the artificiality of language creates a gap between the ideals and behavior in the real world. These ideals such as beauty, freedom, happiness, are all impossible to actualize in the real world because they are indefinable. There is nothing in the real world to correspond to these abstract ideals. The pursuit of abstractions in a socially invented hierarchy of wealth and rank causes psychological damage to people. One cannot truly live in an artificial world and escape the charge of hypocrisy.

Stendhal carefully showed how hypocrisy could betray a secret truth of character, and more importantly how the phony emphasis on piety actually drained all passion from the interactions of people in Parisian society.

a noble book.......2006-05-10

Stendhal's hero is the low-born but intelligent and ambitious Julien, son of a country carpenter. Julien is effectively shut out of power in French Restoration society by virtue of his lowly status.

But Julien is a scheming and calculating kind of guy. He does what it takes to get as far up the ladder as possible. This means stuff like seducing powerful women and hanging around with important bishops.

Stendhal, perhaps reflecting his literary genius, does not allow us (the readers) to formulate a definitive impression of Julien. We see him alternately as a despicable cad, an ambitious over-achiever, and a forlorn lovesick boy.

The book is about the anguish that Julien faces with regard to "how he should live his life." It is an important book to read if you are interested in the conflict between career advancement and personal integrity. This is a conflict that many of us face and, as such, the book is very relevant in today's world.

Stendhal wrote the book in about 1830 (the exact date is controversial) at the time of the Restoration in France. During this period, the nobility are once again in control, but are under constant threat from the masses who orchestrated the orginal revolution in 1789. Memories of the Napoleonic era are also fresh in everyone's mind.

It is a modestly challenging read. Hey, its French romantic (not postmodern) so how difficult can it be?! It offers an interesting glimpse into 19th-century French Restoration society. Go for it! I also recommend The Fountainhead by Ayn Rand, which explores the same theme of career ambition. There are a lot of similarities, in fact, between Julien and Rand's hero Howard Roark.

I would be interested if any other Amazon reviewers can comment on the similarities between Stendhal's Julien and Rand's Roark.

One of History's Great Novels.......2006-02-08

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.

A colourful tale..........2006-01-13

Stendhal's 'Le Rouge et le Noir' (The Red and the Black) is a classic novel that was very important to me in early formation of directions in life. I found I could identify quite strongly with Julien Sorel, who wanted a better life, a life of meaning and importance, and was torn about which direction in which to go.

The Red (symbolising the church, the scarlet of cardinal's robes) and the Black (symbolising the military, the uniform, etc.) were both options held out to me early; in fact, I rejected both for a while, but have found myself drawn back in the red direction.

The story is one of coming of age as a bookish fellow in a working-class family, then ambition (but not overpowering ambition; in fact, Julien's father wishes he had more), then shifting careers (rare in an era and country where one's path is usually set for life early; however, this was the post-revolution era in France, in which some things were giving way, some more than others, it seems). Julien is pulled by events rather than being the director and creator of realities; Julien finds he loves the affect of various roles in life (more than the substance and responsibilities that come with such roles) -- for instance, he loves the swagger and the horsey-ness of being a soldier, but doesn't particularly like to get dirty or have to fight. He likes the trappings of religious office, but isn't inclined so much to spirituality, and Julien ran up against this in seminary:

The seminary director said to Julien: 'Truth is austere, sir. But our task in this world is austere, too, is it not? You must take care to guard your conscience carefully from this weakness: Excess of feeling for vain exterior charm.'

There is love, a love triangle in fact, romance and thwarted desires, and loves fulfilled, if not completely. It ends with a dramatic homicidal act, trial, an execution, and a most bizarre funeral. The melodramatic performance of Mathilde (re-enacting an earlier story with which she was familiar in which the heroine carried the severed head of her lover to his grave) provided the most animated conversation among ministers and psychologists I have ever witnessed.

Stendhal often built a character's name out of words that were descriptive, which is sometimes lost in translation as the names often don't get translated in the same way, or may have lost the immediacy of their meanings over time. Julien may be a play on Julian the Apostate, enemy of Christianity; Abbe Castanede is decidedly Spanish and inquisitional; Noiroud and Moirod come from words meaning swarthy and mottled; many other examples abound.

This is a very hard book to encapsulate in such a small space. It is not easy reading, but it is rewarding reading.

And again, an interior dialogue of Julien in seminary helps inform me, and keeps me thinking (both for and against in many ways):

'In the seminary, there's a way of eating a boiled egg which declares how far one has progressed down the saintly path....What will I be doing all my life? he asked himself; I'll be selling the faithful a seat in heaven. How will that seat be made visible to them? by the difference between my exterior and that of a layman.'

Choose your path wisely.

Dostoevsky must've liked this one.......2005-11-21

In 1830, a novel appeared in France under the title Le Rouge et le Noir and the subtitle said that it was a chronicle of the nineteenth century. It wasn't really well received in the art and literary world where French Romanticism was the major style, ruled by the likes of Renee de Chateaubriand, Victor Hugo, Eugenie' Delacroix and Louis Hector Berlioz. The new novel was about a very complex character named Julien Sorel and his attempt to rise in post-Napoleonic French society. It is a satire of French society and of the two institutions: the army (the red) and the Catholic Church (the black) whose wrongs Stendhal has as the primary focus in his "chronicle" of post Napoleonic French society.

This masterpiece is probably the most influential novel until Flaubert's Madame Bovary. Stendhal's presentation of the character of Julien Sorel is not only original for 1830, but Stenhal's psychological insight into Sorel's mind was revolutionary for the time. Stenhal is often called the founder of the psychological novel. Tolstoy said it was greatly influential to him and Emile Zola and other realists of his day considered Stenhal to be the founder of their movement. But...did our great friend Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoevsky (1821-1881) like it....nobody knows... It's almost like the elusive answer to the eternal question, (of course there is a God) who is the better novelist, Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoevsky or Count Leo Nikolayovich Tolstoy (1828-1910)???? Nobody knows...yet everyone cares and wants to know... Who can tell us...how about you, Miss Woolf? Tolstoy?...yeah...well..I'm gonna have to go ahead and disagree with ya there, yeah, Tolstoy's been kinda flaky with me lately and I don't think one's better than the other.

Count Tolstoy, you are a great friend, and so are you Monsieur Dostoevsky. and you Monsieur Pushkin. My friends, my only friends. I love you guys! Hey bartender drinks all around!!! Hey!! Nikolai Gogol! You are my HERO!!!

Red and Black: A New Translation, Backgrounds and Sources, Criticism

Average customer rating:

A colourful tale...

Red and Black: A New Translation, Backgrounds and Sources, Criticism
Stendhal
Manufacturer: W. W. Norton & Company
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0393098214

Book Description

The text of Stendhal's classic novel Le Rouge et le Noir in this volume is an entirely new translation which renders the novelist's strict, hard style into contemporary colloquial English. For the first time in an English translation, notes are given that explain the book's local allusions and concealed autobiographical reminiscences. Students interested in the backgrounds of the novel may read the newspaper account, for the first time in English, of the murder trial upon which some of the novel's events are founded. Other materials, on Stendhal's style and on the 1830's background, are also provided. As with all Norton Critical Editions in Continental literature, a number of commentaries are here translated for the first time: Henri Martineau, Jean Prevost, George Poulet, Jean-Pierre Richard, G. Tomasi di Lampedusa, Alain, Paul Valery, Paul Bourget, and Hippolyte Tame. Other critics are Erich Auerbach, Rene Girard, F. W. I. Hemmings, Jean-Paul Sartre, Andre Gide, Marcel Proust, Friedrich Nietzsche, Jose Ortega y Gasset, and Robert M. Adams.

Each Norton Critical Edition includes an authoritative text, contextual and source materials, and a wide range of interpretations-from contemporary perspectives to the most current critical theory-as well as a bibliography and a chronology of the author's life and work.

Customer Reviews:

A colourful tale..........2005-05-23

Stendhal's Le Rouge et le Noir (The Red and the Black) is a classic novel that was very important to me in early formation of directions in life. I found I could identify quite strongly with Julien Sorel, who wanted a better life, a life of meaning and importance, and was torn about which direction in which to go.

The Red (symbolising the church, the scarlet of cardinal's robes) and the Black (symbolising the military, the uniform, etc.) were both options held out to me early; in fact, I rejected both for a while, but have found myself drawn back in the red direction.

The story is one of coming of age as a bookish fellow in a working-class family, then ambition (but not overpowering ambition; in fact, Julien's father wishes he had more), then shifting careers (rare in an era and country where one's path is usually set for life early; however, this was the post-revolution era in France, in which some things were giving way, some more than others, it seems). Julien is pulled by events rather than being the director and creator of realities; Julien finds he loves the affect of various roles in life (more than the substance and responsibilities that come with such roles) -- for instance, he loves the swagger and the horsey-ness of being a soldier, but doesn't particularly like to get dirty or have to fight. He likes the trappings of religious office, but isn't inclined so much to spirituality, and Julien ran up against this in seminary:

The seminary director said to Julien: `Truth is austere, sir. But our task in this world is austere, too, is it not? You must take care to guard your conscience carefully from this weakness: Excess of feeling for vain exterior charm.'

There is love, a love triangle in fact, romance and thwarted desires, and loves fulfilled, if not completely. It ends with a dramatic homicidal act, trial, an execution, and a most bizarre funeral. The melodramatic performance of Mathilde (re-enacting an earlier story with which she was familiar in which the heroine carried the severed head of her lover to his grave) provided the most animated conversation among ministers and psychologists I have ever witnessed.

Stendhal often built a character's name out of words that were descriptive, which is sometimes lost in translation as the names often don't get translated in the same way, or may have lost the immediacy of their meanings over time. Julien may be a play on Julian the Apostate, enemy of Christianity; Abbe Castanede is decidedly Spanish and inquisitional; Noiroud and Moirod come from words meaning swarthy and mottled; many other examples abound.

This is a very hard book to encapsulate in such a small space. It is not easy reading, but it is rewarding reading.

And again, an interior dialogue of Julien in seminary helps inform me, and keeps me thinking (both for and against in many ways):

`In the seminary, there's a way of eating a boiled egg which declares how far one has progressed down the saintly path....What will I be doing all my life? he asked himself; I'll be selling the faithful a seat in heaven. How will that seat be made visible to them? by the difference between my exterior and that of a layman.'

Choose your path wisely.

The Red and the Black (Modern Library Classics)

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the misadventures of Julien Sorel
Ambitious Young Man Makes Decisions
A Wretched "Translation"
Ambition, piety, and pride all at odds

The Red and the Black (Modern Library Classics)
Stendhal
Manufacturer: Modern Library
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0812972074
Release Date: 2004-05-11

Book Description

A Major New Translation

The Red and the Black, Stendhal’s masterpiece, is the story of Julien Sorel, a young dreamer from the provinces, fueled by Napoleonic ideals, whose desire to make his fortune sets in motion events both mesmerizing and tragic. Sorel’s quest to find himself, and the doomed love he encounters along the way, are delineated with an unprecedented psychological depth and realism. At the same time, Stendhal weaves together the social life and fraught political intrigues of post–Napoleonic France, bringing that world to unforgettable, full-color life. His portrait of Julien and early-nineteenth-century France remains an unsurpassed creation, one that brilliantly anticipates modern literature.

Neglected during its time, The Red and the Black has assumed its rightful place as one of the world’s great books, and Burton Raffel’s extraordinary new translation, coupled with an enlightening Introduction by Diane Johnson, helps it shine more brightly than ever before.

From the Hardcover edition.

Customer Reviews:

the misadventures of Julien Sorel.......2007-03-09

Stendhal went to Russia with Napoleon and survived to write splendid melodramas like this book while living in Italy. I read it after finishing Balzac's Lost Illusions which is a far superior book by a greater writer. Yet Stendhal continues to be read and enjoyed because of his vivid and almost contemporary gushing style. It's fun even if somewhat overwritten. On to the Charterhouse of Parma!!

Ambitious Young Man Makes Decisions.......2006-11-07

Mari-Henri Beyle wrote the French classic "The Red and The Black" about an ambitious and supposedly bright young man of very Latin temperament from the countryside of Eastern France under the pen name of Stendhal in 1829. Burton Raffel's translation is mostly readable, using a great vocabulary and with strong verbs he preserves the long sentences of the original language's detailed descriptions. It needs to be read carefully as it reflects the book's difficulty, the perfect one not existing.
So, the main character, Julien Sorel, chooses a religious career (the Black) as tutor, seminarian and property administrator over a dream career in the army (the Red) after Napoleon's, because he wants to have power and for any now possible pecuniary gains. He posesses a variety of extremes: he's "an expert latinist", yet, "Together with his fiery soul, Julien posessed one of those stunning memories so often linked to stupidity." Sensitive, "Beginning in childhood, he had moments of exaltation", and, slender, with "delicate features" and "huge black eyes", he naturally feels able to entertain the concept of "being introduced to all the pretty ladies of Paris" because he feels he can relate, idealistically again, to sociable, intelligent, spirited, beautiful, rich women. Really, he desires to please and finds himself more committed than he can take, revealing (past) weaknesses and inexperience, as the third son of a carpenter.
Sometimes, Julien shows his immaturities. His two lovers have a great hold over him, these become the forces in his life that not even the eventual career in the army as lieutenant can impede. Mathilde, his Paris employer's daughter becomes "absolute mistress of both his happiness and his imagination" in a game about willpower where he even says to himself: "I've been able to preserve my dignity. I've not said I love her." When he makes Mathilde pregnant and decides he will marry her, his former love Mme de Renal writes to reveal their affair to the Marquis de la Mole, Mathilde's father, who, although had become attached to Julien "like a fine spaniel" decides he does not want him as son-in-law, and Julien shoots Mme de Renal in church. Their affair was very real however, and while in prison, he finds himself in love with Mme de la Mole again. She, too, had remained in love with her young former children's tutor "completely lost in her profound remorse" and had spent time thinking of "this unusual being, who once he had come into her life had turned it upside down" for much time after he had had to leave because of her status as Mayor's wife, and paid her a last late night visit. He is sentenced to death, although she does not die from the shooting.

More (translated) gems, for example, on Mathilde, Mlle Marquise de la Mole, Julien's intelligent blue-eyed eighteen-year-old convent-educated love: "It is always said that a pretty aristocratic woman is the most astonishing thing of all, for a spirited peasant, when he reaches the higher rungs of society." She is "sublime" - she speaks of "black incertitude". She herself says early on: "What great deed isn't extreme when it's first begun?" and he says on her "with a tigerish look", "I shall have her". This is Julien's "craziness", as he becomes "a self-made social climber" and "a miserable man at war with all society" because of a girl with such a visible queenly attitude which destroys his own personal sense of dignity.

A Wretched "Translation".......2006-09-23

The Modern Library "translation" by Burton Raffel of THE RED AND THE BLACK is actually a vulgar, anachronistic retelling of Stendhal's novel. I recall abandoning it in disgust when the main character refers to his life as a total "blast". MTV was obviously very popular in 1838 France.

Instead, the brilliant Moncrieff translation, as revised by Stendhal scholar Ann Jefferson, is highly recommended (Everyman paperback, ISBN 0460876430).

Ambition, piety, and pride all at odds.......2006-09-09

The first great psychological novel ever written, THE RED AND THE BLACK centers around Julien Sorel, a tender and honest young man, but one consumed by ambition, and "filled with imagination and illusion." Napolean is his hero, yet he believes the Church has now rightly re-established its position at the head of society. (Red=color of the French army uniforms; Black=color of the priests' robes.) Julien, an outwardly pious seminary student (he's memorized the entire New Testament), wavers between these two positions. While acting as tutor to her children, he seduces Mme. de Renal; his seduction is carefully plotted, almost as if it were a military campaign. He finally succeeds, but later her husband finds out about it, and Julien leaves. He becomes a secretary to a wealthy landowner and falls in love with his beautiful daughter Mathilde. Just before they are to marry (she is already pregnant) an anonymous letter comes to Mathilde's father revealing the affair between Julien and Mme. de Renal. He now forbids the marriage, and Julien, passionately overwrought, seeks out his former mistress, finds her in a church, and shoots her. He is tried, found guilty, and sentenced to death - even though it's later learned that Mme. de Renal recovers fully from the shooting. No pleading by friends will persuade Julien to help himself, and he calmly goes to his death.

Stendhal is a master at analyzing the inner workings of his characters, especially of Julien Sorel. This constant delving into Julien's psychological motivations sometimes causes the plot to slow to a crawl, but it is crucial to the book and to Stendhal's art. Julien is an extremely complex character, at war with the "respectable" society he so wants to be a part of, so critical of his own actions and thoughts yet so shrewd and calculating, many readers find him a figure worth endless study. There is so much to admire here, though I found Julien's meticulous seduction of Mme. de Renal and the final scenes in prison to be the best parts. The power he gains over Mathilde by feigning to be disinterested in her is also masterful. It's a masterpiece, and worth the time necessary to read and digest it all.

The Red and the Black: A Chronicle of the Nineteenth Century (Oxford World's Classics)

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A colourful tale...
Great novel of a great novelist
To the Happy Few
Lloyd Parks translation is the best...
WHATEVER IT TAKES

The Red and the Black: A Chronicle of the Nineteenth Century (Oxford World's Classics)
Stendhal , and Catherine Slater
Manufacturer: Oxford University Press, USA
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0192838717

Amazon.com

Little appreciated in its day, this 1831 classic by Henri Beyle (that was Stendhal's real name) tells the story of the rise and fall of Julien Sorel, a man of affairs in every sense. It's also a scathing indictment of a materialistic society, France under the Bourbons and an irresistible chronicle of love, politics and manners. The book now resides securely on most short lists of the world's great novels.

Book Description

The son of a carpenter, Julian Sorel is inspired by the writings of Napoleon to conquer the heights of society. His initial plan to work his way up through the church is, however, thwarted when he is forced to accept employment as a tutor--and this rash social entrepreneur certainly has not
considered the dangers of falling in love. Stendhal's novel is an amusing and piquant study of hypocrisy and free will in post-Napoleonic France.

Customer Reviews:

A colourful tale..........2006-01-17

Great novel of a great novelist.......2004-12-14

I'm a little surprised at some of the criticisms of R&B in these comments, though they seem to reflect that Stendhal is a more penetrating psychologist than some readers recognize. ("Who else, besides Stendhal, has been a psychologist before me?" asked Nietzsche.) Julien's character is a great achievement precisely because he remains, to some extent, a "stranger." Don't we all? N.b. that both Stendhal and Nietzsche were opera fans; I suspect that the shared appreciation of opera's hyperboles and melodramas may have come from their recognition that we are all acting a part.

Stendhal is more readable than even perhaps Flaubert precisely because of his "modernity" as regards plot and character. I have read R&B at least 10 times and will be reading it the rest of my life. I only wish Stendhal had written a dozen other novels.

Slater's translation for Oxford is also top-notch. DO NOT waste your time with Burton Raffel's new translation for Modern Library, or the old Penguin translation. (The new one for Penguin is quite good, but Slater's is better.) It's unfortunate that Oxford doesn't do a better job of getting its editions of this book and "Charterhouse of Parma" into bookstores.

Incidentally, R&B is a favorite of both Al Gore's and Judge Richard Posner's ... go figure!

To the Happy Few.......2004-12-06

Stendhal's THE RED AND THE BLACK tells the story of the relentlessly ambitious carpenter's son, Julien Sorel, as he plots and achieves his climb to the highest levels of French society. What he finds there is a pervasiveness of hypocrisy, duplicity, and callous self-interest mirroring his own character and which eventually destroys him. The novel is Stendhal's contemporary indictment of the chaos and vacuity of post-Napoleonic France.

Some novels hold up remarkably well through the passage of time and the changing of venue, and THE RED AND THE BLACK is one such novel. The story itself is engaging and enjoyable and the social representatives encountered throughout the narrative, including the protagonist Sorel, are very recognizable to the cynics and social critics of today. The truth that Sorel, the climber, uncovers is that these social types are present at all levels of society.

But I don't often look for symbolism when I read and I enjoyed THE RED AND THE BLACK because it is a rollicking good story told with great introspection and wit. For that, I endorse this book with my highest recommendation.

Jeremy W. Forstadt

Lloyd Parks translation is the best..........2002-09-08

The translation done by Lloyd C. Parks is the best, truly rendering the flavor of Stendhal's style into English. Amazon has it - just look for ISBN 0-451-51793-8. As a French major in grad school, I was studying "The Red and the Black" in one of my French Lit courses and the instructor happened to mention that a colleague in the English Dept. had done an excellent translation of it. I was curious enough to buy it and read it so I could judge for myself. I was so impressed that the very next semester I took a 19th Century Lit course taught in English by Dr. Parks. The course included Stendhal's book (nothing like picking a book apart in two languages!) - and yes, he did use his translation of the book! ;-)

WHATEVER IT TAKES.......2001-12-10

Some things never change. In the world today we're used to hearing about corporate climbers who are willing to do anything to move up in the company. Sacrifice their wife or husband, time with their children, and sometimes even their soul. All in pursuit of the American Dream, a.k.a. materialistic eden. In THE RED AND THE BLACK Stendhal shows us that things weren't much different in 1830, when the book was published in France. Julien Sorel is a young man who was cursed with a scumbag, loveless father who has no interest in his family except in what they can do for him financially. After bargaining with the local mayor of his hick town, his father negotiates Julien to be the tutor of the prestigious house of Renal. One thinks of a slave auction as his father milks the mayor for all the money he can connive out of him in return for Julien's services. Of course Julien has bigger plans, after all, his idol is the great destroyer of the aristocracy, Napoleon. Julien glances over the fact that Napoleon set up his own aristocracy. Yes, Julien is a closet revolutionary who despises the very people he has to serve or suck up to. This brings up the largest idea of the book. Namely, that to get ahead in the world, you have to be a chameleon who changes shades according to what influential man or woman's favor you are trying to curry. Kissing butt is a polite way of phrasing it. While he is being bored by the Renal's children he falls into an affair with the mayor's wife. While this might have helped his career he unfortunately falls in love. He seems to start all of his plans of advancement pretty well, but in the end he always messes it up by actually having a conscience. By showing the superficialities of love, he falls in love. One of the most ironic points in the book is when he starts studying to be a priest when in actuality, he is an atheist. Even with this against him, he shows more morality and godliness than his colleagues at the seminary. Julien is feared no matter what circle he travels in, because who better to recognize his below level rebellion than the hypocrites of every level of society. This is ultimately the horrible conflict of Julien. At what point will he be unable to retain his identity? At what point does acting like a sellout make you a sellout even in your own heart? This book is divine. I am shocked that only 4 reviews have been written about it. It is hard to know what to make of it because it is so futuristic, looking more towards the 20th century than the 19th. There is none of the crippling sentimentalism of Dickens or Eliot here. He is more comparable to Thackeray or Balzac. This is a powerful book with flashes of erotic power which I am surprised made it through the censors of his time. It looks more towards Camus but Stendhal is ten times the artist. I highly recommend reading this and will soon move on to THE CHARTERHOUSE OF PARMA. Almost forgot, Catherine Slater does a great job translating this work from French to English.

Approaches to Teaching Stendhal's the Red and the Black (Approaches to Teaching World Literature, 62)

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Approaches to Teaching Stendhal's the Red and the Black (Approaches to Teaching World Literature, 62)

Manufacturer: Modern Language Association of America
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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Dreadful
A Wretched "Translation"
Lloyd C. Parks's Still the Best Translation
Raffel's translation sings!
Raffel Does It Again

The Red and the Black (Modern Library)
Stendhal
Manufacturer: Modern Library
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

French | World Literature | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books

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ASIN: 0679642846
Release Date: 2003-06-24

Book Description

Customer Reviews:

Dreadful.......2007-03-15

Hideous translation of a brilliant book. Try the translation by Lowell Bair instead - intelligent and crisp.

A Wretched "Translation".......2006-09-23

Lloyd C. Parks's Still the Best Translation.......2006-01-10

The Red and the Black is the greatest novel ever written. I first began reading it six years ago, and I've read it twice a year ever since. I own five different translations: Robert Adams (Norton Critical), Lowell Bair (Bantam Classics), Catherine Slater (Oxford World's Classics), Burton Raffel (Modern Library), and Lloyd C. Parks (Signet Classics).

I use the Parks version as my reading text and use the others for comparison, whenever a particular word or passage seems odd. The Raffel translation is an acceptable substitute, if you're only buying one version; but I like it less because it lacks depth, texture, and flavor, like those bland lattes they sell at Starbucks. It's almost as if Raffel wants you to forget that Stendhal was French, that the characters are French, and the action takes place in France. You could easily switch character and place names and never know the book had been penned by a foreigner.

Note the differences between these two versions of the same passage. Raffel at p. 88 (paper): "She loved him a thousand times more than life itself, and never gave a thought to money." Parks at p. 102-3: "She loved him a thousand times better than life, would have loved him had he been ungrateful and untrue, even if he had belonged to the opposite party, the Bonapartists... and her money meant nothing to her." (Elipsis in original.)

I keep giving Raffel a fair shot at becoming my primary text, but I keep coming back to Parks. Page for page, it's a better read.

Raffel's translation sings!.......2003-10-25

I put off reading this novel for 30 years because I could not get past the first page in prior translations. Raffel has created a highly readable version which moves without getting bogged down in Victorian hyperbole. His addition of modernized expressions detracts in no way from the period of the novel; these additions simply make it more accessible to the modern reader. I was delighted to discover a compelling story, and a very likeable, although fallible hero. The plot reminds me in many ways of Dostoevsky's "Idiot": the author's indictment of the suffocating societal milieu, the sympathetic hero, the various femme fatales, as well Stendhal's delicious skewering of the corrupt powermongering clergy....altogether quite an enjoyable read that I was sorry to see end.

Raffel Does It Again.......2003-08-12

Readers in my generation grew up with some pretty awful translations, with even the French and Russian writers often coming off sounding Victorian. We should be grateful for Burton Raffel and other currently active translators (including Richard Pavear and Larissa Volokonsky, who got the vernacular back into Dostoievski) for changing that. It was Raffel who finally enabled me to read and savorDon Quixote, and I'll always thank him for that. Now I also owe him thanks for making Stendahl's uneven but nonetheless great tale of Julien Sorell so engaging and readable.

If any reader out there can make any sense of the mystifying jacket photograph on this book, please share that sense with us. What does it have to do with the book? More to the point, what IS it? Do the torso and the oversized hand belong to the same person, or what?

Book Description

Stendhal's most famous work, this is at once a brilliant portrait of French society after the Revolution and a profound psychological study of a young man's struggle to cope with opposing and often uncontrollable urges.

Red and Black, a Norton Critical Edition

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Red and Black, a Norton Critical Edition
and Adams, Robert M., Editor Stendhal
Manufacturer: W. W. Norton
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000H5AO9K

Monarch Notes on Stendhal's the Red & the Black & Charterhouse of Parma (Monarch Notes)

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Monarch Notes on Stendhal's the Red & the Black & Charterhouse of Parma (Monarch Notes)
Patricia Plante
Manufacturer: Simon & Schuster
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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