The Red and the Black (Penguin Classics)
by Stendhal
List Price:
Our Price: $5.95
You Save: $4.05 (40%)
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Buy Used: from $0.40 (click here)
Category: Book
See more book details and other editions
Book Summary Information
Author: StendhalEditor: Roger Gard
Translator: Roger Gard
Edition: Paperback
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 2002-09-24
ISBN: 0140447644
Number of pages: 607
Publisher: Penguin Classics
Book Reviews of The Red and the Black (Penguin Classics)
Book Review: A colourful tale...
Summary: 5 Stars
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.
Summary of The Red and the Black (Penguin Classics)
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.
Classics Books
Book Subjects
- Arts & Photography
- Biographies & Memoirs
- Business & Investing
- Children's Books
- Comics & Graphic Novels
- Computers & Internet
- Cooking, Food & Wine
- Entertainment
- Gay & Lesbian
- Health, Mind & Body
- History
- Home & Garden
- Horror
- Law
- Literature & Fiction
- Mystery & Thrillers
- Nonfiction
- Outdoors & Nature
- Parenting & Families
- Professional & Technical
- Reference
- Religion & Spirituality
- Romance
- Science
- Science Fiction & Fantasy
- Sports
- Teens
- Travel
Most talked about in Classics Books
Native sonby Richard Wright
Perennial Library; Published: 1987; Paperback; Book
Best price: $1.75
Native Son: And How Bigger Was Bornby Richard Wright
Perennial; Published: 1993-01; Paperback; Book
Best price: $60.00
Raphael and the Noble Taskby Catherine Salton
Harper; Published: 2000-10-24; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $5.49
Price in other shops:
Island (Perennial Classics)by Aldous Huxley
Harper Perennial Modern Classics; Published: 2002-07-30; Paperback; Book
Best price: $8.00
Price in other shops:
A Tree Grows in Brooklynby Betty Smith
Harper; Published: 2001-11-13; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $14.85
Price in other shops:
The Great Divorce CDby C. S. Lewis
HarperAudio; Published: 2003-11-25; Audio CD; Book
Best price: $12.73
Price in other shops:
Great Expectationsby Charles Dickens
Macmillan Pub Co; Published: 1979-06; Paperback; Book
Price in other shops:
This Side of Paradiseby Fitzgerald
Scribner Paper Fiction; Published: 1988-09-30; Paperback; Book
Best price: $1.95
Price in other shops:
Black Coffee (Poirot)by Agatha Christie
Harper Collins Pb; Published: 2002-12-02; Paperback; Book
Best price: $68.32
Slouching Towards Bethlehem (1960s)by Joan Didion
Flamingo; Published: 2001-04-17; Paperback; Book
Best price: $22.25
Similar Books and other products
The Brothers Karamazovby Fyodor Dostoevsky
Farrar, Straus and Giroux; Published: 2002-06-14; Paperback; Book
Best price: $8.00
Price in other shops:
Sources of The Making of the West, Volume II: Since 1500: Peoples and Culturesby Lynn Hunt, Thomas R. Martin, Barbara H. Rosenwein, R. Po-chia Hsia, Bonnie G. Smith, Katharine J. Lualdi
Bedford/St. Martin's; Published: 2008-02-20; Paperback; Book
Best price: $10.09
The Making of the West: Peoples and Cultures, Vol. C: Since 1740by Lynn Hunt, Thomas R. Martin, Barbara H. Rosenwein, R. Po-chia Hsia, Bonnie G. Smith
Bedford/St. Martin's; Published: 2008-02-20; Paperback; Book
Best price: $59.26
Love (Penguin Classics)by Stendhal, B. C. J. G Knight
Penguin Classics; Published: 1975-12-30; Paperback; Book
Best price: $9.07
Price in other shops:
Cousin Bette: Part 1 of Poor Relations (Penguin Classics)by Honore de Balzac
Penguin Classics; Published: 1965-08-30; Paperback; Book
Best price: $3.50
Price in other shops:
The Power of the Powerless: Citizens Against the State in Central-Eastern Europeby Vaclav Havel
M E Sharpe Inc; Published: 1985-06-26; Paperback; Book
Best price: $24.66
Price in other shops:
This Way for the Gas, Ladies and Gentlemen (Penguin Twentieth Century Classics)by Tadeusz Borowski
Penguin Classics; Published: 1992-08-01; Paperback; Book
Best price: $5.00
Price in other shops:
Madame Bovary (Penguin Classics)by Gustave Flaubert
Penguin Classics; Published: 2002-12-31; Paperback; Book
Best price: $4.65
Price in other shops:
The Charterhouse of Parma (Penguin Classics)by Stendhal
Penguin Classics; Published: 2007-01-19; Paperback; Book
Best price: $7.32
Price in other shops: