The Red and the Black

Stendhal's Bildungsroman follows Julien Sorel, an intelligent, ambitious young man from a poor provincial family, as he attempts to rise in post-Napoleonic French society. Torn between the red of… Read more

Stendhal's Bildungsroman follows Julien Sorel, an intelligent, ambitious young man from a poor provincial family, as he attempts to rise in post-Napoleonic French society. Torn between the red of military glory and the black of clerical ambition, Julien's passionate nature and political naivete lead him through seductions, betrayals, and ultimately to the scaffold — a sharp satire of Restoration-era hypocrisy. Show less