Scan barcode
_marco_'s review
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
reflective
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? N/A
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
The Red and the Black documents the meteoric rise and even faster fall of Julien Sorel, a carpenter’s son-turned-bourgeois before the vivid backdrop — political, societal, and cultural — of nineteenth-century France. Most synopses of the book comment on the drama of Sorel’s brief yet passionate life, or the accuracy (and inaccuracy) of the France that surrounds him.
I truly believe there is something to be said regarding the human condition that Stendhal’s portrait of Sorel brings to life: What drives us? What is virtue and what is vice? Religion? Jealousy? Power - true power? Stendhal’s characters, each riddled with more flaws than strengths, serve to provide various answers to these questions. The people in these stories are very real, in the sense that I can relate to their psychologies and strange emotions a lot more personally than I would those in other contemporary novels. Here, humanity’s foolish weakness, and the weakness of foolishness, is given a stark spotlight. The eloquent description of the complicated mess and almost comic tragedy of human nature, especially when love is thrown in the mix, is the reason I give it a five star rating.
I truly believe there is something to be said regarding the human condition that Stendhal’s portrait of Sorel brings to life: What drives us? What is virtue and what is vice? Religion? Jealousy? Power - true power? Stendhal’s characters, each riddled with more flaws than strengths, serve to provide various answers to these questions. The people in these stories are very real, in the sense that I can relate to their psychologies and strange emotions a lot more personally than I would those in other contemporary novels. Here, humanity’s foolish weakness, and the weakness of foolishness, is given a stark spotlight. The eloquent description of the complicated mess and almost comic tragedy of human nature, especially when love is thrown in the mix, is the reason I give it a five star rating.
“What advantages Fate has given me—celebrity, wealth, youth! Alas! I’ve been given everything, except happiness.”
As a related point, I would like to highlight the brilliance of both the characters of Madame de Rênal and that of Mathilde. They are each other’s perfect foil; I’ve gained personal insight from them both. While one can argue that they are just two women obsessed with Sorel, I believe that their evocative and very real personalities make them two of the most beautifully contrived characters I’ve ever encountered in literature, which is especially surprising given that they were women written by a man in 1830.
The plot itself remains quite slow through the middle portion of the book. Some passages were also difficult to trudge through, since they contained various historical references I was unfamiliar with. Fortunately my edition (modern library) contained footnotes at the back of the book for clarification. I wouldn’t recommend this book to people who enjoy a quick reading pace and constant action. In any case, I still believe it is well worth the read. This review hardly does it justice.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Infidelity, Death, and Grief
Minor: Suicidal thoughts
More...