A review by bookbelle5_17
Scarlet and Black by Stendhal

dark emotional tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.75

Review of The Red and the Black

By: Stendhal

            Julian is a peasant of great ambition and has educated himself over the years, but in post Napoleonic wars, he is unable to improve himself.  Julian gets a lucky break to become a Latin tutor to the mayor’s children and finds himself falling in love with the mayor’s young wife.  Julian finds himself rising in status, but in doing so loses his own honor in the process.

            This was just an okay story, because the story I realize focused least interesting part of Julian’s life.  I did prefer the second volume when Julian goes into the Seminary and finds himself amongst the upper class of France.  He resents them but also wants to be one of them.  He calls them hypocrites but won’t acknowledge his own hypocrisy.  He relationship with both Madame de Renal and Mathilde frustrated me.  Madame de Renal loved him but would berate herself and the pair would question the other’s love constantly, of course her being married to the mayor didn’t help matters.  While Mathilde and Julian would go back and forth being mean to each other and then being like “I love you”.  Mathilde would fear losing her independence, but then he’d manipulate her jealousy making her all the sudden think “I love you!  You’re my master”.  All the dynamic and intriguing storylines were over shadowed by this melodrama.  I admit I did want to know what would happen to these characters and the novel had some amusing moments. I liked some of the other characters such as Mathilde’s father and il Abbe Pirard, but of course they were secondary characters.   I do enjoy reading about this time period as well and learning about what was happening through fiction.