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A review by icecubecat
The Red and the Black by Stendhal
5.0
A book like no other and one that will leave a mark on me forever.
Stendhal's masterfully written work follows the rise and fall of a young down-and-out blessed with intelligence and beauty as he tries to rise in a society that looks down on him.
Julien is filled with all the vice, love, ambition and high ideas of a young man but is met with a jaded world where hypocrisy reigns and a man like him is despised.
To avoid this scorn to advance his lot he has to put on many guises which in part engulf his identity and the line between performance and his true feelings blur.
Stendhal explores this complex blurring through his psychological mastery as he delves into the explicit and hidden motives of his characters by way of their interaction with the world around them.
The book is just as meaningful today as when it was written, many of the problems plaguing French society Stendhal explores are relevant today; boredom, jealousy, greed and jadedness. That's what makes this work so charming, as Julien comes to loggerheads with this world sharing so many problems with our own you can't help but feel drawn to his character like so many other of the characters, also exhausted by their society.
In doing so you sympathise with him through his faults and his downfall despite his actions.
That is Stendhal's great skill, to make you question a broken society and those like Julien who seek to change it by any means necessary.
Stendhal's masterfully written work follows the rise and fall of a young down-and-out blessed with intelligence and beauty as he tries to rise in a society that looks down on him.
Julien is filled with all the vice, love, ambition and high ideas of a young man but is met with a jaded world where hypocrisy reigns and a man like him is despised.
To avoid this scorn to advance his lot he has to put on many guises which in part engulf his identity and the line between performance and his true feelings blur.
Stendhal explores this complex blurring through his psychological mastery as he delves into the explicit and hidden motives of his characters by way of their interaction with the world around them.
The book is just as meaningful today as when it was written, many of the problems plaguing French society Stendhal explores are relevant today; boredom, jealousy, greed and jadedness. That's what makes this work so charming, as Julien comes to loggerheads with this world sharing so many problems with our own you can't help but feel drawn to his character like so many other of the characters, also exhausted by their society.
In doing so you sympathise with him through his faults and his downfall despite his actions.
That is Stendhal's great skill, to make you question a broken society and those like Julien who seek to change it by any means necessary.