Red and the Black

Stendhal

Description

The nineteenth century was a time of turmoil and social change, during which the immutable caste system that had defined European society for thousands of years finally began to shift. This transitional period is brought to life in the exhilaratingly ambitious historical novel, The Red and the Black, which follows the life of Julien Sorel, born of a working-class family, who attempts to improve his station in life. Can Sorel overcome the influence of the powers that be through his sheer force of will?

Sujets

• Historical fiction

Informations

• Publié par: The Floating Press
• Date de parution: 01 mai 2014
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781776533411
• Langue: English

Extrait

THE RED AND THE BLACK
A CHRONICLE OF THE 19TH CENTURY
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STENDHAL
Translated by
HORACE B. SAMUEL
 
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The Red and the Black A Chronicle of the 19th Century From a 1916 edition Epub ISBN 978-1-77653-341-1 Also available: PDF ISBN 978-1-77653-342-8 © 2014 The Floating Press and its licensors. All rights reserved. While every effort has been used to ensure the accuracy and reliability of the information contained in The Floating Press edition of this book, The Floating Press does not assume liability or responsibility for any errors or omissions in this book. The Floating Press does not accept responsibility for loss suffered as a result of reliance upon the accuracy or currency of information contained in this book. Do not use while operating a motor vehicle or heavy equipment. Many suitcases look alike. Visit www.thefloatingpress.com
Contents
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Introduction Chapter I - A Small Town Chapter II - A Mayor Chapter III - The Poor Fund Chapter IV - A Father and a Son Chapter V - A Negotiation Chapter VI - Ennui Chapter VII - The Elective Affinities Chapter VIII - Little Episodes Chapter IX - An Evening in the Country Chapter X - A Great Heart and a Small Fortune Chapter XI - An Evening Chapter XII - A Journey Chapter XIII - The Open Work Stockings Chapter XIV - The English Scissors Chapter XV - The Cock's Song Chapter XVI - The Day After Chapter XVII - The First Deputy Chapter XVIII - A King at Verrières Chapter XIX - Thinking Produces Suffering Chapter XX - Anonymous Letters Chapter XXI - Dialogue with a Master Chapter XXII - Manners of Procedure in 1830 Chapter XXIII - Sorrows of an Official Chapter XXIV - A Capital Chapter XXV - The Seminary Chapter XXVI - The World, or What the Rich Lack Chapter XXVII - First Experience of Life Chapter XXVIII - A Procession Chapter XXIX - The First Promotion Chapter XXX - An Ambitious Man Chapter XXXI - The Pleasures of the Country Chapter XXXII - Entry into Society Chapter XXXIII - The First Steps Chapter XXXIV - The Hôtel de la Mole Chapter XXXV - Sensibility and a Great Pious Lady Chapter XXXVI - Pronunciation Chapter XXXVII - An Attack of Gout Chapter XXXVIII - What is the Decoration Which Confers Distinction? Chapter XXXIX - The Ball Chapter XL - Queen Marguerite Chapter XLI - A Young Girl's Dominion Chapter XLII - Is He a Danton? Chapter XLIII - A Plot Chapter XLIV - A Young Girl's Thoughts Chapter XLV - Is it a Plot? Chapter XLVI - One O'Clock in the Morning Chapter XLVII - An Old Sword Chapter XLVIII - Cruel Moments Chapter XLIX - The Opera Bouffe Chapter L - The Japanese Vase Chapter LI - The Secret Note Chapter LII - The Discussion Chapter LIII - The Clergy, the Forests, Liberty Chapter LIV - Strasbourg Chapter LV - The Ministry of Virtue Chapter LVI - Moral Love Chapter LVII - The Finest Places in the Church Chapter LVIII - Manon Lescaut Chapter LIX - Ennui Chapter LX - A Box at the Bouffes Chapter LXI - Frighten Her Chapter LXII - The Tiger Chapter LXIII - The Hell of Weakness Chapter LXIV - A Man of Intellect Chapter LXV - A Storm Chapter LXVI - Sad Details Chapter LXVII - A Turret Chapter LXVIII - A Powerful Man Chapter LXIX - The Intrigue Chapter LXX - Tranquility Chapter LXXI - The Trial Chapter LXXII Chapter LXXIII Chapter LXXIV Chapter LXXV Endnotes
Introduction
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Some slight sketch of the life and character of Stendhal isparticularly necessary to an understanding of Le Rouge et Le Noir ( The Red and the Black ) not so much as being the formal stuffing ofwhich introductions are made, but because the book as a book standsin the most intimate relation to the author's life and character. Thehero, Julien, is no doubt, viewed superficially, a cad, a scoundrel,an assassin, albeit a person who will alternate the moist eye of thesentimentalist with the ferocious grin of the beast of prey. ButStendhal so far from putting forward any excuses makes a specific pointof wallowing defiantly in his own alleged wickedness. "Even assumingthat Julien is a villain and that it is my portrait," he wrote shortlyafter the publication of the book, "why quarrel with me. In the time ofthe Emperor, Julien would have passed for a very honest man. I lived inthe time of the Emperor. So—but what does it matter?"
Henri Beyle was born in 1783 in Grenoble in Dauphiny, the son of aroyalist lawyer, situated on the borderland between the gentry andthat bourgeoisie which our author was subsequently to chastise withthat malice peculiar to those who spring themselves from the classwhich they despise. The boy's character was a compound of sensibilityand hard rebelliousness, virility and introspection. Orphaned of hismother at the age of seven, hated by his father and unpopular with hisschoolmates, he spent the orthodox unhappy childhood of the artistictemperament. Winning a scholarship at the Ecole Polytechnique atthe age of sixteen he proceeded to Paris, where with characteristicindependence he refused to attend the college classes and set himselfto study privately in his solitary rooms.
In 1800 the influence of his relative M. Daru procured him a commissionin the French Army, and the Marengo campaign gave him an opportunityof practising that Napoleonic worship to which throughout his life heremained consistently faithful, for the operation of the philosophicalmaterialism of the French sceptics on an essentially logical andmathematical mind soon swept away all competing claimants for hisreligious adoration. Almost from his childhood, moreover, he hadabominated the Jesuits, and "Papism is the source of all crimes," wasthroughout his life one of his favourite maxims.
After the army's triumphant entry into Milan, Beyle returned toGrenoble on furlough, whence he dashed off to Paris in pursuit ofa young woman to whom he was paying some attention, resigned hiscommission in the army and set himself to study "with the view ofbecoming a great man." It is in this period that we find the mostmarked development in Beyle's enthusiasm of psychology. This tendencysprang primarily no doubt from his own introspection. For throughouthis life Beyle enjoyed the indisputable and at times dubious luxuryof a double consciousness. He invariably carried inside his braina psychological mirror which reflected every phrase of his emotionwith scientific accuracy. And simultaneously, the critical spirit,half-genie, half-demon inside his brain, would survey in thesemi-detached mood of a keenly interested spectator, the actual emotionitself, applaud or condemn it as the case might be, and ticket theverdict with ample commentations in the psychological register of itsown analysis.
But this trend to psychology, while as we have seen, to some extent,the natural development of mere self-analysis was also tinged with thespirit of self-preservation. With a mind, which in spite of its naturalphysical courage was morbidly susceptible to ridicule and was only toofrequently the dupe of the fear of being duped, Stendhal would scentan enemy in every friend, and as a mere matter of self-protection sethimself to penetrate the secret of every character with which he cameinto contact. One is also justified in taking into account an honestintellectual enthusiasm which found its vent in deciphering the rarerand more precious manuscripts of the "human document."
With the exception of a stay in Marseilles, with his first mistressMélanie Guilhert ("a charming actress who had the most refinedsentiments and to whom I never gave a sou,") and a subsequent sojournin Grenoble, Stendhal remained in Paris till 1806, living so far as waspermitted by the modest allowance of his niggard father the full lifeof the literary temperament. The essence, however, of his character wasthat he was at the same time a man of imagination and a man of action.We consequently find him serving in the Napoleonic campaigns of 1806,1809 and 1812. He was present at the Battle of Jena, came severaltimes into personal contact with Napoleon, discharged with singularefficiency the administration of the State of Brunswick, and retainedhis sangfroid and his bravery during the whole of the panic-strickenretreat of the Moscow campaign.
It is, moreover, to this period that we date Stendhal's liaison withMme. Daru the wife of his aged relative, M. Daru. This particularintrigue has, moreover, a certain psychological importance in thatMme. Daru constituted the model on whom Mathilde de la Mole was drawnin The Red and the Black . The student and historian consequently whois anxious to check how far the novelist is drawing on his experienceand how far on his imagination can compare with profit the descriptionof the Mathilde episode in The Red and the Black with those sectionsin Stendhal's Journal entitled the Life and Sentiments of SilenciousHarry , Memoirs of my Life during my Amour with Countess Palfy ,and also with the posthumous fragment, Le Consultation de Banti , apiece of methodical deliberation on the pressing question. "Dois-je oune dois-je pas avoir la duchesse?" written with all the documentarycoldness of a Government report. It is characteristic that both Bansiand Julien decide in the affirmative as a matter of abstract principle.For they both feel that they must necessarily reproach themselves inafter life if they miss so signal an opportunity.
Disgusted by the Restoration, Stendhal migrated in 1814 to Milan, hisfavourite town in Europe, whose rich and varied life he savoured tothe full from the celebrated ices in the entreates of the opera, tothe reciprocated interest of Mme. Angelina Pietragrua (the Duchessede Sansererina of the Chartreuse of Parma), "a sublime wanton à laLucrezia Borgia" who would appear to have deceived him systematically.It was in Milan that Stendhal first began to write for publication,producing in 1814 The Lives of Haydn and Mozart , and in 1817 a seriesof travel sketches, Rome, Naples, Florence , which was published inLondon.
It was in Milan also than Stendhal first nursed the abstract thrillsof his grand passion for Métilde Countess Dun