The Red and the Black

Name: The Red and the Black
Rating: 3.86 (87146 reviews)

by Stendhal

First published 1830

Amazon

3.9(87,146)

Julien Sorel, the intelligent son of a provincial carpenter, becomes tutor in the household of Monsieur de Rênal and begins an affair with Madame de Rênal. Obsessed with Napoleon and determined to escape his class, Julien uses clerical education, self-discipline and calculated hypocrisy to advance through the institutions of Restoration France.
After leaving the seminary, Julien enters the Paris household of the Marquis de la Mole and wins the love of the marquis’s proud daughter Mathilde. His rise appears complete until Madame de Rênal denounces his ambition; Julien responds with violence, is arrested and refuses to save himself, forcing him to confront the difference between the status he pursued and the feelings he tried to suppress.