The Red and the Black
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4.3 • 8 Ratings
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- $4.99
Publisher Description
A Major New Translation
The Red and the Black, Stendhal’s masterpiece, is the story of Julien Sorel, a young dreamer from the provinces, fueled by Napoleonic ideals, whose desire to make his fortune sets in motion events both mesmerizing and tragic. Sorel’s quest to find himself, and the doomed love he encounters along the way, are delineated with an unprecedented psychological depth and realism. At the same time, Stendhal weaves together the social life and fraught political intrigues of post–Napoleonic France, bringing that world to unforgettable, full-color life. His portrait of Julien and early-nineteenth-century France remains an unsurpassed creation, one that brilliantly anticipates modern literature.
Neglected during its time, The Red and the Black has assumed its rightful place as one of the world’s great books, and Burton Raffel’s extraordinary new translation, coupled with an enlightening Introduction by Diane Johnson, helps it shine more brightly than ever before.
Customer Reviews
Sad story about a not very nice person
Burton Raffel’s translation and notes, excellent as always, made it possible for me finally to re-read this novel about 40 years after reading it the first time. I don’t like Julien Sorel very much. He’s cold as a block of ice and capable of inflicting great emotional pain on the people close to him. But his life has a tragic direction almost from the first. There is really no place where he fits in. He’s too engaged in intellectual pursuits to get along well with his sawmill-owning father; and he’s too much of a peasant to be respected by the rich families for whom he works as tutor or private secretary. It all comes down to one of the saddest conclusions I’ve ever read — really, I was surprised that I felt genuine grief as the novel ended.