Stendhal (1783–1842)

Stendhal, the mononym pseudonym of Henri Beyle, was a veteran of the Napoleonic wars and a staunch supporter of Napoleon. He was a sharp critic of the French aristocracy and a supporter of the Restoration following the revolution of 1830. His novel THE RED AND THE BLACK expresses his political philosophy through the tale of an ambitious peasant lad, Julien Sorel, who rises from lowly carpenter's son to, briefly, member of the nobility. He becomes employed first by a local mayor, then by a Parisian nobleman, and seduces women in each household, with a maddening fluctuation in his feelings and an inconsistency in the genuineness of his bond with the lover of the moment. In the end, a moment of true passion leads to Julien's downfall, in a society where appearances carry more weight than reality. Beautifully written, the novel was a powerful influence on writers such as Zola, Balzac, and Flaubert. But I found Julien's inability to maintain a position in his affairs, his constant, minute-to-minute flip-flops between believing himself in love and believing himself the cold-hearted social climber, to be enervating. Every assertion of love is followed, moments later, by its opposite. The inconsistency of thought is a consistent part of Julien's persona, and a believable one, but the number of fluctuations became frustrating for a reader who wanted to identify in some way with the leading character of the story. While there are moments of great power in the novel (especially at the end), and great insights into French society of the time, I did not connect with the novel in the way I had hoped. It is a hallmark of French literature, but not, in my estimation, one of French literature's truly great novels.… (more)

I’ve tried before and failed. This time it clicked. The protagonist, Julien Sorel, is torn between the red (the army/the military) and the black (the church) but ambition is what he’s all about. It’s a coming of age tale in its own way, the story of a poor provincial young man whose psychology this is all about. Set in France in the 1820s, Sorel uses seduction as his weapon. The story isn't what matters since it is, ultimately, a very simple story whose focus is Sorel's mind and how his actions proceed from his thoughts.… (more)

I guess my biggest takeaway was that I enjoyed The Red and the Black more. The story just never quite engaged me. It takes place at the beginning of the 19th-century in northern Italy and follows a young aristocrat named Fabrice/Fabrizio del Dongo whose political career is nurtured by his aunt/love interest and her husband. The political allegiances of different parts of Italy at the time were confusing enough that I had to consult outside sources several times and my translation (by Richard Howard) seemed somehow “not quite right” from time to time, though mostly quite fluid and easy to read. It didn’t help that I didn’t find our protagonist particularly sympathetic or even likeable. (Interestingly enough, I found the protagonist in The Red and the Black also unlikeable but I thought that that book was much better done and much more believable.) Mostly, I just got tired of the “adventures” and what seemed to me to be Stendhal’s too-obvious techniques for delaying the resolution of the problem of the moment. It read a little bit like a bad Errol Flynn movie. Stendhal wrote it in 52 days they say, and while that could be seen as a great achievement, it could also account for some of the problems. Glad I read it, don’t know that I’d particularly recommend it.… (more)