Å·±¦ÓéÀÖ

Julian, Julian, Julian, where did you go wrong? In love and ambition. These paths seem to have gone awry. Helás!

Julian Sorel is a young man (he is twenty) who hates his father’s business. He excels in school and gets a position teaching Latin to the children of M. de Rênal in the fictional town of Verrières, southeast of Paris. Life is getting better.

Their young servant woman Elisa falls for Julien but he has his eyes elsewhere. Namely on the older Madame de Rênal (she is thirty). Really he thought they were the same age! She is flattered by the young man. Julien Sorel is persistent. Flattery turns to something more. For her it is a simple case of heaven and hell. She is in heaven when she hears him entering a room; hell when he is not there. Is it love? Or another term? Adultère, lui apparut.

She is a married woman with children. He is thinking of an education, maybe the priesthood. She has money, higher class; he comes from a working family. He wants to escape his roots. She has a lot to lose; he wants to gain everything.

Madame, était-ce un mari jaloux? Bien sur. Her life is falling apart when her jealous husband becomes suspicious. Elisa spreads the word and it’s time to go. The Abbé Chelan, who got him the position gets him out of there.

Julien is ambitious. Un parvenu. An upstart. He even sees the affair as a stepping stone in his social climb. He has a role model: Napoleon Bonaparte. Be victorious and ignore the failures. Life is a game, a hypocrisy. Play it for all it’s worth. A man needs a goal, ambition and a zeal for life. Grand Dieu.

Julien ends up in Paris working as a secretary for the Marquis de La Mole. In doing so, he meets his daughter Mathilde. At first Julien thinks he is being played. Best to be cautious. Play his cards right. He remembers the play Tartuffe,

“Je puis croire ces mots un artifice honnête.�

Ah, but you know young women of class. It’s a game and Julien uses some love letters to lure her in. It works. She falls in love despite all the odds, the lack of pedigree, and in this case, her father’s wrath. When her father gets wind of their relationship he tries to banish the young man, then after the many tears of his daughter, he promotes Julien to colonel of the Hausars. Basically a bribe. Keep the daughter happy and the man out of sight.

Working for the marquis, Julien hears a truly remarkable line, “La politique est une pierre attachée au cou de la littérature, et qui, en moins de six mois, la submerge.� How quick that rock sinks. A letter surfaces that unravels Julien’s ambition. He literally snaps and commits a crime.

Le Rouge et le Noir. The red and the black. Love and religion. Life and death. Red cards; black cards. Jesuits and Jansenists. Republicans and monarchists. The country and the city. Rich and poor. Love and ambition. In the end, a ménage à trois. One man and two women. A romance.

Un roman: c’est un miroir qu’on promène le long d’un chemin.
Saint-Real

A powerful and most entertaining read.