Part 1 of 5 · freeIntroduction
Published in 1830, The Red and the Black is the birth certificate of the psychological novel, the novel centered on what a character thinks. Stendhal, whose real name was Henri Beyle, follows Julien Sorel, a young commoner with no title, eaten up by ambition under the French Restoration (1815-1830), when the Bourbons came back to power after Napoleon.
Between nostalgia for Napoleon and a suffocating society, the novel dissects social hypocrisy and the torments of a soul looking for its place. Julien misses the days when talent could rise through the army. Stendhal shows, with cold clarity, how people calculate their own feelings to get ahead. Julien becomes the model of the modern romantic hero: intelligent, proud, and trapped by his time.
The rest is in the Sophia app.The remaining parts, the open-book quiz and the full glossary. Free to start; Premium unlocks everything.
- 2Stendhal and Beylism
- 3Julien Sorel: energy against the system
- 4From the provinces to the Paris salons
- 5The truth at the foot of the scaffold
Open-book quiz10 questions whose answers are in the text.
Glossary10 terms explained in a tap.
30 languagesThe same course, from French to Japanese.
