MacKenzie includes an extensive introduction to Stendhal’s world and time, as well as copious annotations that explain allusions and terms for the modern reader. Praised for its unflinching look at the hypocrisy of romantic conquests, Stendhals The Red and the Black remains one of the 19th centurys most affecting and passionate novels, and a major influence on modern fiction. This new translation faithfully reproduces the nimble wit, emotional depth, and social acuity of Stendhal’s text. Shocking at the time of its original publication, startling in its relevance today, Stendhal’s masterpiece is a scorching social satire, a remarkably detailed portrait of a fraught moment in history and, as perhaps the first psychological novel, a brilliant precursor to modern literature at once comical and tragic, cerebral and passionate.

After securing a toehold as a tutor to a wealthy family, Julien proceeds through a series of misadventures, illicit affairs, and lucky reversals to breach the ranks of French aristocracy-only to be undone by treasonous schemes, cynical romantic calculations, and an unexpectedly genuine and ultimately disastrous passion. But for the son of a provincial carpenter in post-Napoleonic France, the prospects for advancement are vanishingly narrow, the chances for glory rarer yet. (Summary by sailormoon)įor further information, including links to online text, reader information, RSS feeds, CD cover or other formats (if available), please go to the LibriVox catalog page for this recording.įor more free audio books or to become a volunteer reader, visit with a combustible mix of ambition, naivete, and Napoleonic ideals, Julien Sorel sets his sights on the heights of French society. Stendhal presents the reader with a satirical plot that will involve you in passions, intrigues, last-minute reversals and, mostly, the hypocrisy by which society operates. On one point they are all agreed: the novel is a masterpiece that shows a young theology student - Julien Sorel - intelligent, handsome and who is determined to rise above his humble peasant origins.

Some say he's a Romantic, others that he's a Modernist and that Le Rouge et Le Noir is the first modern novel. Contemporary to some of the great names of French literature like Balzac and Flaubert, Stendhal is quite often considered a writer that doesn't seem to fit a defined genre.

Stendhal - a German pen-name for a French writer who hated the English. LibriVox recording of The Red and the Black, Volume I, by Stendhal.

The Red and the Black by Stendhal