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October 11, 2005
Stendhal's "The Black and the Red" (1830):
A tale of a low born young man,
Julien Sorrel, slowly rising in
status among the high born, by
dint of intelligence and luck ("dint"?) This book made
and determined schemes and JFK's short
overweening pride. list of favorite
novels...
He secretly worships the memoirs
of Napoleon, and laments the collapse BONDED_TIGHTLY
of an age when a young man might
advance through heroic action.
He resolves to compete in
the only worthy field of endeavor There are a few
left open to him: hypocrisy. references to
Moliere's "Tartuffe"...
He can recite the bible from which I tired of
memory in Latin, and believes not knowing about:
not a word of it.
TARTUFFE
Perhaps one day he might
even become a Bishop.
A royal restoration has
occurred in France, but they FRENCHREVS
still feel very uneasy.
Julien sneers at the upper class,
who fear a Jacobin under every bed. Truly, the modern world began
in France, in the early 1800s.
Ideology and the fear
of ideology, plot and
counterplot.
Dreams of utopia,
and terror of
The Terror.
The meaning of the title:
Julien's intended career in
the clergy requires that he
wear a suit of black.
And red is the color of the
military uniforms that he
would much rather be wearing.
There might be other
correlations: red is Red ink/black ink?
for passion, blood; And there's not
black is for death. But I'm not sure much in the text to
modern book-keeping support the other
practices were in use obvious thoughts...
as of yet.
TAKEN_LIGHTLY
Narrative voice:
ominiscient, ducking into
either character's head. Since this is
completely impossible
And the author's it's a cheat... But Stendhal does
voice comments seem quite a cheat:
in places, ALL_WRONG fabricated chapter
remarking on head quotations.
how his opinion of
a character
has changed in the
light of their The texture of
actions (or more the novel: the
usually: action is
reactions). primarily (though
not entirely)
An opinionated god. mental, with two
characters
continually The reader has
misunderstanding a sense of being
each other in an objective
ways that we observer, working
understand out a science
perfectly. of humanity.
Stendhal was
supposedly
a fan of
Goethe's
"Elective
Affinities"
(Which I
found
nearly
unreadable,
myself.)
The book is slow going
in it's early stages... Adultery should
be spelled with
It actually picks two "l"s.
up steam when the
main character is
isolated in a
seminary school...
And then really gets
rolling when he becomes
employed as a secretary
in Paris, living and
working in the home of an
upper class family.
SPOILERS
A perfectly insane romance
develops between him, and
his employer's daughter -- One thing they have in common:
a haughty, changeable
young woman. They're both bored by
the same people.
They love each other
when they think the
other does not.
Not a "knot" so much as
a violent oscillation. KNOTS
The plot veers into
romantic comedy --
feigning indifference
to win a woman --
and then melodrama --
attempting to kill
his former mistress
for sending a poisonous
Stendhal's grasp of human letter.
character seems very peculiar.
Take the provincial married woman
that Julien becomes involved with --
early on she's astoundingly naive. (She isn't allowed to
read novels -- and
Then when there's a hint of never sneaks one? --
possible discovery she she never gossips with
clicks over into the mode of other women?).
an accomplished schemer, a
conspirator. It is a complaint I often
have: when the intelligensia
tries to imagine the mental
processes of a commoner (or
in this case, a provincal)
Later on Julien has an initial they often over do it,
repulsion to the Marquis depicting an unbelievable
daughter, Mathilde, but this degree of stupidity.
seems completely unbelieveable.
Landing this pretty young woman
is an obvious course for his
social advance.
Wouldn't it be more in keeping with
his character to at least reproach
himself for not going after her? Why General themes:
isn't he riding high on the ego boost
of his earlier "conquest"? Continual attempts at
embracing moral
inversion that don't
quite go far enough.
Julien often sabotages
himself by trying to be too
clever. His deep reasoning
edges over into paranoia.
The desperation for
achievement with
out any standards of
evaluation.
Sophisticated
expectations:
the enemy of joy?
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