The Red and the Black Annotated

If there's one thing that powerful people don't like, it's being told that they're hypocrites.Maybe that's why there was such a backlash against Stendhal's The Red and the Black when it was first published in France in 1830. Since the French Revolution in 1789, it hadn't always been clear who was in charge of the country, and this made any criticism extra uncomfortable. This book's critique of the hollowness and cynicism of the upper classes was so sharp that copies of The Red and the Black were still getting burned 130 years later in Brazil. Now that's staying power.Stendhal's book follows the adventures of Julien Sorel, a young French peasant who dreams of becoming a Great-with-a-capital-G man. Had he been born only a few decades earlier, there would have been many chances for him to rise in the world by enlisting in the army of Napoleon Bonaparte. But those days have ended in France, and now people are pretty much born into whatever social status they'll have for the rest of their lives. Being a good protagonist, Julien doesn't accept this reality and does everything he can to make his fame.While he's busy pursuing his fortune, Julien has a couple of high-profile sexytimes relationships with upper-class women. Both relationships are totally scandalous. They eventually land Julien on death row after he tries to murder his first lover for interfering with his second lover. Once he gets center stage in the courtroom, he seizes the opportunity to tell all the upper class people of France exactly what he thinks of them. Spoiler alert: not much.The Red and the Black is basically a story about a proud young man who tries to climb the social ladder while despising all the phony people he meets along the way. In the end, he decides to go with his true beliefs and tell everyone the truth, even though it basically gets him killed. But he'd rather tell the truth and die than become a phony and live a wealthy life.If this sounds bleak, it's because, well, it is bleak. But it's also true to life, and Stendhal--who many credit with helping start the movement of Realism and psychologically-truthful fiction--would, like Julien, rather die a thousand deaths than sugarcoat the truth. Hats off to you, Stendhal.