The Red and The Black by Stendhal (Annotated) : Hardcover Book

Le Rouge et le Noir (French meaning The Red and the Black) is a historical psychological novel in two volumes by Stendhal, published in 1830.It chronicles the attempts of a provincial young man to rise socially beyond his modest upbringing through a combination of talent, hard work, deception, and hypocrisy. He ultimately allows his passions to betray him.

The novel's full title, Le Rouge et le Noir: Chronique du XIXe siecle (The Red and the Black: A Chronicle of the 19th Century), indicates its twofold literary purpose as both a psychological portrait of the romantic protagonist, Julien Sorel, and an analytic, sociological satire of the French social order under the Bourbon Restoration (1814-30). In English, Le Rouge et le Noir is variously translated as Red and Black, Scarlet and Black, and The Red and the Black, without the subtitle.

Here is the complete text of the novel with the followings annotations:

* Historical context:

The Red & The Black in 2 volumes : A Chronicle of the 19th Century chronicles Julien Sorel's adaptation to the new social order in France after the collapse of the French Revolution as well as the rise of Napoleon Bonaparte.

*Literary analysis:

The Red and also the Black (Stendhal): is among the most crucial pieces of French literature, and maybe of European society on the whole. The guide portrays post reformation France in a lively, daring and intelligent fashion; the intention of its is exposing the hypocrisy of society.

Biographical Information: 

Novels:

Armance (1827)

Le Rouge et le Noir (The Red and the Black, 1830)

Lucien Leuwen (1835, unfinished, published 1894)

The Pink and the Green (1837, unfinished)

La Chartreuse de Parme (1839) (The Charterhouse of Parma)

Lamiel (1839-1842, unfinished, published 1889)

Melancholy portrait of Stendhal by Ducis, 1835, in Milan.

Novellas

Mina de Vanghel (1830, later published in the Paris periodical La Revue des Deux Mondes)

Vanina Vanini (1829)

Italian Chroniques, 1837-1839

Vittoria Accoramboni

The Cenci (Les Cenci, 1837)

The Duchess of Palliano (La Duchesse de Palliano)

The Abbess of Castro (L'Abbesse de Castro, 1832)

Non-fiction

Rome, Naples et Florence (1817)

De L'Amour (1822) (On Love [fr])

Racine et Shakespeare (1823-1835) (Racine and Shakespeare)

Voyage dans le midi de la France (1838; though first published posthumously in 1930) (Travels in the South of France)