Le Rouge et le Noir (The Red and the Black)
Stendhal · 1830
The first great novel of romantic obsession and social ambition. Julien Sorel's love affairs with two women are the engine of his attempt to transcend his class, and Stendhal shows us how desire and calculation become indistinguishable. The final section, when Julien finally understands what he has chosen and lost, is shattering.
The case against
Julien Sorel is a calculating prig for six hundred pages, which is the point and also the price. Stendhal interrupts constantly to wink at you, Book Two stalls in salon politics and a conspiracy subplot nobody remembers fondly, and the climactic shooting arrives so abruptly it reads like the author lost patience with his own hero. You may beat him to it.
Romance · the Pro canon
The case for it and the rest of the canon open with Pro.
if this one calls to you, so will these →
