AMBITION AND THE BARRENNESS OF FATE IN STENDHAL’S THE RED AND THE BLACK

Outlining the gist of Stendhal’s The Red And The Black very briefly, Kathleen Kete notes: “The son of a carpenter-a peasant operating a sawmill on the outskirts of Verrières-Julien Sorel hates his brutal, male, and mean family. The intelligent and delicate boy-he has a pale feminine face, marked by luminous eyes, topped by thick dark hair-is patronized by the elderly, loving Father Chélan, who teaches him Latin. On the sly, he reads Rousseau and Napoléon (in the Mémorial de Sainte-Hélène) and dreams of escaping from Verrières.