Red and black

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Marie-Henri Beyle alias Stendhal

Red and Black (French original title: Le Rouge et le Noir ) is a novel by the French writer Stendhal . The hero of the novel is the intelligent Julien Sorel, born as the son of a sawmill owner in the provinces, who wants to force his social advancement during the time of the French Restoration . The novel was published in Paris in 1830 by the publisher Levasseur . Red and Black was Stendhal's second novel after Armance .

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first book

Stendhal, Le Rouge et le Noir , print title of the 1854 edition

The plot of the novel "Red and Black" takes place in France at the time of the Restoration , probably between 1826 and 1830. The main character of the novel, Julien Sorel, is the son of a sawmill owner in the fictional French provincial town of Verrières in the Jura of Franche-Comté . In contrast to his brothers, physically weak, slender, intelligent and good-looking Julien is not very interested in working in the company of his father, who despises and beats him. He is an ardent supporter of Napoléon Bonaparte , who had been deposed a few years earlier . He spends his time reading books about his heroic deeds and daydreaming about how he could have made a great career as an officer in this past epoch as the son of a sawmill owner from the provinces - which now, at the time of the post-Napoleonic Restoration, denies him is.

At the age of fourteen Julien made the decision to become a priest, as it seemed to him the most favorable way under the prevailing conditions to “make one's fortune” and to escape from his life in the provinces. Without developing a deep theological understanding or religious feelings for it, he begins to learn the Latin Bible by heart and is taught theology by the local priest Chélan. The knowledge he acquired in this way enabled him to get a position as tutor to the mayor of Verrières, Monsieur de Rênal. He cleverly exploits the competitive relationship between Monsieur de Rênal and the head of the Verrières beggar's sanctuary, Monsieur Valenod, to increase his market value as a tutor.

As a follower of Napoleon, whom he has to deny in the house of the Rênals, Julien despises Monsieur Valenod, who is loyal to the king and strives for wealth and status by all means. He begins an affair with Madame de Rênal, which he conquers with great ambition and calculation, initially more out of a sense of duty than out of desire. When this affair is made public by the domestic servant Elisa, who wants to marry Julien herself, Julien has to leave Verrières. Through the mediation of the priest Chélan, he went to the seminary of the city of Besançon.

There he learns that the main motivation of most seminarians - compared to their rural origins - is the priest's comfortable living standard. Piety is only being played here, and that by the other seminarians mostly better than by Julien. He is initially despised by his fellow seminarians and finds the seminar a repulsive place. Julien becomes protégé of the head of the seminary, Abbé Pirard. Although he had to leave the seminar due to internal church power struggles, Julien had previously cleverly placed Julien as secretary to the diplomat Marquis de la Mole in Paris, who had returned from exile.

second book

Julien quickly learns to perform the tasks assigned to him well and wins the trust and recognition of his employer. The aristocratic society around Marquis de la Mole, Peer of France , spends a large part of their time in the salons of Paris, to which Julien also has access due to his work for the Marquis. There the brilliant figure of Mathilde, the young daughter of the Marquis, is swarmed by some nobles. Mathilde, however, is bored with these admirers. At first, Julien is not interested in Mathilde. He stays away from her for fear of her pride being hurt. It is precisely this lack of interest that excites Mathilde's vanity. She imagines that Julien could be a new Danton , a revolutionary genius in contrast to the monotonous and, from her point of view, no longer inspired by the heroism of her ancestors, aristocratic admirers. She falls in love with him and writes him a love letter. Julien, however, initially believes in a trap of the nobles, which should serve to compromise him. However, he has to mask his desire, which grows into a passionate love, to Mathilde again and again in order to secure her interest as a dandy.

Mathilde plunges deeper and deeper into love for the non-aristocratic, penniless Julien, although this is completely against the social conventions that she herself values ​​so highly. When she becomes pregnant, she decides to confess the relationship to her father. He is appalled by the betrayal of Julien, whom he treasures. Nevertheless, after some struggle, he wants to give Julien a false identity as a noble officer and consent to the wedding so as not to endanger the reputation of his house.

When the Marquis de la Mole made inquiries about Julien's past life, however, he received a letter from Madame de Rênal in which she described Julien as a heartbreaker who had been after the money of rich women. Madame de Rênal has become deeply repentant because of her adultery with Julien and had the letter dictated by her confessor - a Jesuit who, for reasons of career, wants to please the Marquis de la Mole. When Julien found out about this letter, which shortly before it was realized, he had destroyed his old dream of a career as an officer and his social rise, he travels to Verrières and shoots Madame de Rênal there.

Madame de Rênal recovers from her injury and makes up with Julien in prison. He realizes there that she is the only one who has ever felt real love for him. Mathilde, who is very jealous of Madame de Rênal, is now despised by Julien. Both women who love him fervently leave no stone unturned in saving his life. Julien, however, would rather die than have to live with the shame of what he has done, and with an honest speech the jury is so honored that they condemn him to death. Afterwards, Mathilde can solemnly bury the severed head of her lover in the mountains around Verrières. Madame de Rênal had promised to take care of Julien's unborn child. But she dies three days after Julien in the arms of her children.

Main themes of the novel

According to René Girard, the basic question of the work is : "Why aren't people happy in the modern world?" "We are not happy, says Stendhal, because we are vain ."

Description and criticism of French society before 1830

Stendhal describes the social contrasts in France immediately before the July Revolution of 1830 ; B. that between the capital Paris and the province, between the bourgeoisie and the nobility , between the Jansenists and the Jesuits . Julien is driven by the ambition to move up in society. Stendhal criticizes the Society of Restoration by showing that Julien's rise in this society must fail. This is contrasted with the Napoleonic society before the Restoration period, in which “every soldier had the marshal's baton in his knapsack” (as Napoleon said), i. H. the opportunities for advancement were comparatively good. Stendhal also describes that the Restoration did not simply lead to an unchanged re-establishment of the old social structures before the French Revolution , but that the nobility lives in constant fear of a new revolution, which is symbolized, among other things, by Mathilde's veneration of Julien as the “second Danton” .

Hypocrisy (hypocrisy)

There is hardly any honest communication in red and black . There are - especially with the main character Julien - always differences between what is thought and what is expressed to others. Julien is an admirer of Napoleon, but hides this in the royalist society of the Restoration. All social relationships are political, even that between father and son ("as if in the provinces a rich father and his son who owns nothing would ever talk differently than pretend"). The main motive of all actors are posts, positions, money, power or rank, and behavior towards others is geared towards this motive. This is how Julien learns B. the New Testament of the Bible by heart, in Latin , without having an emotional access to its content, because he wants to make a career in the clergy . In the seminary , some peasant sons only play faith in order to enjoy better food. When Julien honestly describes the state of civil society at the end of the novel, this leads to the outrage of the jury and thus to the death sentence. Stendhal does not clearly criticize this hypocrisy in the novel; on the contrary, it is presented as necessary to find his personal happiness.

prehistory

Stendhal wrote the novel based on the model of the "Berthet Affair". Young Antoine Berthet had been sentenced to death after shooting his first lover.

writing style

Stendhal is a representative of realism . However, he does not simply reproduce the exterior in a naturalistic way , but as it is perceived by his characters with their respective psychological endowments.

reception

The disillusionment, the sobriety and coldness of the portrayal of his characters, the complete lack of idealism disturbed contemporary readers: “Stendhal succeeds in injuring the human heart,” wrote Honoré de Balzac .

Meaning of the title

There is no clear evidence for the reason for Stendhal's choice of red and black as the title of the novel. At the beginning of the novel, Julien looks for ways out of his situation as the unloved son of a sawmill owner in the provinces. The great career he dreamed of in the military, which was still possible under Napoleon, is now reserved for aristocrats. Social advancement seems to him only possible through the clergy . The most common interpretation of the title is therefore that red is the color of the military, black the color of the clergy.

Translations into German

The work has been translated into German several times, including by Arthur Schurig , Rudolf Lewy, Otto Flake and Walter Widmer . The latest translation was published in 2004 and is by Elisabeth Edl .

expenditure

  • Le Rouge et le Noir. Levavasseur, Paris 1830.

There are numerous editions of the novel in German-speaking countries, including:

  • With an afterword by Manfred Naumann . Translated from Otto Flake . Paul List, Leipzig 1965, epilogue pp. 703–720. Notes pp. 721-759.
  • Elisabeth Edl, Übers .: Red and Black. Chronicle from the 19th century . Hanser, Munich 2004, ISBN 3-446-20485-7 .

Theater adaptations

  • Julien - Rot und Schwarz by Lukas Bärfuss to Stendhal, premiere: Theater Basel January 16, 2020, director: Nora Schlocker , stage: Jessica Rockstroh, music: Simon James Phillips, duration: 3 hours 10 minutes, a break.

Film adaptations

radio play

2004 - Deutschlandradio Kultur and ORF: Red and Black. 195 min. Author: Helmut Peschina , Director: Marguerite Gateau

literature

Web links

Commons : Red and Black  - Collection of images, videos, and audio files
Wikisource: Le Rouge et le Noir  - Sources and full texts (French)

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Elisabeth Edl : Red and Black . dtv , Munich 2008, ISBN 978-3-423-13525-2 , p. 684.
  2. ↑ In Franche-Comté there are two places with the name Verrières, but none of them looks the same as the town described in the novel. The very picturesque Dole , which Beyle visited on several trips (1811, 1819 and 1823), may have served as a model . Elisabeth Edl, Notes on: Red and Black. dtv, Munich 2008, p. 765.
  3. ↑ a b Elisabeth Edl: Red and Black . dtv, Munich 2008, p. 681.
  4. ^ René Girard: Deceit, Desire and the Novel. The Johns Hopkins Press, 1965, p. 116. ("We are not happy, says Stendhal, because we are vaniteux .")
  5. ↑ a b c Elisabeth Edl: Red and Black. Munich 2008, p. 683.
  6. ^ Elisabeth Edl: Red and Black . dtv, Munich 2008, p. 679.
  7. ↑ Mirja Gabathuler: Through and through actor , review on nachtkritik.de of January 16, 2020, accessed January 19, 2020
  8. ↑ Christian Gampert: Stendhal in Basel: Bärfuss overwrites classics for the first time , review on deutschlandfunk.de from January 18, 2020, accessed January 19, 2020