This year marks the 180th anniversary of the death of French writer Stendhal, a French writer who is very familiar to Chinese readers, and his masterpiece "The Red and the Black" has always been one of the most popular literary books. The story of the protagonist of the novel, Jullien, is like a mirror, reflecting the spiritual world of the characters and a true picture of French society during the Restoration Dynasty.
"1828, Paris.
The next morning, his friends came, and his mood suddenly came alive. A man was walking around the room and saw a blank ledger on the table with a title written on it: "Jullien." He asked curiously, what does this mean, oh, and Stendhal replied that he wanted to write a long novel. The friends were excited and encouraged the overly sad man to pick up his spirits. So he really began to write this work. The title was erased and replaced with a title that would later become an immortal work, The Red and the Black. In fact, from that day on, he had come to an end as Henry Bell, and another name began to appear and pass through the ages: Stendhal. ”
This is a description by the Austrian novelist and biographer Stefan Zweig in his biography Of the Three Writers. In 1831, Stendhal's novel was published, and the title of the novel was called "Jullien" at the beginning of the novel, and the subtitle was "Chronicle of the Nineteenth Century". In later editions, the title of the novel was changed to "The Red and the Black" and the subtitle was changed to "The Chronicles of the Ages of 1830".
Stendhal
Why was the novel "Jullien" changed to "The Red and the Black"
Jullien is the protagonist of the novel, and Jullien's love story runs through the book, but the author's intention is not to write a love novel, but to take Jullien's life as the main line, combining the characters with social reality and showing the historical style of an era.
The Red and the Black movie poster
In the twenty-second chapter of the second volume of the novel, Stendhal says through the mouth of an editor: "If the characters of your work do not talk about politics, they are not the French of 1830, and your book will no longer be a mirror as you would like..." The title of the later version of the novel Jullien was changed to "The Red and the Black", emphasizing the political and historical color of the work. The French translation of "Red and Black" is "red and black", Jullien is the son of a carpenter, who wants to get ahead, fantasizing about one day becoming a prominent general like Napoleon, and the French military uniform is red, which means "red". However, Yu Liansheng was not in time, the French society during the Restoration, the Napoleonic road of personal struggle was blocked by the aristocratic class, in order to enter the upper class, Yu Lian put on the black clothes of a priest and embarked on the road of becoming a priest, which is the meaning of "black". Is he wearing a red military uniform or a black priest's robe? Jullien chose to wear the priest's robe, but he could not forget his ambitions. In order to climb up, in order to retaliate against society, Yu Lian did whatever it took. At the end of the novel, When Miss de Lamarle tells Jullien that he was already a lieutenant in the Hussars, "He was very happy. From his lifelong ambitions and now the love for his son, we can fully imagine this. ”
Whether the circumstances of Yu Lian's murder were reasonable
Yu Lian, who became a lieutenant in the light cavalry, began to fantasize that he would become a general at the age of thirty like Napoleon. However, Madame de Reyner, induced by the Church, to write a letter to the Marquis de Lamer shattered Jullien's dream of climbing upwards. Embarrassed and enraged, Jullien rushed from Paris to Velière, went straight to the weapons store, bought two pistols, walked into Verrière's new church, stood behind Madame de Reina's stool, "He fired one shot, did not hit, the second shot, the other side fell." "Regarding the plot of Jullien's murder of Madame de Reyner, some readers find it unreasonable, because there are a large number of inner monologues in the book, expressed in lian's inner waves, expressed in lian's introspection, so it is easy for readers to ignore the other side of lian's words and deeds. Jullien was a personal strivers with a dual personality, and his thoughts and actions were full of contradictions. The author has shown his skills in the performance of Lian Introspection, creating a precedent for "psychological novels", in terms of explaining the behavior and actions of the characters, the information conveyed by the novel is not as intuitive as the movie, and the character characteristics of Yu Lian's decisive action are easily ignored by the reader. The Red and the Black Vol. 2, Chapter Seventeen, "An Ancient Sword", miss de Lamole and Yu Lian Chunxiao for a moment, regretted it the next day and began to alienate Yu Lian. In the library, the two suddenly meet:
"I hate myself for being too casual, for making a mistake for thousands of years." Mathilde shed tears of grief.
"Too casual!" Jullien shouted and rushed toward an ancient medieval sword in the library.
He was already in great pain when he spoke to Mademoiselle de Lamoille, and now seeing the other party shed tears of shame, it was nothing less than worse, and he wished to kill her with a sword, and to relieve the hatred in his heart.
Rushing towards the ancient sword—pulling the sword out of its scabbard with difficulty—inserting the sword into its sheath—and hanging the sword back on the brass nail, these actions showed Yu Lian's mental activity, doubt, surprise, disappointment, and rushed to the scene. Jullien's complex and changeable personality has a thoughtful side and a crazy impulsive side. The plot in which Mademoiselle de Lamoille almost died in the hands of Lian and the later shooting of Madame de Reina in Yulian are in line with Lian's grumpy character.
The spread and reception of The Red and the Black in China
In the 1950s, "The Red and the Black" was the object of criticism in China, and the critical article believed that although the novel "The Red and the Black" exposed and satirized the hypocrisy, meanness and viciousness of the feudal aristocracy and the church to a certain extent, Jullien hated the feudal aristocracy because he did not have such a status, and he longed for him to have such a status to satisfy the desire for power and money. The translator Zheng Klu was studying at Peking University at the time and also participated in the criticism of the novel "The Red and the Black". According to Zheng Klu recalled: "Around 1958, the criticism, after a few years, the film was released, which was somewhat inexplicable. How did it change so much? Later, after seeing some materials, I learned that some people had defended Yu Lian's behavior and thought that what was wrong with a peasant's son getting up? That's why the movie "The Red and the Black" was screened. ”
The film "The Red and the Black" mentioned by Zheng Klu was jointly produced by the French Film Company of London and the Italian Documentary Film Company in 1954. In 1957, the French-Italian co-production of "The Red and the Black" was translated and produced by the Shanghai Film Translation Factory. After the translation of "The Red and the Black" was completed, it was just in time for the domestic criticism of the novel "The Red and the Black", and the film was temporarily released. In 1959, the translated film "The Red and the Black" was released nationwide. The introduction and release of "The Red and the Black" is unknown to us. The author believes that the main reason for the introduction and release of the translated film "The Red and the Black" is that the film introduction policy at that time was relatively relaxed. For example, in a document issued by the Cultural Film Bureau in January 1961, it was proposed that "some basically harmless films based on classical masterpieces should also choose a certain number" when selecting topics.
The film "The Red and the Black" as a whole embodies the original anti-feudal and anti-church ideas, so it was introduced and released as a "basically harmless" film. After the release of the translated film "The Red and the Black", it had a great impact, and the famous French film star Chanla Philippe, who played Jullien in the film, used his excellent acting skills to show the extraordinary experience of the character and the great changes in his personality. At the end of the original novel, Jullien's speech in court tells the central idea of the whole book, the film "The Red and the Black" uses flashbacks, placing the passage that Lian said before his death in the opening part, which is also the most wonderful part of the film, Andra Philip's performance and Hu Qinghan's voice-over conquered the audience:
"I don't ask for forgiveness, my crimes were staggering and premeditated. I fired two shots at a distinguished woman, Madame de Reina, who had once treated me like a mother. Damn it, but that's not the reason you sentenced me, no! You and I know very well that my true sin seems to you to be that I am an inferior person who dares to speak of equality with you superiors. You are beheading me to warn the lucky, or unfortunate, well-educated, young man who dares to step into this high society, which the proud rich men call the upper class. We often talk to you and your relatives on the street, and I know your names all, and my father has worked for you. You can't forgive me for that. Look at these judges, none of them are workers, none of them are farmers, no! How can only the rich man, who is angry, not be angry? Oh, yes! The son of a worker goes so far as to speak equality with you. That's the end of my story. ”
In 2022, in honor of Stendhal, the outstanding French critical realist writer, Meng Jinghui's version of the avant-garde drama "Red and Black" will begin a tour.
Original title: A mirror of the 180th anniversary of the death of the French writer Stendhal
Text/Yang Qinghua
Source/Beijing Evening News