Le Rouge et le Noir is a realistic novel by the French novelist Stendhal, titled "Chronique de 1830" (Chronicle of 1830). The work tells that the protagonist Julian is the son of a small business owner, and with his ingenuity, he hooked up with the mayor's wife when he was a tutor in the local mayor's house, and after the matter was revealed, he fled the mayor's house and entered the seminary. On the recommendation of the dean of the seminary, he went to Paris to serve as a private secretary to the Marquis of Larmor, a stalwart of the extreme royalist party, and was soon appreciated and valued by the marquis. At the same time, Julian had an affair with the Marquis's daughter. Finally, under the planning of the church, the mayor's wife was forced to write a whistleblower letter to expose him, which destroyed his soaring glory. In anger, he shot and wounded the mayor's wife, was sentenced to death, and went to the guillotine.
After the novel was published, the society at that time spread the proverb that "if you don't read "The Red and the Black", you can't mix in the political circles", and the book was listed as a banned book by many countries. The Red and the Black digs far beyond the reach of contemporaries in terms of psychological depth. It pioneered the "stream of consciousness novel" and "psychological novel" in later generations. Later generations competed to emulate this "Stendhal style", so that the creation of novels "turned inward" and developed into a modern form that emphasized psychological portrayal and emotional expression. This is why Stendhal is called the "father of the modern novel". Published more than 100 years ago, "The Red and the Black" has been translated into many languages and widely circulated, and has been adapted into plays and movies many times.
Synopsis
The story of the novel The Red and the Black is said to be from a death penalty case published in the Court News on February 29, 1828. In the napoleonic era, red and black represented "army" and "church", two avenues for the development of ambitious French youth (one is red and black on the roulette wheel). The background of the story is Verrières, a village in eastern France, where there is a young man from the province named Julien Sorel, whose father is a carpenter, Julian is from a poor background, but handsome, has a pair of big eyes, is hardworking, has an amazing memory, and has learned carpentry, Latin, and theology. He admired Napoleon, believing that he was "the master of the world by a lowly and impoverished junior officer who, by the sword he wore," clinging to books and preparing to become a priest in the future, not because he was really interested in religion, but because he wanted to use religion to achieve his goal of climbing the upper class.
He threw himself into the hands of Father L'abbé Chélan and memorized the entire Latin Bible with astonishing memory, causing a sensation throughout the city. On the recommendation of Father Silan, Mr. M. Rayner, mayor and industrialist of the city of Velier De Rênal sought him out as a governess, Monsieur Reyna's house had the most beautiful garden in the city, Julian was uneasy about his duties and took the opportunity to hook up with the young lady of the principal, Mme de Rênal, the abbey-grown lady was disgusted with her husband, she focused on raising 3 children, she thought that men were "insensitive to everything except money, power, and the greed of medals", but after seeing Julian, she fell in love, both excited and guilty. At the same time, Madame's maid, Eliza, also fell in love with Julian, and she asked Father Syrang to convey her admiration for Julian, but was refused. As the Mayor's family moved to the countryside of Fanny township for the summer, Julian's affection for the Mayor's wife took it a step further and broke into her room in the middle of the night. The maid, Eliza, told Monsieur Valeno about madame, who wrote to Mr. Mayor, who knew about it but was helpless. Father Silon persuaded him to study at beaux-suprainty.
The Dean of the Seminary, Father Pilar M. Pirard) is a close friend of Father Syrang and takes special care of Julian as a tutor for the Old and New Testament courses. Later, before leaving his post, Father Pila introduced Julian to be a private secretary in the home of the Marquess de la Mole in Paris, when he knew the Marquis's daughter Mathilde de la Mole, who was proud and beautiful, eager to pursue romance, and she did not look at the ordinary aristocratic prince, but instead sparked love with an arrogant Julian. She instructed Julian to climb the ladder into her bedroom in the moonlight, and Julian met her with a puzzled face, and Mathilde made love to him, but Mathilde soon regretted it and left him. Julian listened to the advice of her friend and pursued her friend Madame Marshal, and when Julian returned to Paris, began to write one letter after another to Madame Marshal, who was greatly moved and replied to Julian. Finally, unable to take the blow, Mathilde fell to her knees at Julian's feet, begging him to love her. Mathilde found out that she was pregnant, so the two sides talked about marriage, and the Marquis of Mohr, although angry, was forced to give Julian a lot of property and aristocratic status, and he became a lieutenant of the hussars. Julian began to fantasize about becoming commander at the age of thirty. At this time, the mayor's wife, out of jealousy, wrote to the parents of the noble lady, exposing his ugly deeds and making Julian abandon his previous achievements. Enraged, Julian shot and injured the mayor's wife in the church, and Later Julian learned that the mayor's wife had been forced by the priest and regretted it. The court sentenced Julian to death for premeditated murder, but Julian refused to appeal, refused to pray his last words, and walked to the guillotine, where Mathilde got into a carriage and put Julian's head on his knees, went to the cemetery he had chosen, and buried him with his own hands. Three days later, the mayor's wife died of excessive missing of Julian.
Creative background
The story of the novel "The Red and the Black" is said to have been taken from a death penalty case published in the Court News on February 29, 1828. In the napoleonic era, red and black represented "army" and "church", two channels for the development of ambitious French youth (one is red and black on the roulette wheel).
When Stendhal wrote The Red and the Black, the French bourgeois revolution led by Napoleon had failed, and he wanted to use his pen to complete Napoleon's unfinished business. He wants to recreate Napoleon's greatness through "The Red and the Black" and lash out at the darkness of the Restoration Dynasty. To this end, the author uses "red and black" to symbolize the background of his work: "red" symbolizes the blood and revolution during the French Revolution; "black" refers to the monk's robe, symbolizing the feudal restoration dynasty where the church's power was rampant.
Appreciation of works
Theme of the work
The novel's depiction of even dual personalities, contradictory personalities and tragic fate objectively also exposes the cruel reality of the Restoration period of the French monarchy and the resulting corrosion and destruction of the young generation.
The subtitle of the novel is "The Year of 1830", which in fact allows the reader to deeply understand the "social atmosphere brought about by the successive governments that weighed on the French people in the early 30 years of the early 19th century" and the actual situation.
The Red and the Black is the founding work of 19th-century European critical realism. The novel revolves around the protagonist Jullien's personal struggle and ultimate failure, especially the description of his two loves, and extensively shows the "social atmosphere brought about by the successive governments that weighed on the French people in the early 30 years of the early 19th century", and strongly attacked the reaction of the nobles during the Restoration Dynasty, the darkness of the church and the despicable vulgarity and lust of the new bourgeois aristocracy. Therefore, although the novel takes Jullien's love life as the main line, it is not a love novel after all, but a "political novel".
The author uses its long-term observation of life during the Restoration Dynasty to integrate with the reality of the time and inject his understanding of social contradictions, making "The Red and the Black" an excellent work that reflects the social reality of the Restoration period. The "red" in the work represents the soldiers in red uniforms, and the "black" represents the priests in black clothes, which are the two shortcuts for young people in the society at that time to get ahead, and also represent the social characteristics of the society at that time. The work is a comprehensive critique of the evils of society, and at the same time, it successfully shapes the typical characters in the typical environment, especially the influence of the environment on the characters, which also makes the work a model.
Although "The Red and the Black" is written about the process of the protagonist Yu Lian's lifelong struggle and his romantic love story, it regards the social theme of great significance as an important factor in the horizontal and vertical longitude and latitude of the structural novel, and makes it the typical social environment and basis for the protagonist's activities, thus fully demonstrating its realistic artistic direction. The novel is a profound reflection of the social realities of the 1830s in France. The novel is written about Napoleon's ardent and unrestrained era, the growing development and prosperity of the new bourgeoisie, and the strong desire of hundreds of thousands of repressed petty-bourgeois youth in France for freedom and equality, for war. The novel also recreates the brutal reality of the Jesuits and monastics who monopolized power and rampant after the Bourbon Restoration, and how the royalists and reactionary churches were complicit in seeing the people as enemies. More importantly, the novel also reflects the turbulent political situation of the Bourbon dynasty before its collapse and the ambitions of the bourgeois Liberal Party to make a comeback.
The novel depicts the tragedy of Jullien's personal struggle, which was a social phenomenon that was highly common during the Bourbon Restoration. After the restoration of the Bourbon dynasty, many petty-bourgeois youth lost the opportunity of the Napoleonic era to be promoted to the rank of knight by personal talent. They went to the hierarchical Paris for personal struggle, but only a few succeeded. Most people fail. This is the actual experience of an entire generation of petty-bourgeois commoners after the restoration of the dynasty, and the tragedy of Jullien is precisely such a tragedy rich in the characteristics of the times.
Artistic features
"The Red and the Black" broke the rules and precepts of academic classicism, drawing on the Middle Ages and ancient Greece and Rome, and introduced the real life of contemporary society into the novel, setting a precedent for the realist novel of the 19th century.
Prose culture
In The Red and the Black, Stendhal experimented with a prose culture narrative style and structural form.
First of all, let's talk about the prose culture narrative style. The so-called prose culture narrative style, in Stendhal's view, is mainly the naturalness and simplicity of the narrative style, rather than the exaggeration and embellishment in the rhetorical sense. Judging from the artistic practice of "The Red and the Black", whether it is the description or narrative of the novel, or the dialogue of the characters, it basically reflects this style. There are no simple and elegant flower phrases in the novel, no epic magnificent verses, no waves of romantic imagination and emotional rendering, and the whole novel unfolds in a simple and simple style.
In order to pursue the prose culture of the novel style, Stendhal sometimes cuts off the plot in the process of vertical development of the novel plot, inserting the psychological description of the protagonist or the author's own comments. Due to the increase in horizontal descriptions, this kind of writing is bound to make the novel oriented to prose culture. In the novel, Jullien's mental activity follows the narrative of the plot, and there are psychological descriptions in each chapter, even on each page. As for the novel, when Yu Lian was finally imprisoned, the psychological description almost brought the plot to a complete standstill. Therefore, to a certain extent, the "concentration" of the plot is diluted, so that the novel moves towards prose culture. In addition, Stendhal himself sometimes comes out with an omniscient and omnipotent vision, and sometimes acts as a character in the novel to make critical comments about the events or characters in the novel. Some comments are certainly the finishing touch and have the effect of pointing out the topic, but some are completely out of the plot. For example, when writing about a conspiracy meeting presided over by the Marquis of Larmor, in which Jullien participated, it is superfluous for the author to add a discussion on the relationship between politics and literature.
structure
The structural form of the "Red and Black" novel is composed of three different lives and scenes: the small town of Villeger, the Besançon Seminary, and the Marquis de More in Paris, and the three life scenes are relatively closed and independent. What connects the three life scenes is not the inevitable direction of the protagonist Yu Lian's personality development, but the occasional events in Yu Lian's life, which belong to the natural links in lian's life process. As the son of a joiner, It was indeed fortuitous for Lian because Father Silon discovered his talent, taught him the Latin Bible, and then introduced him to mayor de Renal as a governess. Going to Beshanson Seminary to study was also recommended by Father Silang. Although this is in line with Jullien's determination to become a priest, the novel does not indicate that Jullien must enter the seminary, and that his entry into the seminary was mainly due to his ambiguous relationship with Madame de Reina. As for going to the House of the Marquis de La mole, it was entirely due to religious sectarian infighting. On the other hand, this is precisely contrary to his ambition to be a priest. The above shows that the structural form of "The Red and the Black" is not determined by the protagonist's personality, but by the accidental factors in the protagonist's life process. If these factors are mentioned, the artistic structure of "The Red and the Black" collapses, because the three life suites are not connected by the inevitable logic of character development.
Psychological depiction
The author describes the inner world of the characters without paying attention to external features such as portraits and costumes, and is good at using dissection methods to describe the inner secrets and complexities of the characters in specific circumstances, for example, in the work, it is written that "the bell awakens him, just as the rooster sings to wake up St. Peter, he understands that the time has come to perform the most difficult task, he has not thought about his rude request, and since he has put it forward, how embarrassing it has been rejected!" I had told her that I was going to her bedroom at two o'clock tonight, and as he stood up, he thought, I may be rough and inexperienced, and I am the son of a countryman, and Madame del Vere has made it clear enough to me, but at least I am not a weakling. ”
It can be seen from the above descriptions that the author's description of the character's psychology and the description of the character's actions are combined, so that from the surface and inside, the stillness is moving, the surface is consistent, the combination of movement and stillness is paved, paving the way for the development of the plot of the novel, and the author portrays the characters with superb psychological description skills, so that the character image is very distinct, complete and plump, with vividness and authenticity.
Works of influence
"The Red and the Black" The founding work of French critical realist literature, the first masterpiece of critical realism in the history of European literature in the 19th century, and also a must-read book listed by american writer Hemingway, and an ideal book recommended by the French magazine "Reading" in 1986.
"The Red and the Black" is the masterpiece of the French realist writer Stendhal, and since its introduction in 1830, it has won the hearts of generations of readers around the world, especially among young people. The "young careerist" Yu Lian portrayed in the work is a highly typical character image, which has become synonymous with the careerist of personal struggle.
The Influence of The Red and the Black is far-reaching in the history of literature, with the French study of Stendhal and the Red and the Black, the "StendhalIanology" and "Red Studies", as well as the "Stendhal Club" dedicated to the study of the book.