Dover Giant Thrift Editions A landmark in the development of the modern novel and a classic of French literature, The Red and the Black chronicles a young man"s struggles with the dualities of his nature. Julien Sorel, a young dreamer from the provinces whose imagination is afire with Napoleonic ideals, sets off to make his fortune. His encounters and experiences along the way incite constant inner conflict, drawing him back and forth between sincerity and hypocrisy, idealism and cynicism, humility and pride, love and ambition. This 1830 masterpiece went unappreciated during the author"s lifetime; the Romantic era in which Stendhal lived had no use for irony or antiheroes. The novel"s unprecedented psychological depth and realism had to wait until the twentieth century for recognition. Modern readers delight in its evocative portraits of Restoration France"s social life and political machinations. From Parisian drawing rooms to village chapels, its settings encompass vivid characters at every level of...