The Red and the Black - Background and Resoruces

[Silver]

Please post any additional material relating and background information on the author that you think will be interesting, and useful to our reading of the "The and the Black.

Please post spoiler warnings where appropriate.

[MadgeUK]

André Gide said that Le Rouge et le Noir was a novel ahead of its time, that it was a novel for readers in the 20th century. In Stendhal’s time, prose novels included dialogue and omniscient narrator descriptions but his great contribution to literary technique was describing the psychologies (feelings, thoughts, inner monologues) of the characters and he is therefore considered the creator of the psychological novel. Its sub title is A Chronicle of the Nineteenth Century. The Red in the novel represents the Army, to which the protaganist aspires, and the Black represents the church, to which he gravitates. Stendhal compared the French Revolution to a roulette wheel, which is also red and black.

Here is various background information about Stendhal and the book:

http://www.newworldencyclopedia.org/e...

http://us.penguingroup.com/static/rgu...

Stendhal was a man of the Napoleonic era who admired Napoleon greatly and served on his army staff all over Europe. Here is a resume of his army life and adventures:-

http://www.napoleon-series.org/ins/sc...

Here is some information and pics about the region of the French Comte, where the fictional village of Verrieres is supposed to have been located. The Franche Comte was one of the last places in France to have serfdom. Half the population were serfs in 1784. It borders Switzerland and shares its culture. It is well known for its Burgundy wine and the ceremony surrounding Beaujolais. There is a Comte Cheese which has been produced there for centuries - shades of Don Quixote!

Here are some beautiful images of the area the Jura Mountains where Beaujolais is produced and where we can perhaps imagine our characters living:-

http://www.europaphotogenica.com/Beau...

The Jura Mountains are where we get the name Jurassic from as fossils of this period were first studied there.

http://www.lost-in-france.com/french-...

http://www.ucmp.berkeley.edu/mesozoic...

There are some slideshows here of the area on the Swiss side of the mountains, showing the architecture and topography of the villages there:-

http://www.fusions.ch/towns-fxtown08....

So with a glass of 1830 Burgundy in hand we can commence! Bonne Sante!

[Lily]

For an encomium to Red and Black by the translator Horace B. Samuel, go to the Amazon.com location below and use the "Look Inside" feature to read the Introduction: (Do be warned -- some may consider the text to include spoilers. I do not, but I am known to be spoiler averse.)

http://www.amazon.com/The-Red-Black-e...

[MadgeUK]

Thankyou Lily. That is a useful Amazon feature which I also use although this Kindle edition isn't available here.

[Lily]

http://www.fusions.ch/towns-fxtown08....

These slideshows that Madge brings to our attention are lovely. Lots of virtual sightseeing is possible here!

[MadgeUK]

Mood settings:)

[Lily]

Discovered yesterday a book, Chekhov, Stendhal, and other Essays by the Russian Ilya Ehrenburg that promises interesting background in two essays: "Some Characteristics of French Culture" and "Lessons of Stendhal."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ilya_Ehr...

I have read the first chapter of RB now in a couple of translations and will say that there are definite differences in pleasure, although it bounced a bit from one to the other. Have one more to try; then may offer an opinion among those three.

[Silver]

Politics play a key role within The Red and the Black, and particularly the term "Liberals" is mentioned frequently, and I wondered what a liberal was in context of 19th Century French Politics so I found this site which explain a bit about the political terms and groups of that time and what they meant:

http://www.thuto.org/ubh/ub/h202/fr19...

[MadgeUK]

Thanks Silver, that is a useful link. It is also known as Classical Liberalism and was linked to The Enlightenment:-

'Early liberals also laid the groundwork for the separation of church and state, which became part of both the American and French Constitutions. As heirs of the Enlightenment, liberals believed that any given social and political order emanated from human interactions, not from divine will. Many liberals were openly hostile to religious belief itself, but most concentrated their opposition to the union of religious and political authority, arguing that faith could prosper on its own, without official sponsorship or administration by the state.' We see some of these ideas being aired in R&B.'

Here is another neat little summary:-

http://www.ehow.com/info_8691929_succ...

[Lily]

Silver wrote: "Politics play a key role within The Red and the Black, and particularly the term "Liberals" is mentioned frequently, and I wondered what a liberal was in context of 19th Century French Politics so ..."

Thank you, Silver! That fits so well with the history CDs on European history that I am listening to right now!

[Lily]

Lily wrote: "Discovered yesterday a book, Chekhov, Stendhal, and other Essays by the Russian Ilya Ehrenburg that promises interesting background in two essays: "Some Characteristics of French Culture" and "Les..."

The more I read in this book by Ehrenburg, the more I recommend it as background reading for our RB! I just ordered a used copy (21 cents plus postage) because I want to share the section on France and French culture with my son and his wife, as a compliment to their recent visit to France. I figured it wasn't going to be any more expensive than the time and cost required to copy the pages from the library book that I wanted to share. It positions a number of French writers in relation to each other and other authors, especially Russian ones.

Madge, I think you would find particularly interesting the comments on the considerable impact he claims George Sands has had on other authors, even as he descries the literary quality of her work.

[MadgeUK]

Thanks Lily - have just ordered a s/h copy. I think I mentioned elsewhere that Stendhal though George Sand was 'verbose and unsubtle'. He thought his own style would better withstand the test of time and that it was more 'modern', 'that a good performer on the violin does not make uneccessary flourishes with the bow.'

[Lily]

Hope you won't be disappointed, Madge! This morning, in true Stendhal/Julian fashion, my mood shifted. I wanted Ehrenburg to go a level deeper in what he was saying on some topics.

But, I am still not sorry to be acquiring the book. I especially have enjoyed so far the survey on French culture. I am reminded of a story about a young Chinese woman applying for US citizenship and being told that she will have to learn US history. When she asked how many years and was told about 250, she responded "That sounds like about a weekend of study." She was accustomed to the eons of Chinese history!

One direction Ehrenburg took me was to these translations of a famous piece of 16th century poetry (Ronsard):

http://www.bewilderingstories.com/iss...

[MadgeUK]

I know the Yeats version but did not know its antecedents - thanks.

[MadgeUK]

I read the Ehrenburg essay on Stendhal yesterday Lily and much enjoyed it. One thing which struck me was that Stendhal lived a very full life whilst on Napoleon's staff and then wrote novels about it, which he edited and embroidered at will:) Ehrenburg sums up his life before he embarked upon R&B thus:

'Behind him lay many storms, passions, disillusionments: an adolescence lit by the fires of the Revolution, the triumph of barbarians [the Bourbons], long years in Italy, theatre footlights, meetings with Byron, Rossini, Pellico, carbonari and the many women he had loved.'

We learn something of his brushes with the carbonari of several countries in the chapters about Julien and The Secret Note, which have an element of the James Bond about them!

Sadly, his last years were unhappy ones, which he served as a Consul in a remote Papal town. He was watched by the police and began to write in code, using many aliases (he had 40 of them!). A beloved mistress refused to marry him so he lived alone and one day, whilst walking in the street, he collapsed and died. A lonely end for such a sociable man:(.

(BTW he also introduced the word 'egotism' into the French language, meaning a love of talking about oneself.)

[Lily]

Yes, that essay by Ehrenburg on Stendhal does have some fun tidbits in it. A lot of them seem as if they relate pretty directly to what he wrote in RB. Thx for pulling some of them for others on this board, Madge.

I thought the distinction between "egotism" and "egoism" was interesting, although I can't reconstruct it without recourse to the book, which is somewhere out of reach at the moment.

[Lily]

Since I finished RB and don't really have many comments along the way, I have rather dropped out of the conversation until we get to the final group. But, with the interest generated in French history, yesterday when I was in the local library, I noted the book Robespierre: A Revolutionary Life by Peter McPhee on the new books display. Having spent a few hours with it now, I can say it seems to be a pleasant way of encountering French history, although some of the detail is more than interests me at this point. (Robespierre, a fastidious dresser when he had the resources, was only five foot three inches in height. Only 36 at his death, about the five years from 31-36 represent his revolutionary involvements.)

[MadgeUK]

Pleasant - Robespierre??!! :O :)

[Lily]

MadgeUK wrote: "Pleasant - Robespierre??!! :O :)"

Yes, I understand your comment. I'm still in his twenties. His sister was very pretty, according to the pictures included. He was more passionate than Julien -- and, of course, became far more powerful. But, I do see parallels and wonder if they are all accidental.

[MadgeUK]

Oh no - read on! Julien is nothing like Robespierre. Remember that Julien is partly modelled on Stendhal himself and R, although he started out well, was closely associated with The Terror. Julien is more of a Danton.