The Red and the Black, Stendhal, 1830
Introduction The Red and the Black , a French novel written by Stendhal and published in 1830, is a social and psychological novel, investigating the socioeconomic structure of France and the psychology of its main characters separately and in interaction. I’ve wanted to read this book for many years. To some extent, the reason I studied French language in school was because my father suggested it in order to read French literature, including Stendhal. He said that he regretted being unable to read in French - I think he may have preferred The Charterhouse of Parma . For some of the time reading this book, I went back and forth between the English translation and the original French. While I noticed that the writing in both French and English are a bit old and formal, the English seemed far more so. I’m not sure if this is due to my greater familiarity with English or due to the quality of the French prose. Either way, the French writing was more clearly beautiful than the English...