An early example of the psychological novel, Stendhal's book is notable for how very little plot it has. Almost the entire story is simply the thought life of the main character, the conflicting desires, self-delusions, and ambitious projects of Julien Sorel, educated and intelligent, of the peasant class, seeking to do important things yet feeling constricted by society, continually undercutting plans with impulse.We start with Julien when he is seventeen and follow him through his
early twenties, and the turmoil of youth is captured fairly well here. Childish ignorance is on full display - Julien misinterprets almost everything that happens to him, he plunges blindly forward in all his affairs, he shows open disdain to the high-class people around him, and he worships Napoleon like he is LeBron James. Yet this ignorance mixes freely with the growing competencies of a young man becoming an adult. His intelligence and skill help him excel as a family tutor, as a priest in training, and as a personal secretary to a marquis. He wins the hearts of two women who are far out of his league, and he seemingly attains all he ever desires - until a vengeful action reverses it all.
Julien is certainly a difficult character to quantify. He is essentially amoral, yet he maintains a fairly rigorous and proud code of humanistic ethics. His overly analytical mind is not so cold and rational that he isn't susceptible to kind impulses and truly selfless actions. He isn't likable, but he isn't repulsive, either, and it is worth reading the book to try and understand him. Stendhal claims his book is a mirror, and I think he does a good enough job portraying his subject to justify that claim.
Arbitrary rating: 4 out of 5 hero-worshipping youths
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