Name: The Red and the Black
Author: Stendhal

How you explore The Red and the Black on Literah

The cast, the places, the objects, the plot, and the author’s own words — each one a card in a feed you scroll on your phone. One at a time, at your pace, in any order you like.

Built for your phone. Literah is designed for mobile, so your worlds travel with you. On a laptop it shows a QR code to carry the world to your phone.
A feed, not a wall of text. 30 characters, 18 places, 14 objects and 6 plot beats, each its own card with its own illustration.
The author’s own words. 38 passages of The Red and the Black sit in the feed verbatim, exactly as Stendhal wrote them, each with a short reading of what it is doing. The map is ours; the prose is always the book’s.
The same scroll, a better world. The gesture you already give away to feeds, spent on Stendhal instead.

9:41

The Cast

Julien Sorel

Main · Sorel family / clerical career / La Mole household

A carpenter’s son in black clothes, carrying Napoleon in secret and ambition in every gesture.

Locations

Verrières

town

A pretty mountain town where every kindness has a price and everyone is watching.

Passage

In Verrières, beauty matters only until someone asks what it earns.

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The Author’s Pen

Bringing In Profit

"I like the shade," answered M. de Rênal, with just a tinge of that hauteur which becomes a mayor when he is talking to a surgeon, who is a member of the Legion of Honour. "I like the shade, I have _my_ trees clipped in order to give shade, and I cannot conceive that a tree can have any other purpose, provided of course _it is not bringing in any profit_, like the useful walnut tree."

This is the great word which is all decisive at Verrières. "BRINGING IN PROFIT," this word alone sums up the habitual trend of thought of more than three-quarters of the inhabitants.

_Bringing in profit_ is the consideration which decides everything in this little town which you thought so pretty. The stranger who arrives in the town is fascinated by the beauty of the fresh deep valleys which surround it, and he imagines at first that the inhabitants have an appreciation of the beautiful.

Reading

M. de Rênal cannot even praise his own shade trees without insisting they earn their keep. He starts out sounding like a man who values beauty, admitting he clips his trees for the pleasure of shade, but he can't leave it there: he has to add the exception for the walnut, the tree that pays. This is the mayor of Verrières near the start of the novel, and the narrator uses him to expose the whole town. What looks to a visitor like an appreciation for the pretty valleys is really nothing of the kind. Beauty is tolerated in Verrières only when it costs nothing, and the moment a thing can make money, that settles the matter.

World Index

The Plot

Verrières and the RênalsLove and the Anonymous LetterThe SeminaryParis and the Hôtel de la MoleMathilde and the LadderThe Shot, the Trial, and the Guillotine

The Cast

Julien SorelMme. de RênalMathilde de la MoleMarquis de la MoleAbbé PirardM. de RênalValenodAbbé ChélanFouquéNorbert de la MoleAbbé de FrilairMme. DervilleM. SorelÉlisaCroisenoisAltamiraMme. de FervaquesMme. de La MoleStanislas de RênalAdolphe de RênalYoungest Rênal ChildAbbé CastanèdeM. AppertM. NoiroudJulien’s BrothersMadame ValenodM. DurandOld Surgeon-MajorBishop of AgdeBoniface de la Mole

Locations

BesançonBesançon Prison and CourtroomBesançon SeminaryCours de la FidélitéDoubs ValleyFouqué’s Mountain Wood TradeGrande-RueHôtel de la MoleHôtel de RetzParis SalonsRênal GardenRênal HouseSeminary Chapel and CellSorel SawmillVergyVerrièresVerrières ChurchVerrières Prison and Workhouse

Objects of Note

Ancestral SwordAnonymous LettersBlack Suit and CassockBulletins of the Grand ArmyLadderLatin New TestamentMarquis’s Correspondence and Noble PapersMathilde’s LettersMemorial of Saint HelenaMme. de Rênal’s Decisive LetterNapoleon PortraitPistolPrison CellRousseau’s Confessions

Core Concepts

A heroic imagination survives in a world that rewards hypocrisyAmbition becomes self-imprisonment when performance replaces the selfClass resentment turns every room into a stage of judgmentLetters convert feeling into evidence, strategy, and ruinLove fails as conquest but survives as recognitionPublic reputation crushes private truth until prison reverses the scaleReligion divides into conscience, career, and factional powerSurveillance governs society, but interior freedom appears in confinementWomen expose the limits of Julien’s self-invention

The Author's Pen

A Face of Ferocious HateI Do Not Want ServitudeA Soft Voice at the DoorYou Know LatinJulien Becomes MonsieurWaiting In the DarkHis Reputation BurnedThe Anonymous LetterBesançon and the CitadelThe Porter in BlackDoubled Care and SeverityChoosing Abbé PirardDifference Engenders HateJulien Alone in SilencePirard Rewards JulienPirard Against the Grand VicarThe Poor Young ManJulien At La MalmaisonA Strange ExperimentWriting Down the Salon NamesJulien's First RideMathilde Measures the Young MenShocked Yet Unable To ForgetThe Tale of La MoleThe Ladder to Her WindowThe Ladder TrapHiding His EmotionMathilde Will Be Madame SorelA Letter of AccusationJulien Fires At Madame De RênalAll Is OverShe Is Not DeadNo Remorse, Only ContemptI Have Always Loved YouJulien Before the JuryTwo Delicious MonthsTwo Women Mourn Julien

Plot point 01

Verrières and the Rênals

Julien Sorel is a carpenter's son who has memorized the whole of the New Testament in Latin - and he is going to use that talent to escape the sawmill, even if it kills him.

Objects of Note

Napoleon Portrait

The hero he worships is the one thing he can never be caught admiring.

The Cast

Mme. de Rênal

Main · Rênal household

A mayor’s wife whose quiet feeling becomes the novel’s deepest moral force.

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The Red and the Black

Stendhal

The cast, locations, objects of note, core concepts, and selected passages in the Author’s Pen - at your own pace.

One of 128 classics in the Literah library

The Red and the Black feed, as it appears in your mobile

The plot of The Red and the Black

The story beat by beat, as Literah maps it.

Verrières and the Rênals
Love and the Anonymous Letter
The Seminary
Paris and the Hôtel de la Mole
Mathilde and the Ladder
The Shot, the Trial, and the Guillotine

The author's pen in The Red and the Black

The passages themselves, Stendhal's own words, as Literah maps it.

Bringing In Profitch. 1
A Face of Ferocious Hatech. 4
I Do Not Want Servitudech. 5
A Soft Voice at the Doorch. 6
You Know Latinch. 6
Julien Becomes Monsieurch. 6
Waiting In the Darkch. 9
His Reputation Burnedch. 12
The Anonymous Letterch. 20
Besançon and the Citadelch. 24
The Porter in Blackch. 25
Doubled Care and Severitych. 25
Choosing Abbé Pirardch. 26
Difference Engenders Hatech. 27
Julien Alone in Silencech. 28
Pirard Rewards Juliench. 29
Pirard Against the Grand Vicarch. 30
The Poor Young Manch. 30
Julien At La Malmaisonch. 32
A Strange Experimentch. 34

The characters of The Red and the Black

Who is who, as Literah maps it.

Julien Sorelmajor
Mme. de Rênalmajor
Mathilde de la Molemajor
Marquis de la Molemajor
Abbé Pirardmajor
M. de Rênalsupporting
Valenodsupporting
Abbé Chélansupporting
Fouquésupporting
Norbert de la Molesupporting
Abbé de Frilairsupporting
Mme. Dervillesupporting
M. Sorelsupporting
Élisasupporting
Croisenoissupporting
Altamirasupporting

The locations in The Red and the Black

Where it happens, as Literah maps it.

Verrièrestown
Grande-Ruestreet
Doubs Valleyvalley
Sorel Sawmillsawmill
Rênal Househouse
Rênal Gardengarden
Cours de la Fidélitépublic promenade
Verrières Churchchurch
Vergycountry estate
Fouqué’s Mountain Wood Trademountain landscape
Besançoncity
Besançon Seminaryseminary
Seminary Chapel and Cellchapel and cell
Hôtel de la Molearistocratic townhouse

The core concepts in The Red and the Black

What the book keeps returning to, as Literah maps it.

Ambition becomes self-imprisonment when performance replaces the self
Class resentment turns every room into a stage of judgment
Love fails as conquest but survives as recognition
Religion divides into conscience, career, and factional power
A heroic imagination survives in a world that rewards hypocrisy
Public reputation crushes private truth until prison reverses the scale
Surveillance governs society, but interior freedom appears in confinement
Women expose the limits of Julien’s self-invention
Letters convert feeling into evidence, strategy, and ruin

The objects of note in The Red and the Black

The things that carry meaning, as Literah maps it.

Napoleon Portrait
Memorial of Saint Helena
Bulletins of the Grand Army
Rousseau’s Confessions
Latin New Testament
Black Suit and Cassock
Ladder
Anonymous Letters
Mme. de Rênal’s Decisive Letter
Mathilde’s Letters
Marquis’s Correspondence and Noble Papers
Ancestral Sword
Pistol
Prison Cell

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How you explore The Red and the Black on Literah

The plot of The Red and the Black

The author's pen in The Red and the Black

The characters of The Red and the Black

The locations in The Red and the Black

The core concepts in The Red and the Black

The objects of note in The Red and the Black

Explore The Red and the Black. And 127 more.

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