Stendhal wrote French novels and essays about ambition, love, class and the social pressures of post-Napoleonic Europe. The Red and the Black follows Julien Sorel, a clever young man from a modest background who tries to rise through the church and aristocratic society while becoming entangled in relationships that expose both his calculation and insecurity. The Charterhouse of Parma moves into the world of Italian courts, war and political intrigue through the impulsive Fabrice del Dongo. Stendhal's fiction is psychologically alert, ironic and often interested in how people perform roles in order to advance or protect themselves. His books fit nineteenth-century European literature, political fiction and psychologically driven classics. The Red and the Black is the most direct introduction to his treatment of social ambition, while The Charterhouse of Parma offers a broader and more adventurous historical canvas. Read more Less
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