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A review by teresatumminello
The Red and the Black by Stendhal
4.0
Oh, nineteenth century!
Not counting the subtitle—'A Chronicle of the 19th Century' (which I didn’t know of until just now: it’s not on the cover or the title page of either copy of the book I have on hand)—I count eight mentions of the phrase ‘nineteenth century’ by the omniscient narrator, of which two are apostrophes, including the quote above, which is from one of the later chapters. Revolution and the turmoil of change in the world has led to this lamentation, in much the same way our generation has lamented and continues to lament the condition of the twentieth- and twenty-first centuries: e.g., its treatment of women; the suppression of the spirited by the powerful; the state of marriage; the hypocrisy and lack of empathy at all levels. Once again, there is nothing new in the world.
The prose is engaging and moves quickly (though the typos and formatting mistakes of my almost-free Kindle copy, frustratingly, did get in my way quite a bit). I especially enjoyed the sarcasm of the authorial interludes and the ingenious tying-together of threads and characters as the work reached its end.
The book was nothing like I’d expected. I had a vague notion it would be a dry, perhaps violent, political read. It's neither dry nor violent, except for the main character’s violent emotions; and it is intentionally, and entertainingly, farcical at times (i.e., the bedroom scenes). It is political, but its focus is on the personal (including the psychology of those personalities) within that dynamic.
Overall, it’s an uneven read; ultimately, it's a fascinating one.
Not counting the subtitle—'A Chronicle of the 19th Century' (which I didn’t know of until just now: it’s not on the cover or the title page of either copy of the book I have on hand)—I count eight mentions of the phrase ‘nineteenth century’ by the omniscient narrator, of which two are apostrophes, including the quote above, which is from one of the later chapters. Revolution and the turmoil of change in the world has led to this lamentation, in much the same way our generation has lamented and continues to lament the condition of the twentieth- and twenty-first centuries: e.g., its treatment of women; the suppression of the spirited by the powerful; the state of marriage; the hypocrisy and lack of empathy at all levels. Once again, there is nothing new in the world.
The prose is engaging and moves quickly (though the typos and formatting mistakes of my almost-free Kindle copy, frustratingly, did get in my way quite a bit). I especially enjoyed the sarcasm of the authorial interludes and the ingenious tying-together of threads and characters as the work reached its end.
The book was nothing like I’d expected. I had a vague notion it would be a dry, perhaps violent, political read. It's neither dry nor violent, except for the main character’s violent emotions; and it is intentionally, and entertainingly, farcical at times (i.e., the bedroom scenes). It is political, but its focus is on the personal (including the psychology of those personalities) within that dynamic.
Overall, it’s an uneven read; ultimately, it's a fascinating one.