The Red and the Black (Audible Audio Edition) Stendhal Bill Homewood Naxos AudioBooks Books
Download As PDF : The Red and the Black (Audible Audio Edition) Stendhal Bill Homewood Naxos AudioBooks Books
Young Julien Sorel, the son of a country timber merchant, carries a portrait of his hero, Napoleon Bonaparte, and dreams of military glory. A brilliant career in the Church leads him into Parisian high society, where, "mounted upon the finest horse in Alsace", he gains high military office and wins the heart of the aristocratic Mlle Mathilde de la Mole. Julien's cunning and ambition lead him into all sorts of scrapes, but it is the struggle between his passion for two beautiful women - the quixotic Mathilde and the loyal Mme de Rênal - which ultimately decides his destiny.
The Red and the Black (Audible Audio Edition) Stendhal Bill Homewood Naxos AudioBooks Books
Stendhal concludes this tale with a dedication: TO THE HAPPY FEW. After we read about Julien Sorel, the protagonist, and the people he encounters, it is an apt way to finish the book because what is missing from the story is happiness. The few times it happens, it is always conditional on something else. Even when Julien experiences love, he is overwhelmed by feelings of triumph, not passion.Because this classic was written in 1830, today’s readers can be forgiven if some of the plot lines, psychological exposition, obvious use of foreshadowing and characters seem a bit familiar. It is easy to envision a young Theodore Dreiser, Erich Maria Remarque, Saul Bellow or Willa Cather holed up in a corner devouring every word as it sowed the seeds for their writing (I found so many parallels with An American Tragedy and Augie March). Stendhal’s story delves deeply into a particular society in a unique period of history. Julien indeed feels a bit lost; he would rather have been marching with his hero Napoleon in an earlier time. At times it seems tedious, which Stendhal comically acknowledges: “The total boredom of the life led by Julien, without real interests, will no doubt be shared by the reader. These are the flatlands of our journey.”
Yet the journey takes us to a conclusion that has a lasting effect. I doubt it can be forgotten by anyone once read. Like training for a long race, it makes all the toil that came before it more enjoyable and relevant. I can better understand why, in life, there are but a happy few.
Product details
|
Tags : Amazon.com: The Red and the Black (Audible Audio Edition): Stendhal, Bill Homewood, Naxos AudioBooks: Books, ,Stendhal, Bill Homewood, Naxos AudioBooks,The Red and the Black,Naxos AudioBooks,B004M9ZOBA
People also read other books :
- The Life of John Taylor Third President of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latterday Saints eBook Brigham Henry Roberts
- Possessed by a Demon Book 1 Awakening edition by Kat Firestone Literature Fiction eBooks
- AWSoeasy Web Services Unofficial User Guide eBook John Greene
- Searching for Bobby Fischer A Father Story of Love and Ambition edition by Fred Waitzkin Humor Entertainment eBooks
- Trading Barefoot eBook Ryan Herron Chris Ann Herron Rob Booker
The Red and the Black (Audible Audio Edition) Stendhal Bill Homewood Naxos AudioBooks Books Reviews
No question that Stendhal's two major novels deserve to be read by any common reader who loves great fiction. The problem is--which translation is best?
Some would say that Stendhal's French is fairly easy to read, and the best solution is to learn to read him in the original. My objection to this view is that though I can read French modestly well, I would still need a dictionary to read Stendhal and, even more important, the nuances of 19th century French are different from what I learned in school.
Moreover, all of Stendhal's translators have said that his "simple" style is really quite hard to reproduce in English.
Most famously, Moncrieff was the translator of Proust, a writer whose style is far from simple. Could this make it difficult for him to adjust to Stendhal?
Going purely by the way the translation reads in English, I would say that good as Moncrieff is, the old Penguin version by Margaret Shaw is the one that sounds "like Stendhal" to me, and I've read at least four translations. This may be nostalgia speaking, because I think I read Shaw's translation first.
Whichever translation you read, lisez Stendhal!!!!!!
This novel has everything political intrigue, the psychological detail of detective work, the ambiguity of love and romance; it's a comedy of manners, but also a saga of helplessness and tragedy, incisive social commentary. Published in 1830, The Red and The Black, is timeless its relevance to contemporary Westernized or Americanized, bureaucratic, and capitalist-developed nations is both a condemnation and a triumph.
The Red and the Black first caught my attention 25 years ago in January 1983; a stack of copies were set out on a table in the Tattered Cover Bookshop, Denver (then on 1st Avenue in the Cherry Creek area). At that time, the Penguin edition was a new translation to commemorate the 200th anniversary of the birth of the author, Henri-Marie Beyle, January 23, 1783. I don't know how or why I decided to buy a copy; maybe it had something to do with the brief review on the back cover, which was perhaps then as it is now "Handsome, ambitious Julien Sorel is determined to rise above his humble provincial origins." Maybe I saw something of Julien in myself, or maybe like Mathilde de la Mole, I was looking for a life outside the script dictated by parents and society, or trying to find a world beyond materialism and utilitarianism, something inspirational and possibly Romantic. It was with this novel that I first realized that a writer could communicate intimately across centuries; I fell in love with Stendhal. I wanted to know about his life. He wrote with integrity; he wrote what he knew to be true about life, and he did not let the marketplace dictate what he should write. Beyle was a human being first, then a writer.
In January 1983, as now in January 2008, reading The Red and the Black, I am astounded with the author's ability to move smoothly from the character's interior thoughts into action or landscape while encompassing his characters in their political/social matrix. Whether in a high-society drawing room or in the stillness of night, Stendhal gave his work movement, dynamism. There is something uncanny about the author's ability to draw characters like Madame de Renal and her husband, a small-town merchant, politician, religious hypocrite. It is the Renals of the world who have the power to destroy the Romantically inspired Juliens and Mathildes, and yet a market-driven nation doesn't seem to function without the Renals. An unusual but appropriate companion reading to Stendhal's work might be Tocqueville's Democracy in America; volume one published in 1835.
This novel had been on my "to-read" list for a long time and now I've read it i'm appalled that I didn't read it sooner. The biting criticism and satire of society and its hypocrisy is still relevant today.
The plot follows a young man who wants more from life than being a peasant. He educates himself and comes to the attention of the local church hierarchy. He furthers his education and gains a position in a middling household as a tutor to the children of a local somebody. The envy he feels and the derision and contempt he is treated with conspire to push his ambition further to ruinous heights. He commits adultery and causes scandal eventually ending in murder.
One feels sorry for him as a victim of society's class divisions and rules yet at the same time he brings his tragedy on himself. It is almost Shakespearean in its scale.
Highly recommended for all lovers of quality literature.
Stendhal concludes this tale with a dedication TO THE HAPPY FEW. After we read about Julien Sorel, the protagonist, and the people he encounters, it is an apt way to finish the book because what is missing from the story is happiness. The few times it happens, it is always conditional on something else. Even when Julien experiences love, he is overwhelmed by feelings of triumph, not passion.
Because this classic was written in 1830, today’s readers can be forgiven if some of the plot lines, psychological exposition, obvious use of foreshadowing and characters seem a bit familiar. It is easy to envision a young Theodore Dreiser, Erich Maria Remarque, Saul Bellow or Willa Cather holed up in a corner devouring every word as it sowed the seeds for their writing (I found so many parallels with An American Tragedy and Augie March). Stendhal’s story delves deeply into a particular society in a unique period of history. Julien indeed feels a bit lost; he would rather have been marching with his hero Napoleon in an earlier time. At times it seems tedious, which Stendhal comically acknowledges “The total boredom of the life led by Julien, without real interests, will no doubt be shared by the reader. These are the flatlands of our journey.”
Yet the journey takes us to a conclusion that has a lasting effect. I doubt it can be forgotten by anyone once read. Like training for a long race, it makes all the toil that came before it more enjoyable and relevant. I can better understand why, in life, there are but a happy few.
0 Response to "⋙ Read The Red and the Black (Audible Audio Edition) Stendhal Bill Homewood Naxos AudioBooks Books"
Post a Comment