Scarlet and Black

"Well, firstly, the title of the book is a reference to the tradition in French high-born families, where the first son goes into the military—the red—and the second son going into the priesthood—the black. I think this is one of the most wicked books on social climbing ever written. It’s been translated into English several times. It’s the story of a young man of humble birth from the provinces, Julien Sorel. His father is a carpenter. But he decides he’s much too sensitive to do that. Instead, he trains for the priesthood and becomes a seminarian. That gets him a job as a tutor to two people who are above his social rank in society. His ambition is to advance in society, and he does this by seducing the first wife of the local high dignitary in the small town where he was born. Then he moves on, goes to Paris, seduces a member of the aristocracy, a countess. What I find so engaging is Julian’s mix of innocence and burning ambition to make his way. You don’t really blame him for doing what he does. As I say, it’s a wonderfully wicked tale. I mean, I should say, it all falls apart in the end because of the jealousies of the women Julian seduces. In the end he gets his comeuppance. Still, one can’t help sympathising with him as a character."

"It’s a great picaresque, anti-hero tale. Stendhal himself is such a fascinating figure. To start with, he’s one of France’s very greatest writers, a simply marvellous writer. But he was a very complicated man. He had something like 100 pen names, at different stages. He crossed the Alps with Napoleon as a young soldier, went on the 1812 March to Moscow, and managed not to die on either occasion. I remember asking my grandfather what it was like to be in the trenches in the First World War , where life expectancy for a young soldier was about two to three weeks. My grandfather replied it was completely ghastly… but he wouldn’t have missed it for anything. In a funny way, I think that’s Stendhal’s view of Napoleon, he’s pretty ambiguous about it all, but at the same time, completely fascinated. It’s a great description of a society in flux."