The Red and the Black: Book 2

Starting off the thread for The Red and the Black by Stendhal, book 2.

Well I'm almost done with Book 2. The "love affair" with Mademoiselle de la Mole is highly entertaining. I'm not sure it is supposed to be though. I imagine this book is a very different read for a teenager or young 20-something. I remember being that stupid, naive, and playing the love-power games just to see what/who I could control and yet be oblivious when it was being done in return. From my current vantage point (late 30s) it is so funny that I can't take them seriously. I guess some things about human nature just don't change with the times.

OK-- I take it back-- the last 75 pages are (so far) serious page-turning material. I just hope something ridiculous doesn't happen to spoil the ending.

Finished! Very strange last ~75 pages. It is almost as if someone wrote the ending. I won't post any spoilers yet, but would love to hear what others think of the ending.

I finished it this morning. Yawn. I can't believe someone could actually be that confused and that stupid. Sorry, but after that one, I'm just not in a very literary mood this morning.

>george-- I would agree with you except that TV and trash magazines are full of this brand of stupid people. They are out there, and they vote!

Techno, quite an astute obeservation. I am in a more literary mood today and have started Middlemarch which so far is fascinating.

See my full review at http://www.librarything.com/profile_reviews.php?view=technodiabla

I gave it 3 stars. I hope to start Madame Bovary in about 2-3 weeks.

Technodiabla, very good review. I think your points reflect the attitude of the author more than anything else. A little known observation about Stendhal's book is that he was never satisfied with it. He wrote it and re-wrote it several times, even after it went into publication. In his own mind, he never achieved the style that he was seeking. Just like the Bible, there are variations on the translation of Stendhal's text, however, these have resulted in no change in either theme, tone, plot or outcome of the story. I gave it 3 starts as well. The significance of this book may not be in the telling of the tale, but possibly that it ever achieved any literary acknowledgement at all. Perhaps, if Stendhal had tamper with his work more, it would have been relligated to the trash pile. Or, like Tolstoy who wrote War and Peace eight times, he may have ended up with a master piece.