Lost Illusions
Honoré de Balzac · Realism · Novel
19th Century · Novel
The Red and the Black
by Stendhal. Julien Sorel attempts to rise through Restoration France using intelligence, seduction, and self-invention.
Find a print edition
Browse Bookshop.org's current catalog to choose an available edition.
Some purchase links are affiliate links. We may earn a commission at no additional cost to you.
- Date
- 1830
- Origin
- France
- Era
- 19th Century
- Genre
- Novel
- Canon tier
- Essential core
- Difficulty
- Moderate
- Length
- Long
- Collection
- The Western Canon
Subjects and themes
Why it matters
Julien Sorel attempts to rise through Restoration France using intelligence, seduction, and self-invention.
This work is included on the basis of bloom. Its cataloged influence level is 5 out of 5.
Related works
Vanity Fair
William Makepeace Thackeray · Victorian · Novel, satire
Reading paths featuring The Red and the Black
Continue through a deliberately ordered journey that places this work in conversation with others.
Essential 100
A century of works that gives the broadest useful first view of the Western canon. 100 books · Advanced.