The Red and the Black (The Franklin Library)

xi, [1], 496 pp. 8vo. Original crimson leatherette, gilt titles and decorations, four raised spine bands, all edges gilt, decorative endpapers. Illustrations by Jean Paul Quint, taken from the original French edition. "Le Rouge et le Noir (The Red and the Black), subtitle Chronique du XIXe siécle ('Chronicle of the 19th century'), is an historical psychological novel in two volumes by Stendhal, published in 1830. It is often cited as the first realist novel. The title has been translated into English variously as Scarlet and Black, Red and Black and The Red and the Black. It is set in the period from the end of September,1826 to the end of July,1831, and relates a young man's attempts to rise above his plebeian birth through a combination of talent, hard work, deception and hypocrisy, only to find himself betrayed by his own passions." -- Wikipedia ABOUT THE AUTHOR: "Marie-Henri Beyle (January 23, 1783 – March 23, 1842), better known by his pen name Stendhal, was a 19th-century French writer. Known for his acute analysis of his characters' psychology, he is considered one of the earliest and foremost practitioners of realism in his two novels Le Rouge et le Noir (The Red and the Black, 1830) and La Chartreuse de Parme (The Charterhouse of Parma, 1839)."