Summary of the realistic novel, a milestone in the history of French and world literature, The Red and the Black is the story of Julien Sorel, a young dreamer from the province, who, full of admiration for Napoleon's ideals, sets out to escape the bonds of his humble origins and conquer fame and wealth in the declining French society of the Restoration of the Bourbons. Intelligent and ambitious, idealistic and a great hypocrite, a revolutionary by nature and a ruthless opportunist, he will build his triumphant career by exploiting to the fullest the code of social hypocrisy, so that from the humble provincial Verrières he will find himself in the salons of Paris, winning the heart of the beautiful and noble Madame de Rénal, wife of his first employer, and later of the aristocratic and arrogant Mathilde. However, as meteoric as his rise is, his fall will be equally abrupt and harsh.

The wind of History that blows in the work, the swift flow of the narrative, the psychological depth in the iconic characters, who are shaped like flesh and bone, their connection to their social environment, the vivid depiction of an entire world in all its aspects, make The Red and the Black an unparalleled reading experience and a means of initiation into the great art of the novel.