Includes bibliographical references (pages 543-544)

After Napoleon's defeat, the French aristocracy tried to reassert its power in a government known as the Restoration. Venal and corrupt, the Restoration fell in 1830. Later that year, Stendhal published his scathing satire of Restoration society, The Red and the Black . Its title refers to the military and the clergy, the two career paths open to young men of intelligence and ambition but no social standing. Stendha's hero, Julien Sorel, is such a young man. A seminary student, he is nevertheless an admirer of Napoleon, and dreams of military glory. When he is hired to tutor the mayor's children, he quickly seduces the mayor's wife, then moves on to Paris where he conquers a nobleman's daughter. Sorel comes to believe that the secret of success is to outperform the hypocrites and vicious opportunists who surround him and he's right. But when the rich and powerful he so admires align against him, his downfall becomes unavoidable