Chapter summary
In Verrières, Julien Sorel regrets having been unjust to Madame de Rênal and, to show the town what a priest is, builds with his own hands a bookcase for the books of Abbé Chélan, whom the dismissal had removed from the presbytery. The subgovernor Maugiron makes him, on behalf of an official he does not name, the offer of eight hundred francs paid quarterly, and Valenod invites him to lunch. Julien weeps on hearing the director of the poorhouse say he had ordered the prisoner who was singing silenced, and shortly afterward he recites the New Testament in Latin before the guests and becomes the fashion. Monsieur de Rênal and Valenod begin to compete for the tutor, the first humiliated at having his name on the last line of the brotherhoods' collections, the second dependent on the vicar general Abbé de Frilair since he asked for Chélan's dismissal. Madame de Rênal comes to town and wakes Julien with her hands over his eyes, and the youngest, Stanislas, still ill, wants to sell the silver cutlery and give the money to Julien, so that Julien does not lose out by keeping them.
Analysis
Julien builds the bookcase with his own hands to give the town an image of what a priest is, after regretting having been unjust to Madame de Rênal. It may be read as gratitude toward the only one who helped him, the dismissed curé, or as a wish to show Verrières a priest that his protectors do not offer. The gesture of manual labor weighs more than the offers of Maugiron and Valenod.
At lunch at Valenod's house, director of the poorhouse: Julien, already very ill at ease, thought that on the other side of the dining room wall were poor prisoners whose portion of meat had perhaps been taken to buy all this tasteless luxury with which they wanted to stun him. Perhaps they are hungry right now, he said to himself; his heart tightened, he could not eat, and he could scarcely speak.
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