Chapter summary
The town's great house, which Monsieur de Rênal must put up for auction against his will, after the vicar general de Frilair took the matter to the bishop, intrigues Julien Sorel, who visits it and watches the sale. He is taken for the mayor's spy when the house is rented for nine years, for three hundred and thirty francs, to Mr. de Saint-Giraud, reputed to belong to the Congregation. In the evening the Neapolitan singer signor Geronimo arrives, who turns the sad house into a party and tells how he tricked the stern Zingarelli to sing at the San Carlino theater. The maid Élisa confesses Julien's love affairs to the two curés, and Abbé Chélan orders him to leave within three days, for the seminary at Besançon or for Fouqué's house. Mr. de Rênal threatens to fight a duel with Valenod over a new anonymous letter, and his wife, to avoid the duel, has him offer six hundred francs to Julien for a year of seminary. Julien refuses the money and leaves, but returns on the third day for an evening of farewell, in which Madame de Rênal, icy, looks like a living corpse.
Analysis
Chélan orders Julien to leave within three days, for the seminary or for Fouqué's house, after Élisa tells everything to the two curés. It may be read as protection from someone who prefers to remove him before the town destroys him, or as the local Church passing on a problem it does not want to deal with. Julien refuses the money of Madame de Rênal so as not to make the memory of their love abominable, and when it comes to accepting Rênal's six hundred francs, he refuses them because the sacrifice seems too great.
The narrator opens the chapter, about the mayor and men like him, with an aphorism: Unhappy is he who stands out!
Subscription
The complete analysis of every chapter of The Red and the Black comes with a subscription, along with the explanation of each quote, the quiz, the PDF guide, and the study workbook.