Chapter summary
Dressed in civilian clothes, Julien Sorel arrives at Besançon and, before shutting himself up in the seminary, walks the ramparts and the fortress, dreaming of the lieutenant's uniform. At the great café on the boulevard, the counter girl, Amanda Binet, welcomes him, arranges a breakfast with him for the next day, and teaches him to call himself a cousin of her mother's, of Genlis. Julien recites Julie, or the New Heloise, by heart for her, but nearly fights a duel with one of her lovers, whom Amanda introduces as her brother-in-law. He leaves his civilian clothes at the Ambassadors' inn, run by a hostess, and goes to the seminary.
Analysis
Before shutting himself up in the seminary, Julien postpones the enclosure: he walks the ramparts, dreams of the uniform, recites Julie, or the New Heloise to Amanda, and nearly fights a duel for her. Postponing is the last gesture of the civilian man, and the pride that leads him to the near-duel shows that he still acts for the honor of an officer, not for the meekness of the priest he is about to become.
The first image of Besançon already brings the military costume, the red of the title, against the habit that awaits him: How different it would be for me, he said with a sigh, if I came to this noble city to be a lieutenant in one of the regiments charged with defending it!
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