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The Red and the Black · Book I · Chapter 29

The first promotion

AmbitionPolitics

Chapter summary

With a letter from Chas-Bernard in favor of Julien Sorel in hand, Abbé Pirard, about to leave the seminary after fifteen years, appoints him tutor for the New and the Old Testament and warns him that envy will pursue him. Julien begins to dine alone, wins the respect of his fellow students when Fouqué sends a stag and a boar in the name of his parents, and shines in the examinations. But an examiner appointed by Abbé de Frilair sets a trap for him with Horace, and the vicar general writes with his own hand the number 198 beside his name. A bill of exchange for five hundred francs arrives, which Julien thinks is from Madame de Rênal and which actually comes from the Marquis de La Mole, who is in a lawsuit against Frilair over a plot of land and whom Pirard serves. When the marquis summons him to Paris, Pirard writes his own resignation and has Julien take it to the bishop. Julien wins over the prelate by reciting Horace and leaves with a Tacitus as a gift. Pirard leaves the seminary after a severe address to the students and is appointed to a rich parish four leagues from Paris.

Analysis

Frilair marks Julien with the number 198 to strike at Pirard through his protégé, in a conflict that runs in parallel to the Marquis de La Mole's lawsuit over the land. Pirard, who is about to leave, appoints Julien tutor and warns him about envy: he gives him the only protection he can leave behind. The marquis, for his part, sends the bill of exchange and, at the end of the chapter, summons Pirard to Paris.

Pirard, for all his severity, treats Julien without calculation: he accepted him because of Abbé Chélan, warned him against secret societies, and now tells him bluntly what lies ahead. He is the strictest of them all and the first to tell Julien the truth about what awaits him: his companions will never look at you without hating you; if they pretend to love you, it will be only to betray you more easily.

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