Clavis Libri
Plans Sign in

The Red and the Black · Book I · Chapter 5

A negotiation

AmbitionAppearance and RealitySocial ClassPolitics

Chapter summary

The father questions Julien Sorel about what he knows of Madame de Rênal, concludes that there is some dealing between them, and communicates the offer. Julien refuses to be a servant and asks with whom he will eat, which disconcerts the old man. After two hours of negotiation, in which the peasant haggles until he reaches four hundred francs a year, paid in advance on the first day of each month, Rênal takes back the hundred francs he had given for the black suit and decides to go himself with the boy to Mr. Durand's shop. Julien, who had put the books and the decoration in safekeeping at his friend Fouqué's house, passes by the church of Verrières on the way to Rênal's house and, on leaving it, overcomes his terror and goes on there. In the course of this walk, the narrator goes back to explain the boy's formation and how he came to the plan of becoming a priest.

Analysis

Julien does not accept being a servant and asks with whom he will eat because what he disputes, more than the salary, is the place at the table: the name of the position decides whether he is treated as an equal. The father thinks only of money and haggles up to four hundred francs; the son thinks of not being placed in the position of one who serves.

Chapter V goes back to explain Julien's formation: the old chief surgeon of the Legion of Honor, a veteran of the Napoleonic campaigns in Italy, was his only teacher of affection, and he left him the books. The three in which Julien believes are Rousseau's Confessions, the bulletins of the Grand Army, and the Memorial of Saint Helena (his "Koran," that is, his scripture): The collection of bulletins of the Grand Army and the Memorial of Saint Helena completed his Koran. He would let himself be killed for these three works. He had never believed in any other.

Unlock with a subscription

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.

See the plansAlready subscribed? Sign in