The Theme in the Work
The subtitle, a chronicle of 1830, warns that the subject is the France of the Restoration, and politics enters the novel from Verrières onward. Monsieur de Rênal fears the censure that the liberal press will publish (Book I, ch. 2), the curé Abbé Chélan says he is ready to be dismissed for having opened the prison to Mr. Appert (ch. 3) and ends up replaced by the vicar Maslon (ch. 14). Behind the town's disputes stands the Congregation, the clerical network that the narrator names in passing in chapter 5 and that ruins the printer Falcoz (ch. 21), makes Valenod a dependent of the vicar general Abbé de Frilair (ch. 22), and ends up with the town hall at the auction (ch. 23).
The seminary reproduces the dispute on a smaller scale: Father Castanède teaches that government has only legitimate power by delegation from the pope (ch. 27), and the war between Frilair and Abbé Pirard, who serves the Marquis de La Mole in a lawsuit over a plot of land, decides the fate of Julien Sorel in the examinations (ch. 29) and ends by taking him to Paris.
In Paris politics rises in scale. The La Mole salon bans it as a subject (Book II, ch. 4), Altamira describes a society in which the Congregation hands over to the police everything of value in spirit (ch. 9), and the marquis takes Julien to a secret meeting where a force of five hundred men per department is planned and the support of the clergy is discussed (chs. 21 to 23). In the middle of it, the narrator interrupts the story to argue with a fictitious editor over whether politics belongs in a novel (ch. 22). The trial closes the circle in Besançon: Frilair sees in the case a path to the bishopric (ch. 38), counts members of the Congregation among the jurors (ch. 40) and promises acquittal; it is Valenod, now baron and mayor, who reads the verdict of guilt (ch. 41).
Politics is not a backdrop; it is the mechanism that decides Julien's life at every step: the cassock is a political choice before it is a religious one, the job in Paris is born from a lawsuit between a vicar and a marquis, and the jury that condemns him was counted out by a network of favors. The editor of chapter 22 of Book II is right against the author, and the whole book proves it: without politics, Julien would be merely an ambitious young man, and not a Frenchman of 1830.
Where It Appears
- Book I, chapter 2: A mayor: Rênal complains about Mr. Appert's visit to the prison, the asylum and the hospital, because his criticisms are going to appear in the liberal press.
- Book I, chapter 3: A curé: The curé Chélan takes Appert to the three establishments and says he is ready to be dismissed, when Rênal and Valenod go to the rectory to express their discontent.
- Book I, chapter 5: A negotiation: The young vicar sent from Besançon, thought to be a spy for the Congregation, quarrels with the justice of the peace, who begins to hand down sentences against the readers of the Constitutionnel out of fear of displeasing him.
- Book I, chapter 14: The English scissors: Julien finds the curé Chélan dismissed and replaced by the vicar Maslon, and writes to Fouqué that such an example of injustice may make it more advantageous not to depend on any religious order.
- Book I, chapter 17: The deputy mayor: With the education he received from Madame de Rênal, Julien understands the intrigues to make the devout Moirod deputy mayor.
- Book I, chapter 18: A king in Verrières: The king's visit brings together an honor guard, a relic of Saint Clement and a Te Deum, and the marquis de La Mole hands out ten thousand bottles of wine to the peasants.
- Book I, chapter 21: Dialogue with a master: The Congregation decides to ruin the printer Falcoz, and Rênal, imagining killing his wife, counts on the Congregation itself and on his friends on the jury to save himself.
- Book I, chapter 22: Ways of acting in 1830: The dispute between Rênal and Valenod over the tutor passes through the vicar general Frilair, on whom Valenod has depended since he asked for Chélan's dismissal.
- Book I, chapter 23: A civil servant's woes: The town hall is rented at auction to Mr. de Saint-Giraud, thought to belong to the Congregation, and Julien is taken for the mayor's spy.
- Book I, chapter 27: First experience of life: Father Castanède teaches at the seminary that government has only legitimate power by delegation from the pope.
- Book I, chapter 29: The first promotion: An examiner appointed by the vicar general Frilair sets a trap for Julien, and Frilair, in a lawsuit with the marquis de La Mole over a plot of land, writes the number 198 in his own hand beside Julien's name.
- Book II, chapter 1: The pleasures of the country: In the diligence, the philosopher Saint-Giraud says he flees the province because the vicar persecutes him for refusing donations and the liberals for refusing to vote.
- Book II, chapter 4: The La Mole mansion: The La Mole salon has a rule against speaking of politics or of anything established.
- Book II, chapter 5: Sensibility and a devout great lady: Pirard takes Julien to Jansenist gatherings, where he meets Count Altamira, a liberal condemned to death in his own country and a devout man.
- Book II, chapter 7: A gout attack: The decoration Julien receives brings to Paris Baron de Valenod, named mayor of Verrières in place of Rênal, and Julien distributes jobs in Verrières through the marquis.
- Book II, chapter 9: The ball: Altamira tells how many liberal lives the Golden Fleece of an ambassador cost, and says that the Congregation hands over to the police everything of value in spirit.
- Book II, chapter 21: The secret note: The marquis gives Julien the task of noting down what twelve people say at a secret meeting and of taking a summary by heart to an important figure.
- Book II, chapter 22: The argument: At the meeting, the marquis proposes a force of five hundred men per department, and the narrator interrupts the account with a dialogue between author and editor about politics in the novel.
- Book II, chapter 23: The clergy, the woods, freedom: A cardinal maintains that no armed party can be formed in France without the clergy, and the young bishop of Agde proposes to sacrifice Paris.
- Book II, chapter 37: A tower: When Fouqué seeks him out, the vicar general Frilair refuses the money for the Masses and thinks of making Julien a martyr and of finding in the case a way to reconcile with the marquis de La Mole.
- Book II, chapter 38: A powerful man: Frilair tells Mathilde that he would count on friends among the thirty-six jurors drawn by lot and implies that he controls the prosecutor's office.
- Book II, chapter 40: Tranquility: On the eve of the drawing of lots, Frilair laments the Jacobin law that multiplied the jurors and, the next day, counts among them five members of the Congregation and Messrs. Valenod, Moirod and Cholin.
- Book II, chapter 41: The trial: Frilair guarantees acquittal, counting on six friends among the twelve jurors, but it is Valenod who reads the unanimous declaration of guilt.
Passages
The network that decides the disputes of Verrières appears as early as chapter 5:
they became famous in the region for the mortal hatred they aroused between the justice of the peace and the young vicar sent from Besançon, thought to be a spy for the Congregation.
In Paris, Altamira gives the diagnosis of the same network:
Here, everything that has any value in spirit, the Congregation hands over to the correctional police; and good society applauds.
The narrator stops the novel to discuss the politics within it:
"Politics," continues the author, "is a stone tied around the neck of literature, which in less than six months makes it sink. Politics, among the interests of the imagination, is a pistol shot in the middle of a concert. That noise is dissonant without being forceful. It does not harmonize with the sound of any instrument. This politics will mortally offend half the readers and bore the other half, who found it far more interesting and lively in the morning paper." "If your characters do not speak of politics," continues the editor, "they will no longer be Frenchmen of 1830, and your book will no longer be a mirror, as you wished…"
At the secret meeting, the cardinal explains why the clergy is indispensable:
Fifty thousand priests repeat the same words on the day set by the leaders, and the people, who after all supply the soldiers, will be moved more by the voice of their priests than by the little verses of the world
And the jury, counted before the hearing:
Among the twelve people charged with examining whether the crime of my protégé is incontestable and, above all, whether there was premeditation, I count on six friends devoted to my cause, and I have let them understand that it depends on them to carry me to the bishopric.