Author Stendahl (nom de plume of Marie-Henri Beyle (23 January 1783 - 23 March 1842), participated from age 10 in the French Revolution, rose to become a high-ranking officer under Napoleon, and survived the Restoration as a French representative in Italy, the country in which he spent most of his adult life. He was a diplomat, adventurer, author, womanizer and bon-vivant.The story follows the fortunes of Julien Sorel who works his way up from rural poverty through the only avenue open to him, the Catholic Church (hence the title "The Red and the Black", the colors worn by French priests). Sorel, though a priest, is ambitious and sensual and founders on the rocks of both.This novel was based on a contemporary attempted murder case which furnished the plot for Stendhal's socio-political novel of the suffocating religious conservatism of French society under the Bourbon monarch Charles X. It is Stendhal's most popular novel and an engaging introduction to this author whose wit and psychological insight were generations ahead of his time.