The Red and the Black. Collector's Edition in Full Leather. The 100 Greatest Books Ever Written Series

The Red and the Black is a historical psychological novel in two volumes (both included in this printing), chronicling a provincial young man's attempts to socially rise beyond his plebeian upbringing with a combination of talent and hard work, deception and hypocrisy - yet who ultimately allows his passions to betray him. It has a two-fold literary purpose, a psychological portrait of the romantic protagonist, Julien Sorel, and an analytic, sociological satire of the French social order under the Bourbon Restoration (1814-30).