Character guide

Julien Sorel

major

Also known as Julien, M. Julien, Monsieur Julien, little Sorel, M. de la Vernaye, M. de Sorel

Julien enters the world of Verrières as tutor to the mayor's children, carrying the Memorial of St. Helena in his pocket and a ferocious hatred of the rich in his chest. His brilliance is real, but so is his hypocrisy: he recites Latin he has memorized in secret and dreams of a glory the Restoration will never grant a peasant. Every tenderness he feels is immediately audited for weakness, which makes his first love affair as much a campaign as a seduction.

Madame de Rênal

major

Also known as Madame, Madame De Rênal, De Rênal, Madame Rênal

Sheltered, devout, and quietly bored, Madame de Rênal first pities Julien as a mistreated boy and then finds her whole inner life reorganized around him. When he pushes her away on a walk to spite her husband, she weeps — and for the first time feels a desire for vengeance against the man she married. Her sincerity is the exact quality Julien cannot afford to trust, and it is what makes her dangerous to everyone, including herself.

Mathilde de la Mole

major

Also known as Mademoiselle Mathilde, Mathilde, Mademoiselle, the sublime Mathilde, the haughty Mathilde

Mathilde is brilliant, restless, and raised on the exploits of her ancestors, so she measures her own life against a standard no ordinary affair can meet. Her passion for Julien is genuine but theatrical — she dreams of kneeling before the king's carriage, of sacrifices that will astonish the public. Julien, exhausted by heroism, finds himself unmoved by devotion that requires an audience, and the mismatch between what each wants is the engine of their catastrophe.

M. de Rênal

supporting

Also known as M. Rênal, Rênal, Monsieur de Rênal

Vain, petty, and preoccupied with his standing among the local notables, M. de Rênal hires Julien mainly to outshine a rival. He is not cruel so much as oblivious, and his obliviousness is precisely what allows the affair between his wife and his tutor to take root. When he does notice something — a look, a leaning arm — his instinct is to manage it like a property dispute, which makes him both comic and quietly menacing.

Fouqué

supporting

Fouqué loves Julien without understanding him, offering a partnership in the timber trade as an escape from the humiliations of servitude. He is the novel's one uncomplicatedly decent figure, and his bafflement at Mathilde's extravagance — the gold she flings away, the schemes that shift weekly — registers what Julien has become. His loyalty persists even when it costs him, making him the quiet moral counterweight to every ambition in the book.

Abbé Pirard

supporting

Also known as M. Pirard, Pirard, the severe abbé Pirard, the stern abbé Pirard

Pirard runs the Besançon seminary as a bastion against what he calls Jesuitism and idolatry, and his sincerity has made him ten years of enemies. When the examiner's trick drops Julien to number 198, the abbé is ill for eight days — his protégé's disgrace is his own. Rigid, humorless, and genuinely good, he is the one mentor who asks nothing of Julien but integrity, and the one whose disappointment Julien cannot shrug off.

Marquis de la Mole

supporting

Also known as M. de la Mole, M. le Marquis de la Mole, the Marquis de la Mole, M. le Marquis

A Parisian grandee who hires the carpenter's son as his secretary, then watches his daughter's dangerous fascination with the upstart with cold, calculating eyes.

M. Valenod

supporting

Also known as Valenod, M. de Valenod, M. le Valenod, the Valenod

The rich director of the Verrières poorhouse, a loud, florid provincial climber who buys Norman horses and silences paupers while scheming to outshine the mayor.

Curé Chélan

supporting

Also known as M. Chélan, M. the curé Chélan, the curé Chélan, Chélan

The aging parish priest of Verrières who sees something rare in the carpenter's bookish son and quietly steers him toward the Rênal household.

Old Sorel

supporting

Also known as SOREL, old Sorel, Sorel, father Sorel, Father Sorel

Julien's father, a shrewd sawmill carpenter who beats his bookish son, then sells him into the Rênal household for three hundred francs a year.

Abbé de Frilair

supporting

Also known as de Frilair, M. de Frilair, Frilair, M. the abbé de Frilair

The vicar-general of Besançon, a suave ecclesiastical operator who trades favors, collects secrets, and treats souls as pieces on a chessboard.

Comte Norbert

supporting

Also known as the young count Norbert, count Norbert, Count Norbert, Norbert, The comte Norbert

The marquis's polished young heir, who befriends Julien in Paris yet counts the cost of every orange tree at the ball.

Madame Derville

supporting

Also known as the acute Madame Derville, madame Derville, Madame

A provincial relation whose visits to Verrières give her a front-row seat to her cousin's dangerous happiness, she reads faces and silences better than anyone in the household. Where Madame de Rênal drowns in guilt and longing, Madame Derville watches with the cold clarity of a woman who has already guessed the truth. Her presence turns private passion into something observed, and her warnings shadow the affair from its first stolen kiss.

Elisa

supporting

Also known as Mademoiselle Elisa, Mademoiselle, mademoiselle Elisa

A servant with a modest inheritance and a practical eye for marriage, she approaches the curé to press her suit with Julien and is flatly refused. Her tearful confession to Madame de Rênal, meant as a plea for help, instead delivers her mistress a flood of relief and the startling revelation of her own love. Elisa's wounded pride and later drift toward Valenod make her a quiet instrument of the novel's social and romantic machinery.

Madame de la Mole

supporting

Also known as de la Mole, madame de la Mole, Madame de La Mole

Presiding over one of the great houses of the Faubourg Saint-Germain, she embodies the decorum and dullness of legitimist Paris, forever invoking the heroic days of the League. Julien reads Brantôme and D'Aubigné partly to hold his own in her conversation, treating her as a barometer of the world he must conquer. Her conventionality sharpens the contrast with her brilliant, restless daughter, and her salon is the stage on which Julien's Parisian ambition is tested.

Madame de Fervaques

supporting

Also known as madame de Fervaques, de Fervaques, madame la Fervaques

The daughter of a Strasbourg manufacturer who married a maréchal and now spends her life making the world forget it, she poses as virtue incarnate while secretly craving the flattery of a well-written love letter. Julien, coached by Korasoff, courts her coldly and by correspondence, using her as bait to rekindle Mathilde's jealousy. Her mixture of pride, piety, and hidden appetite turns her into both a comic set-piece and a weapon in the novel's central duel of vanity.

Prince Korasoff

supporting

Also known as Korasoff, Prince Korasoff, prince Korasoff

Charming, generous, and utterly without scruple, he befriends Julien abroad and offers him a rich Moscow cousin in marriage along with a crash course in seduction. His advice, complete with copied-out love letters and rules about passion in person versus passion on paper, gives Julien a cold technique for winning Mathilde back. He matters because he converts Julien's raw pride into strategy, and because his amused detachment exposes how transactional Parisian love can be.

Comte Altamira

supporting

Also known as Altamira, Comte Altamira, poor Altamira, comte Altamira, Count Altamira

A liberal exile moving through the salons of the Faubourg Saint-Germain, he carries the romance of a man who has looked at a scaffold and kept his composure. His quiet friendship with Julien, and his willingness to discuss Danton and danger without flinching, feeds Mathilde's fascination with heroic destinies. He matters as a mirror of the novel's political undercurrents and as the rare aristocrat whose courage Julien does not have to fake.

M. de Croisenois

supporting

Also known as de Croisenois, Croisenois, the Croisenois, M. Croisenois, poor Croisenois

Croisenois belongs to the gilded circle of Caylus, de Luz, and de la Mole heirs whose manners are flawless and whose souls Mathilde suspects of being empty. He is her sanctioned suitor, which makes him both a rival to Julien and a mirror held up to an aristocracy that has traded hazard for epigrams. His very perfection sharpens Mathilde's contempt for a class that duels by rulebook and dies by etiquette, and it raises the stakes of her dangerous attraction to a peasant's son.

M. de Beauvoisis

minor

Also known as M. Charles de Beauvoisis, de Beauvoisis, The chevalier de Beauvoisis, M. de Beauvoisis

A young nobleman who fights a duel with Julien over a misunderstanding.

M. de Moirod

minor

Also known as de Moirod, Moirod

A local notable in Verrières, involved in the political intrigues.

Amanda Binet

minor

Also known as The beautiful Amanda, Amanda, Mademoiselle Amanda, Madame Amanda, Mdlle . Amanda

A beautiful café owner in Besançon, whom Julien briefly admires.

Signor Geronimo

minor

Also known as Geronimo, signor Geronimo

An Italian singer who performs at the Hôtel de la Mole.

M. de Caylus

minor

Also known as de Caylus, Caylus, the Caylus, The Comte de Caylus, MM . de Caylus

A young nobleman in Mathilde's social circle.

M. de Luz

minor

Also known as de Luz, the de Luz

A young nobleman, one of Mathilde's suitors.

Tanbeau

minor

Also known as Little Tanbeau, the abominable little Tanbeau, the little Tanbeau, Young Tanbeau, M. Tanbeau

A young seminarist and secretary at the Hôtel de la Mole, jealous of Julien.

M. Maslon

minor

Also known as the abbé Maslon, Maslon

A priest in Verrières, allied with Valenod against Chélan.

M. Appert

minor

Also known as the M. Appert

A philanthropist who visits the poorhouse in Verrières, causing a stir.

M. de Maugiron

minor

Also known as M. Charcot de Maugiron, M. de Maugiron, de Maugiron, M. Charcot, Maugiron

A nobleman involved in the secret note conspiracy.

Falcoz

minor

Also known as the Bonapartist Falcoz

A Bonapartist friend of Julien's, mentioned in his circle.

Stanislas-Xavier

minor

Also known as Stanislas - Xavier, Stanislas, Little Stanislas, the little Stanislas

The young son of M. and Madame de Rênal.

Duke de Retz

minor

Also known as Duke de Retz, de Retz

A historical figure mentioned in the context of the aristocracy.

M. de Rouvray

minor

Also known as de Rouvray

A nobleman mentioned in the social circle.

Monsieur Castanède

minor

Also known as Monsieur Castanède, Castanède, the abbé Castanède

A priest at the seminary.

Chazel

minor

Also known as Chazel

A minor character in the seminary.

Marquise de la Mole

minor

The mother of the Marquis, mentioned in the family history.

Duke de Retz

minor

Also known as Duke de Retz, de Retz

Historical figure, mentioned in the context of the aristocracy.

Boniface de la Mole

minor

Also known as La Mole, Boniface de La Mole

Historical ancestor of Mathilde, whose execution she romanticizes.

M. Descoulis

minor

Also known as Descoulis

A minor character in the aristocratic circles of Paris.

M. de Cholin

minor

Also known as de Cholin

A candidate in a local election, supported by the clergy.

M. de Fervaques

minor

Also known as de Fervaques

The late husband of Madame de Fervaques, mentioned in passing.

Baron de la Joumate

minor

Also known as the Baron de la Joumate

A nobleman mentioned in the context of Parisian society.

Abbé Chas-Bernard

minor

Also known as Bernard, The abbé Chas, Chas - Bernard, the abbé Chas - Bernard

A priest who helps Julien in the seminary.

M. de Saint Giraud

minor

Also known as M. de St. Giraud, Monsieur de Saint Giraud, Saint Giraud, Saint - Giraud

A nobleman who visits the Hôtel de la Mole.

M. de la Vernaye

minor

Also known as M. de la Vernaye

The noble identity Julien assumes in Paris.

M. de Maistre

minor

Also known as de Maistre, My M. de Maistre

A conservative writer quoted by Julien.

Duke de Chaulnes

minor

Also known as de Chaulnes, the Duke de Chaulnes

A duke mentioned in the aristocratic circles.

M. de Lavalette

minor

Also known as de Lavalette, madame de Lavalette

A nobleman mentioned in passing.

M. Daru

minor

Also known as Daru

A government official mentioned in the secret note affair.

Comte de Thaler

minor

Also known as de Thaler

A wealthy, vulgar man mentioned in Parisian society.

M. le Comte

minor

Also known as M. le Comte

A generic count mentioned in the narrative.

Baron Bâton

minor

Also known as M. the Baron Bâton, Baron Bâton, the Baron Bâton, The Baron

A baron mentioned in the aristocratic context.

Comte Chalvet

minor

Also known as the comte Chalvet, comte Chalvet, Comte Chalvet

A count mentioned in the secret note discussion.

Duke of Fitz-Folke

minor

Also known as the Duke of Fitz - Folke, Fitz - Folke

An English duke who hosts a dinner for Korasoff and Julien.

Annibal de Coconasso

minor

Also known as Annibal de Coconasso, the said Coconasso, Annibal, this Coconasso

A historical Italian adventurer mentioned by Julien.

Signor Giovannone

minor

Also known as Signor Giovannone, Giovannone

An Italian acquaintance of Julien's in Paris.

Signor Zingarelli

minor

Also known as Signor Zingarelli, Zingarelli, the terrible Zingarelli

An Italian composer mentioned in the opera context.

Madame de Dubois

minor

Also known as Madame de Dubois, madame de Dubois, Dubois

A woman mentioned in the social circles of Paris.

Adolphe

minor

Also known as Adolphe, M. de Adolphe

A young man mentioned in the context of society.

M. Balland

minor

Also known as the honest M. Balland, poor Balland, M. Balland

A minor official in Verrières.

M. de Nerval

minor

Also known as M. de Nerval

A minister mentioned in the political intrigue.

M. Gros

minor

Also known as Gros, M. Gros, monsieur Gros, Poor monsieur Gros

A bookseller in Besançon who helps Julien.

Madame Michelet

minor

Also known as madam Michelet, madame Michelet, Madame Michelet

A woman mentioned in the social context.

Mademoiselle de Sainte-Hérédité

minor

Also known as mademoiselle de Sainte - Hérédité

A young woman mentioned in the aristocratic circle.

Mademoiselle Formant

minor

Also known as Mademoiselle Formant

A young woman mentioned in the social context.

Countess Dunbowska

minor

Also known as Métilde Countess Dunbowska, Countess Dunbowska

A woman mentioned as a prototype for Madame de Rênal.

Madame Valenod

minor

Also known as Madame Valenod, Valenod

Wife of M. Valenod, who takes Elisa into her service.

Old Captain de Rênal

minor

Also known as Old Captain de Rênal

An ancestor of M. de Rênal, mentioned in the family history.

Arsène

minor

A servant in the Hôtel de la Mole.

Old servant of the Marquis

minor

An elderly servant who has served the family for years.

Doctor du Gaillard

minor

A doctor who attends to the Marquis de la Mole.

Abbé de la Mole

minor

A relative of the Marquis, a priest.

Chevalier de Beauvoisis

minor

Also known as M. the Chevalier de Beauvoisis, monsieur le Chevalier, Chevalier de Beauvoisis

The father of M. de Beauvoisis, mentioned in the duel affair.

Duke de la Mole

minor

An ancestor of the family, mentioned in the narrative.

Queen Marguerite

minor

Historical queen, mentioned in the context of Boniface de la Mole.

Henri III

minor

Also known as Henri III

Historical king, mentioned in the context of Boniface de la Mole.

Charles IX

minor

Also known as Charles IX

Historical king, mentioned in the context of Boniface de la Mole.

Catherine de Medici

minor

Also known as Queen Catherine of Medici, Catherine de ’ Medici

Historical queen, mentioned in the context of Boniface de la Mole.