# The Red and the Black — Character guide

> Key figures in The Red and the Black by Stendhal.

- [Julien Sorel](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_red_and_the_black_br/characters/julien_sorel.md): 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: h
- [Madame de Rênal](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_red_and_the_black_br/characters/madame_de_renal.md): 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 
- [Mathilde de la Mole](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_red_and_the_black_br/characters/mathilde_de_la_mole.md): 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 
- [M. de Rênal](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_red_and_the_black_br/characters/m_de_renal.md): 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 affai
- [Fouqué](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_red_and_the_black_br/characters/fouque.md): 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 Mathil
- [Abbé Pirard](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_red_and_the_black_br/characters/abbe_pirard.md): 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 
- [Marquis de la Mole](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_red_and_the_black_br/characters/marquis_de_la_mole.md): 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](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_red_and_the_black_br/characters/m_valenod.md): 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](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_red_and_the_black_br/characters/cure_chelan.md): 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](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_red_and_the_black_br/characters/old_sorel.md): 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](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_red_and_the_black_br/characters/abbe_de_frilair.md): The vicar-general of Besançon, a suave ecclesiastical operator who trades favors, collects secrets, and treats souls as pieces on a chessboard.
- [Comte Norbert](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_red_and_the_black_br/characters/comte_norbert.md): The marquis's polished young heir, who befriends Julien in Paris yet counts the cost of every orange tree at the ball.
- [Madame Derville](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_red_and_the_black_br/characters/madame_derville.md): 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 l
- [Elisa](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_red_and_the_black_br/characters/elisa.md): 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, inst
- [Madame de la Mole](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_red_and_the_black_br/characters/madame_de_la_mole.md): 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 
- [Madame de Fervaques](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_red_and_the_black_br/characters/madame_de_fervaques.md): 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
- [Prince Korasoff](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_red_and_the_black_br/characters/prince_korasoff.md): 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 ru
- [Comte Altamira](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_red_and_the_black_br/characters/comte_altamira.md): 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 discu
- [M. de Croisenois](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_red_and_the_black_br/characters/m_de_croisenois.md): 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 Ju
- [M. de Beauvoisis](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_red_and_the_black_br/characters/m_de_beauvoisis.md): A young nobleman who fights a duel with Julien over a misunderstanding.
- [M. de Moirod](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_red_and_the_black_br/characters/m_de_moirod.md): A local notable in Verrières, involved in the political intrigues.
- [Amanda Binet](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_red_and_the_black_br/characters/amanda_binet.md): A beautiful café owner in Besançon, whom Julien briefly admires.
- [Signor Geronimo](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_red_and_the_black_br/characters/signor_geronimo.md): An Italian singer who performs at the Hôtel de la Mole.
- [M. de Caylus](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_red_and_the_black_br/characters/m_de_caylus.md): A young nobleman in Mathilde's social circle.
- [M. de Luz](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_red_and_the_black_br/characters/m_de_luz.md): A young nobleman, one of Mathilde's suitors.
- [Tanbeau](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_red_and_the_black_br/characters/tanbeau.md): A young seminarist and secretary at the Hôtel de la Mole, jealous of Julien.
- [M. Maslon](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_red_and_the_black_br/characters/m_maslon.md): A priest in Verrières, allied with Valenod against Chélan.
- [M. Appert](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_red_and_the_black_br/characters/m_appert.md): A philanthropist who visits the poorhouse in Verrières, causing a stir.
- [M. de Maugiron](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_red_and_the_black_br/characters/m_de_maugiron.md): A nobleman involved in the secret note conspiracy.
- [Falcoz](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_red_and_the_black_br/characters/falcoz.md): A Bonapartist friend of Julien's, mentioned in his circle.
- [Stanislas-Xavier](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_red_and_the_black_br/characters/stanislas_xavier.md): The young son of M. and Madame de Rênal.
- [Duke de Retz](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_red_and_the_black_br/characters/m_de_retz.md): A historical figure mentioned in the context of the aristocracy.
- [M. de Rouvray](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_red_and_the_black_br/characters/m_de_rouvray.md): A nobleman mentioned in the social circle.
- [Monsieur Castanède](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_red_and_the_black_br/characters/m_de_castanede.md): A priest at the seminary.
- [Chazel](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_red_and_the_black_br/characters/m_de_chazel.md): A minor character in the seminary.
- [Marquise de la Mole](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_red_and_the_black_br/characters/m_de_la_mole_marquise.md): The mother of the Marquis, mentioned in the family history.
- [Duke de Retz](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_red_and_the_black_br/characters/m_de_la_mole_duke_retz.md): Historical figure, mentioned in the context of the aristocracy.

HTML index: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_red_and_the_black_br/characters