“The Red and the Black” by Stendhal (post 6): Julien shows not only his photographic memory, but an astonishing switch in manner and personality.

When Julien arrives at the door of the mayor’s house for his new job as children’s tutor, the mayor’s wife sees “a young peasant, really still a child; he was extremely pale and had obviously just been weeping…his eyes so gentle that Madame de Rênal…thought, at first, that this could be a young girl in disguise, coming to ask a favor” (1, p. 25).

Julien will astound everyone at the mayor’s house by reciting, from memory, the New Testament, in Latin, starting from any point chosen at random. However, before that, after the Mayor mentions that he expects a tutor for his children to demonstrate “a certain sobriety” (1, p. 30), Julien goes to his new room in the Mayor’s house, and then comes back with a different manner and personality:

“Finally, Julien appeared. It was a different person who returned to them. To say of this man that he was somber would be a misrepresentation: he was sobriety incarnate. He was introduced to the children, to whom he spoke in a manner that astonished even Monsieur de Rênal” (1, p. 31).

Thus, Julien has the same changeability in personality and physiognomy that Stendhal’s best friend had attributed to Stendhal (see post 4).

1. Stendhal. The Red and the Black: A Chronicle of 1830. Translated by Burton Raffel. New York, The Modern Library, 2003.