Review
Praise for
Burton Raffel’s translationsFor
Balzac’s Père Goriot“Raffel’s
Père Goriot is both faithful and beautiful, and that makes it a masterpiece.” —Alain Renoir
“I predict that this translation will give Balzac’s great novel a new life for English and American readers. . . . The definitive translation for this generation.” —Peter Brooks
“[Raffel’s] translation has the vigor and elasticity of Balzac’s style, and catches with uncanny accuracy the tone of the period.” —Guy Davenport
For
Cervantes’s Don Quijote“[Raffel’s
Don Quijote] recasts the original into lively English, without losing the complexity and flavor of the Spanish. . . . This
Quijote flows smoothly and reads, in fact, like original prose rather than a translation.” —Adrienne Martin
Product Description
A Major New TranslationThe Red and the Black, Stendhal’s masterpiece, is the story of Julien Sorel, a young dreamer from the provinces, fueled by Napoleonic ideals, whose desire to make his fortune sets in motion events both mesmerizing and tragic. Sorel’s quest to find himself, and the doomed love he encounters along the way, are delineated with an unprecedented psychological depth and realism. At the same time, Stendhal weaves together the social life and fraught political intrigues of post–Napoleonic France, bringing that world to unforgettable, full-color life. His portrait of Julien and early-nineteenth-century France remains an unsurpassed creation, one that brilliantly anticipates modern literature.
Neglected during its time,
The Red and the Black has assumed its rightful place as one of the world’s great books, and Burton Raffel’s extraordinary new translation, coupled with an enlightening Introduction by Diane Johnson, helps it shine more brightly than ever before.
