《红与黑》主人公于连是出身于外省的青年，有些聪明才智，在当地市长家中做家庭教师，勾搭上主人年轻的妻子，后来在巴黎又勾搭上一位贵族小姐。市长妻子出于嫉妒，写信揭发于连的丑行，于连一怒之下开枪击伤市长夫人，被判死刑。这原本是报纸上的一则真实案件，司汤达通过这一情杀题材从外省写到巴黎，从底层写到高层，通过教会、政党以及各阶层错综复杂的矛盾关系，再现了查理十世统治下法国的政治斗争、社会矛盾、人情风物。

司汤达在这部作品中显示出卓越的天才，尤其是在性格刻画及对人物喜悦、痛苦、忏悔种种复杂心理的表现方面，的确绘声绘色，扣人心弦，被评论家称作“现代小说之父”。

The Red and the Black (Le Rouge et le Noir) is a novel by Stendhal, published in 1830. The title has been translated into English variously as Scarlet and Black, Red and Black, and The Red and the Black. It is set in 1830, and relates a young man's attempts to rise above his plebeian birth through a combination of talent, hard work, deception and hypocrisy, only to find him betrayed by his own passions.

Part ONE

CHAPTER 1 A Small Town

CHAPTER 2 A Mayor

CHAPTER 3 The Bread of the Poor

CHAPTER 4 Father and Son

CHAPTER 5 Driving a Bargain

CHAPTER 6 Dullness

CHAPTER 7 Elective Affinities

CHAPTER 8 Minor Events

CHAPTER 9 An Evening in the Country

CHAPTER 10 A Large Heart and a Small Fortune

CHAPTER 11 Night Thoughts

CHAPTER 12 A Journey

CHAPTER 13 Open-work Stockings

CHAPTER 14 The English Scissors

CHAPTER 15 Cock-crow

CHAPTER 16 The Day After

CHAPTER 17 The Principal Deputy

CHAPTER 18 A King at Verrieres

CHAPTER 19 To Think Is To Be Full of Sorrow

CHAPTER 20 The Anonymous Letters

CHAPTER 21 Conversation with a Lord and Master

CHAPTER 22 Manners and Customs in 1830

CHAPTER 23 The Sorrows of an Official

CHAPTER 24 A Capital

CHAPTER 25 The Seminary

CHAPTER 26 The World, or What the Rich Lack

CHAPTER 27 First Experience of Life

CHAPTER 28 A Procession

CHAPTER 29 The First Step

CHAPTER 30 Ambition

Part TWO

CHAPTER 1 Country Pleasures

CHAPTER 2 First Appearance in Society

CHAPTER 3 First Steps

CHAPTER 4 The Hotel de La Mole

CHAPTER 5 Sensibility and a Pious Lady

CHAPTER 6 Pronunciation

CHAPTER 7 An Attack of Gout

CHAPTER 8 What Is the Decoration that Confers Distinction?

CHAPTER 9 The Baii

CHAPTER 10 Queen Marguerite

CHAPTER 11 The Tyranny of a Girl

CHAPTER 12 Another Danton

CHAPTER 13 A Plot

CHAPTER 14 A Girl's Thoughts

CHAPTER 15 Is it a Plot?

CHAPTER 16 One o'Clock in the Morning

CHAPTER 17 An Old Sword

CHAPTER 18 Painful Moments

CHAPTER 19 The Opera-Bouffe

CHAPTER 20 The Japanese Vase

CHAPTER 21 The Secret Note

CHAPTER 22 The Discussion

CHAPTER 23 The Clergy, their Forests, Liberty

CHAPTER 24 Strasbourg

CHAPTER 25 The Office of Virtue

CHAPTER 26 Moral Love

CHAPTER 27 The Best Positions in the Church

CHAPTER 28 Manon Lescaut

CHAPTER 29 Boredom

CHAPTER 30 A Box at the Bouffes

CHAPTER 31 Making Her Afraid

CHAPTER 32 The Tiger

CHAPTER 33 The Torment of the Weak

CHAPTER 34 A Man of Spirit

CHAPTER 35 A Storm

CHAPTER 36 Painful Details

CHAPTER 37 ADungeon

CHAPTER 38 A Man of Power

CHAPTER 39 Intrigue

CHAPTER 40 Tranquillity

CHAPTER 41 The Trial

CHAPTER 42 In the Prison

CHAPTER 43 Last Adieux

CHAPTER 44 The Shadow of the Guillotine

CHAPTER 45 Exit Julien