Scarlet and Black post II

The love affair between the innocents begins but a clever story of assumptions is being weaved where it is almost bordering on classic farce in some respects as each of the main characters assumes things about the other often completely wrongly.

Bullet points between pages 63 - 114

* What develops as a romance/love for madame de renal is seen by Julien as a Napoleonic crusade to prove himself as a man and he sets out to set himself challenges that would emulate the ambition shown by his great military hero - for instance he sets himself the goal of holding her hand in the darkness

* Julien has a chip on his shoulder about his social situation and vents his anger against M. de Renal but because the mayor thinks he is about to leave to a rival employer he offers to increase the young tutor's pay much to the latter's amazement

* After upping the ante and demanding three days leave to visit his friend Julien is offered a job and toys with the idea that he might leave

* With the confessions of his adventures with a mistress still in his ears from his time with his friend Fouque, Julien very clumsily sets out to seduce Madame de Renal and ends up visiting her in the middle of the night

* As he gets more confident he publicly declares his support of Napoleon but is put in his place by his mistress who is afraid of those views

* Julien uses his relationship with madame de Renal to learn about society and it starts to crystalise that they are on opposite sides of the fence

I am aiming to read m ore pages tomorrow, just happen to be very tired at the moment, so will get through hopefully a bigger chunk tomorrow. The feeling that Julien is going to get too confident and it will all come crashing down on the arrogant innocent is growing by the page...