78-667: Verrières is the name or part of the name of several communes in France: Verrières , a fictional village in Stendhal's Le Rouge et le Noir ( The Red and the Black ) The Red and the Black Le Rouge et le Noir ( French pronunciation: [lə ʁuʒ e l(ə) nwaʁ] ; meaning The Red and the Black ) is a historical psychological novel in two volumes by Stendhal , published in 1830. It chronicles
156-477: A Place d'Armes and dating from the 18th and 19th centuries. It currently houses the headquarters of the 1st Armored Division and the 7th Armoured Brigade . After the city acquired an episcopal see in the 3rd century, churches and abbeys multiplied during the period of the High Middle Ages . Important constructions or reconstructions of religious buildings then took place in the 11th century during
234-417: A duty to endure and little more. When Julien learns that Madame de Rênal survived her gunshot wound, his authentic love for her is resurrected, having lain dormant throughout his Parisian sojourn, and she continues to visit him in jail. After he is guillotined, Mathilde de la Mole reenacts the cherished 16th-century French tale of Queen Margot , who visited her dead lover, Joseph Boniface de La Mole , to kiss
312-452: A little-known specialty, automatic ticketing machines for car parking, airports, date stamping etc. The watch industry, for which Besançon remains the French capital, endured a major crisis in the 1970s when the advent of quartz watches from Asia knocked out the traditional watch industry in the space of just a few years. The "Lip" affair epitomizes the industrial crisis. LIP is to this day
390-404: A long time to recover from the collapse of the watch industry and its other major industry of the industrial age, artificial textiles. Since the 1980s, Besançon's watch industry has clawed its way back on the basis of its historic reputation and quartz watches, establishing itself in a number of niche markets including customized watches, high quality watches, and fashion articles. Since the 1990s,
468-430: A miasma of despair, self-doubt, and happiness (for having won her over her aristocratic suitors). Only during his secret mission does he learn the key to winning her affections: a cynical jeu d'amour (game of love) taught to him by Prince Korasoff, a Russian man-of-the-world. At great emotional cost, Julien feigns indifference to Mathilde, provoking her jealousy with a sheaf of love letters meant to woo Madame de Fervaques,
546-470: A person only when he or she is desired by someone else. Girard's proposition is that a person's desire for another always is mediated by a third party. This triangulation thus accounts for the perversity of the Mathilde–Julien relationship, which is most evident when Julien begins courting the widow Mme de Fervaques to pique Mathilde's jealousy, and it accounts for Julien's fascination with and membership in
624-877: A private company built a funicular to the Brégille Heights. The funicular passed from private ownership to the SNCF , who finally closed it in 1987. The funicular's tracks, stations and even road signs remain in place to this day. Besançon is located in the north-east quarter of France on the river Doubs. It is about 325 kilometres (202 miles) east of the national capital of Paris, 100 kilometres (62 miles) east of Dijon in Burgundy, 125 km (78 mi) northwest of Lausanne in Switzerland, and 100 km (62 mi) southwest of Belfort in Franche-Comté. It
702-563: A rocky outcrop, is the work of the Romans. It marks the entrance to the city on the road to Switzerland. It is surmounted by a guardhouse and a watchtower built in 1546. The “square tower”, located in the promenade des Glacis, is also called the Montmart tower. It was built in the 13th century to defend the old entrance to the Battant district. The fortifications of the 19th century consist of
780-628: A role to gain social approval. In that 19th-century context, the word "hypocrisy" denoted the affectation of high religious sentiment; in The Red and the Black it connotes the contradiction between thinking and feeling. In Mensonge romantique et vérité romanesque ( Deceit, Desire and the Novel , 1961), philosopher and critic René Girard identifies in Le Rouge et le Noir the triangular structure he denominates as "mimetic desire" ; that is, one desires
858-556: A secret meeting, then is dispatched on a dangerous mission to communicate a letter from memory to the Duc d'Angoulême , who is exiled in England; but the callow Julien is distracted by an unrequited love affair and learns the message only by rote, missing its political significance as part of a legitimist plot. Unwittingly, he risks his life in service to the monarchists he most opposes; to himself, he rationalises these actions as merely helping
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#1732783269624936-544: A set of forts covering all the heights of the city: the fort of Chaudanne built from 1837 to 1842, the fort of Bregille built from 1820 to 1832, the fort of Planoise built from 1877 to 1880, Fort Benoit was built from 1877 to 1880, Fort Beauregard in 1830. Another example are the Trois-Châtels and Tousey lunettes , both built at the end of the 18th and early 19th centuries, as well as the Rosemont battery built during
1014-467: A widow in the social circle of the de la Mole family. Consequently, Mathilde sincerely falls in love with Julien, eventually revealing to him that she carries his child; nevertheless, while he is on diplomatic mission in England, she becomes officially engaged to Monsieur de Croisenois, an amiable and wealthy young noble, heir to a duchy . Learning of Julien's liaison with Mathilde, the Marquis de la Mole
1092-559: Is a barge canal that cuts through rock under Mont Saint-Étienne, short-cutting the meander.) Besançon has an oceanic climate ( Köppen : Cfb , Trewartha : Do ), with cool to cold winters, warm summers, and frequent precipitation year-round. The year-round average is 11.5 °C (53 °F). The warmest month is July with an average temperature of 20 °C (68 °F), and the coldest is January, with an average temperature of 2 °C (36 °F). Besançon receives about 1,059 mm (42 in) of precipitation per year. As of 2021,
1170-526: Is also the seat of one of the fifteen French ecclesiastical provinces and one of the two divisions of the French Army . In 2021 the city had a population of 119,198, in a metropolitan area of 283,127, the second in the region in terms of population. Established in a meander of the river Doubs , the city was already important during the Gallo-Roman era under the name of Vesontio , capital of
1248-550: Is angered, but he relents before her determination and his affection for Julien and bestows upon Julien an income-producing property attached to an aristocratic title as well as a military commission in the army. Although ready to bless their marriage, the marquis changes his mind after receiving a character-reference letter about Julien from the Abbé Chélan, Julien's previous employer in Verrières. Written by Madame de Rênal at
1326-476: Is condescended to as an uncouth plebeian by the de la Moles and their friends. Meanwhile, Julien is acutely aware of the materialism and hypocrisy that permeate the Parisian elite and that the counterrevolutionary temper of the time renders it impossible for even well-born men of superior intellect and aesthetic sensibility to participate in the nation's public affairs. Julien accompanies the Marquis de la Mole to
1404-529: Is first recorded in 58 BC as Vesontio in Book I of Julius Caesar 's Commentarii de Bello Gallico . The etymology of Vesontio is uncertain. The most common explanation is that the name is of Celtic origin, derived from wes , meaning 'mountain'. During the 4th century, the letter B took the place of the V, and the city name changed to Besontio or Bisontion and then underwent several transformations to become Besançon in 1243. The city sits within an oxbow of
1482-633: Is located at the edge of the Jura Mountains . The city initially developed in a natural meander (or oxbow loop) of the river Doubs with a diameter of almost 1,000 metres (3,281 feet). The flat inner loop has an elevation of about 250 metres (820 feet), and is bounded to the south by a hill called Mont Saint-Étienne , which has a maximum height of 371 metres (1,217 feet). The city is surrounded by six other hills which range in elevation from 400 to 500 metres (1,312 to 1,640 feet): Brégille, Griffon, Planoise , Chaudanne, Montfaucon, and Montboucon. (There
1560-411: Is named Julien: "The idea of a duty to be performed, and the fear of making himself ridiculous if he failed to perform it, immediately removed all pleasure from his heart." Former U.S. Vice President Al Gore named The Red and the Black as his favorite book. Le Rouge et le Noir , Chronique du XIX siècle (1830) first was translated into English ca. 1900; the best-known translation, The Red and
1638-590: Is the Porte Noire , a Gallo-Roman triumphal arch built under Marcus Aurelius in the 2nd century in the Saint-Jean district. Heavily deteriorated by the vagaries of time and pollution, it was the subject of a long and difficult restoration operation at the beginning of the 21st century. Immediately below is the Square Castan, a garden with a collection of archaeological remains from the 2nd century or
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#17327832696241716-541: Is the prefecture of the department of Doubs in the region of Bourgogne-Franche-Comté . The city is located in Eastern France, close to the Jura Mountains and the border with Switzerland . Capital of the historic and cultural region of Franche-Comté , Besançon is home to the Bourgogne-Franche-Comté regional council headquarters, and is an important administrative centre in the region. It
1794-527: Is the work of the military engineer Sébastien Le Prestre de Vauban . This group of buildings allows Besançon to appear on the UNESCO World Heritage List with eleven other sites under the title Fortifications of Vauban . The forts on the other hills were all built in the 19th century. The only remaining pre-Vauban fortifications are Porte Rivotte, Porte Taillée, Tour Carrée, Tour Notre-Dame and Tour de la Pelote. The citadel of Besançon
1872-591: Is uninterested in religious studies beyond the Bible's literary value and his ability to use memorized Latin passages to impress his social superiors. He begins a love affair with Monsieur de Rênal's wife, which ends when her chambermaid, Elisa, who is also in love with Julien, makes it known to the village. The Abbé Chélan orders Julien to a seminary in Besançon , which he finds intellectually stifling and populated by social cliques. The initially cynical seminary director,
1950-701: The Arverni tribe and the Germanic Suebi tribe under the Germanic king Ariovistus . Julius Caesar , in his commentaries detailing his conquest of Gaul , describes Vesontio (possibly Latinized ), as the largest town of the Sequani , a smaller Gaulic tribe, and mentions that a wooden palisade surrounded it. It appears as Vesontine in the Tabula Peutingeriana . Over the centuries,
2028-669: The Haedui and their hereditary rivals, the Sequani . According to Strabo , the cause of the conflict was commercial. Each tribe claimed the Arar and the tolls on trade along it. The Sequani controlled access to the Rhine and had built an oppidum (a fortified town) at Vesontio to protect their interests. The Sequani defeated and massacred the Haedui at the Battle of Magetobriga , with the help of
2106-552: The Sequani . Its geography and specific history turned it into a military stronghold, a garrison city, a political centre, and a religious capital. Besançon is the historical capital of watchmaking in France. This has led it to become a centre for innovative companies in the fields of microtechnology , micromechanics , and biomedical engineering . The University of Franche-Comté , founded in 1423, enrolls nearly 30,000 students each year, including around 4,000 trainees from all over
2184-518: The War of Devolution . Louis conquered the city for the first time in 1668, but the Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle returned it to Spain within a matter of months. While it was in French hands, the famed military engineer Vauban visited the city and drew up plans for its fortification. The Spaniards built the main centre point of the city's defences, "la Citadelle", siting it on Mont Saint-Étienne, which closes
2262-509: The (red-uniformed) army (as he might have done under Napoleon ), hence only a (black-uniformed) church career offers social advancement and glory. In complete editions, the first book ("Livre premier", ending after Chapter XXX) concludes with the quotation "To the Happy Few" from The Vicar of Wakefield by Oliver Goldsmith , parts of which Stendhal had memorized in the course of teaching himself English. In The Vicar , "the happy few" read
2340-524: The 3rd century including in particular eight Corinthian columns . On the other bank of the river Doubs, in the Battant district, the remains of the Vesontio arena are visible: only a few steps and foundations have been unearthed, its stones having been widely used in the Middle Ages for the construction of other buildings. There are several domus in the residential district of Vesontio. Among them,
2418-669: The Abbé Pirard, likes Julien and becomes his protector. When the Abbé, a Jansenist , leaves the seminary, he fears Julien will suffer for having been his protégé and recommends Sorel as private secretary to the diplomat Marquis de la Mole, a Catholic legitimist . In the years leading up to the July Revolution of 1830, Julien Sorel lives in Paris as an employee of the de la Mole family. Despite his sophistication and intellect, Julien
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2496-976: The Black (1926) by C. K. Scott Moncrieff , has been, like his other translations, characterised as one of his "fine, spirited renderings, not entirely accurate on minor points of meaning...Scott Moncrieff's versions have not really been superseded." The version by Robert M. Adams for the Norton Critical Editions series is highly regarded; it "is more colloquial; his edition includes an informative section on backgrounds and sources, and excerpts from critical studies." Other translators include Margaret R. B. Shaw (as Scarlet and Black for Penguin Classics, 1953), Lowell Blair (Bantam Books, 1959), Lloyd C. Parks (New York, 1970), Catherine Slater (Oxford World's Classics, 1991), Roger Gard (Penguin Classics, 2002), and Raymond N. MacKenzie (University of Minnesota Press, 2022). The 2006 translation by Burton Raffel for
2574-730: The Duke of Burgundy . As part of the Holy Roman Empire since 1034, the city became an archbishopric , and was designated the Free Imperial City of Besançon (an autonomous city-state under the Holy Roman Emperor ) in 1184. In 1157, Emperor Frederick Barbarossa held the Diet of Besançon . There, Cardinal Orlando Bandinelli (the future Pope Alexander III, then adviser of Pope Adrian IV ) openly asserted before
2652-593: The Emperor that the imperial dignity was a papal beneficium (in the more general sense of favour, not the strict feudal sense of fief ), which incurred the wrath of the German princes. He would have fallen on the spot under the battle-axe of his lifelong foe, Otto of Wittelsbach , had Frederick not intervened. The Archbishops were elevated to Princes of the Holy Roman Empire in 1288. The close connection to
2730-498: The Empire is reflected in the city's coat of arms. In 1290, after a century of fighting against the power of the archbishops, the Emperor granted Besançon its independence. In the 15th century, Besançon came under the influence of the dukes of Burgundy . After the marriage of Mary of Burgundy to Maximilian I, Holy Roman Emperor , the city was in effect a Habsburg fief. In 1519 Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor , King of Spain , became
2808-461: The Germans executed some one hundred French resistance fighters there. However, Besançon saw little action during the war. The allies bombed the railway complex in 1943, and the next year the Germans resisted the U.S. advance for four days. Besançon was also the location, between 1940 and 1941, of an Internment Camp ( Konzentrationslager ), Frontstalag 142 , also known as Caserne Vauban , which
2886-513: The Germans set up for 3–4,000 holders of British passports, all women and children. The conditions were harsh; many hundreds of internees died of pneumonia, diarrhea, food poisoning, dysentery, and frostbite. In 1959, the French Army turned the citadel over to the city of Besançon, which turned it into a museum. The forts of Brégille and Beauregard sit across the Doubs from the city. In 1913,
2964-468: The Holy Roman Emperor. This made him master of the Franche-Comté and Besançon, a francophone imperial city. In 1526 the city obtained the right to mint coins, which it continued to strike until 1673. Nevertheless, all coins bore the name of Charles V. When Charles V abdicated in 1555, he gave the Franche-Comté to his son, Philip II , King of Spain. Besançon remained a free imperial city under
3042-488: The Marquis, his employer, whom he respects. Meanwhile, the Marquis's languorous daughter, Mathilde de la Mole, has become emotionally torn between her romantic attraction to Julien for his admirable personal and intellectual qualities and her revulsion at becoming sexually intimate with a lower-class man. At first Julien finds her unattractive, but his interest is piqued by her attentions and the admiration she inspires in others; twice, she seduces and rejects him, leaving him in
3120-488: The Modern Library edition generally earned positive reviews, and Salon.com stated "[Burton Raffel's] exciting new translation of The Red and the Black blasts Stendhal into the twenty-first century." Michael Johnson for The New York Times wrote "Now The Red and the Black is getting a new lease on life with an updated English-language version by the renowned translator Burton Raffel. His version has all but replaced
3198-492: The Quai de Strasbourg, is a defensive tower built in 1546 by the municipal government on the orders of Charles V . Its name would come from the former owner of the land where it was built, Pierre Pillot, lord of Chenecey. The Porte Rivotte is a city gate dating from the 16th century, consisting of two round towers and a pediment carved with a sun which was King Louis XIV 's personal emblem. The Porte Taillée ("Carved Gate"), opened in
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3276-792: The Université de Franche-Comté, is the first school created in the country specifically for the Biomedical engineering field. The city is also home of the École Nationale Supérieure de Mécanique et des Microtechniques (ENSMM), a technological school with a strong reputation in the fields of microtechnology and mechanics and the Centre for Applied Linguistics which teaches ten languages to non-native speakers (French, Arabic, Chinese, English, German, Italian, Japanese, Portuguese, Russian, Spanish) and any other known language on request. The Centre welcomes more than 4,000 students every year from all over
3354-467: The attempts of a provincial young man to rise socially beyond his modest upbringing through a combination of talent, hard work, deception, and hypocrisy. He ultimately allows his passions to betray him. The novel's full title, Le Rouge et le Noir: Chronique du XIX siècle ( The Red and the Black: A Chronicle of the 19th Century ), indicates its twofold literary purpose as both a psychological portrait of
3432-610: The citadel's fortifications, and those of the city. This process lasted until 1711, some 30 years, and the walls built then surround the city. Between the train station and the central city there is a complex moat system that now serves road traffic. Numerous forts, some of which date back to that time and that incorporate Vauban's designs elements sit on the six hills that surround the city: Fort de Trois Châtels, Fort Chaudanne, Fort du Petit Chaudanne, Fort Griffon, Fort des Justices, Fort de Beauregard and Fort de Brégille . The citadel itself has two dry moats, with an outer and inner court. In
3510-827: The decorous text produced in the 1920s by the Scottish-born writer-translator C.K. Scott-Moncrieff". Following the 1964 Brazilian coup d'état , General Justino Alves Bastos [ pt ] , commander of the Third Army, ordered, in Rio Grande do Sul , the burning of all "subversive books." Among the books he branded as subversive was The Red and the Black . Besan%C3%A7on Besançon ( UK : / ˈ b ɛ z ən s ɒ n / , US : / b ə ˈ z æ n s ən / , French: [bəzɑ̃sɔ̃] , Franco-Provençal: [bəzɑ̃ˈsɔ̃] ; archaic German : Bisanz ; Latin : Vesontio )
3588-692: The domus of the Palace of Justice and the domus of the Lumière college with Roman mosaic exhibited in situ at the Besançon Museum of Fine Arts and Archeology. Other remains can be seen in more anonymous places, such as the ancient foundations in the underground car park of the Bourgogne-Franche-Comté regional council. Most of the current fortification system ( citadel , defensive wall made up of ramparts and bastions , Fort Griffon)
3666-401: The emotional tensions between his idealistic Republicanism and his nostalgic allegiance to Napoleon and the realistic politics of counter-revolutionary conspiracy by Jesuit -supported legitimists, notably the Marquis de la Mole, whom Julien serves for personal gain. Presuming a knowledgeable reader, Stendhal only alludes to the historical background of Le Rouge et le Noir —yet did subtitle
3744-538: The evenings, the illuminated Citadelle stands above the city as a landmark and a testament to Vauban's genius as a military engineer . In 1814, the Austrians invaded and bombarded the city. It also occupied an important position during the Franco-Prussian War of 1870–71. In 1871, a project of Besançon Commune is engaged. The Nazis occupied the citadel during World War II . Between 1940 and 1944,
3822-613: The forehead of his severed head. Mathilde then erects a shrine at Julien's tomb in the Italian fashion. Madame de Rênal, more quietly, dies in the arms of her children only three days later. Le Rouge et le Noir is set in the latter years of the Bourbon Restoration (1814–1830) and the days of the 1830 July Revolution that established the Kingdom of the French (1830–1848). Julien Sorel's worldly ambitions are motivated by
3900-460: The glorious victories of Napoleon 's long-disbanded army than work in his father's timber business with his brothers, who beat him for his intellectual pretensions. He becomes an acolyte of the Abbé Chélan, the local Catholic prelate, who secures for Julien a job tutoring the children of Monsieur de Rênal, the mayor of Verrières. Although representing himself as a pious, austere cleric, Julien
3978-399: The harsh truth") is attributed to Danton , but like most of the chapters' epigraphs it is fictional. The title refers (among other things--see meanings in previous section) to the contrasting uniforms of the army and the church. Accordingly, early in the story, Julien Sorel observes that under the Bourbon Restoration it is impossible for a man of his plebeian class to distinguish himself in
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#17327832696244056-477: The high society he simultaneously desires and despises. To help achieve a literary effect, Stendhal wrote most of the epigraphs—literary, poetic, historic quotations—that he attributed to others. André Gide stated that The Red and the Black was a novel ahead of its time, that it was a novel for readers in the 20th century. In Stendhal's time, prose novels included dialogue and descriptions from omniscient narrator; Stendhal's great contribution to literary technique
4134-408: The manuscript Love and Money as a nod to classic 19th-century novels, among them The Red and the Black , "whose class-conscious hero Julien Sorel is less idealistic, greedier, and crueler than Jules Wendall but is clearly his spiritual kinsman." A passage describing Julien Sorel's sexual indifference is deployed as the epigraph to Paul Schrader's screenplay of American Gigolo , whose protagonist
4212-634: The medieval defenses restored and completed by Charles V in the sixteenth century with a belt provided with six bastioned battery towers : the Notre-Dame tower, the bastioned tower of Chamars, the bastioned tower of the Marais, the bastioned tower of the Cordeliers (completed in 1691), the bastioned tower of Bregille and the bastioned tower of Rivotte. Fortifications prior to the French conquest are also numerous. The Tour de la Pelote, located on
4290-414: The name of one of Besançon's most prestigious brands of watches. Refusing to let their factory close, the workers set up a cooperative to run it. The action produced a lot of notoriety and sympathy for the workers but also resulted in branding Besançon as a city of the radical left. It also did nothing to help revive the watch industry; the cooperative went out of business a short while later. The city took
4368-491: The name permutated to become Besantio , Besontion , Bisanz in Middle High German , and gradually arrived at the modern French Besançon . The locals retain their ancient heritage referring to themselves as Bisontins (feminine: Bisontine ). It has been an archbishopric since the 4th century. In 843, the Treaty of Verdun divided up Charlemagne 's empire. Besançon became part of Lotharingia , under
4446-504: The neck of the oxbow that is the site of the original town. In their construction, the Spaniards followed Vauban's designs. In 1674, French troops recaptured the city, which the Treaty of Nijmegen (1678) then awarded to France. At this time the city became the administrative centre for the Franche-Comté, with its own Parlement of Besançon , which replaced Dole . As a result of control passing to France, Vauban returned to working on
4524-621: The novel Chronique de 1830 ("Chronicle of 1830"). Similarly, the historical background is depicted in Lucien Leuwen (1834), one of Stendhal's unfinished novels, posthumously published in 1894. Erich Auerbach in Mimesis: The Representation of Reality in Western Literature sees this use of specific historical context as something entirely new in literature: "So logically and systematically to situate
4602-544: The old town. Vauban 's imposing Citadelle blocks off the neck. The historic center presents an ensemble of classic stone buildings, some dating back to the Middle Ages and others to the Spanish Renaissance. During Antiquity, Vesontio was an important metropolis of Roman Gaul . It is adorned with monuments, some of which have survived, archaeological excavations carried out during construction sites often revealing new discoveries dating from this period. The most emblematic and best-preserved monument dating from this period
4680-424: The population of the City of Besançon was 119,198. It is the 33rd most populous city of France. Grand Besançon Métropole covers 528.6 km (204.1 sq mi), 68 municipalities and has a population of 197,494. The metropolitan area covers 2,514.5 km (970.9 sq mi), 310 municipalities and has 283,127 inhabitants. Its population increased by 4.9% between 2008 and 2020. Until 2016, Besançon
4758-539: The priests who have looked after him since his early childhood. Yet Julien is determined to die, for the materialistic society of Restoration France has no place for a low-born man, whatever his intellect or sensibilities. Meanwhile, Monsieur de Croisenois, the presumptive duke and one of the fortunate few of Bourbon France, is killed in a duel over a slur upon the honour of Mathilde de la Mole. Her undiminished love for Julien, his imperiously intellectual nature and romantic exhibitionism render Mathilde's prison visits to him
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#17327832696244836-425: The protection of the King of Spain. In 1598, Philip II gave the province to his daughter on her marriage to an Austrian archduke. It remained formally a portion of the Empire until its cession at the peace of Westphalia in 1648. Spain regained control of Franche-Comté and the city lost its status as a free city. Then in 1667, Louis XIV claimed the province as a consequence of his marriage to Marie-Thérèse of Spain in
4914-483: The regional archeology service and a zoo. It is the symbol of the city. Fort Griffon, whose name is that of the Italian architect Jean Griffoni who was commissioned to build a first fortification at this location in 1595, is a second citadel. It was Vauban who, at the end of the 17th century, had the current fort built. The city walls designed by Vauban includes all the fortifications of La Boucle historic district which were rebuilt from 1675 to 1695. Vauban in fact replaced
4992-433: The regional offices of the French National Institute for Statistics and Economic Studies (Insee) or the Centre régional des œuvres universitaires et scolaires (Crous). Mayor of the City of Besançon is Anne Vignot ( The Greens ). The city is known for its microtechnology and watch industries. It is host of the biannual Micronora trade fair, one of Europe's major events in the field of microtechnologies. The city has
5070-409: The river Doubs (a tributary of the Saône ); a mountain closes the fourth side. During the Bronze Age , c. 1500 BC, tribes of Gauls settled the oxbow. From the 1st century BC through the modern era, the town had a significant military importance because the Alps rise abruptly to its immediate south, presenting a significant natural barrier. The Arar ( Saône ) River formed part of the border between
5148-432: The romantic protagonist, Julien Sorel, and an analytic, sociological satire of the French social order under the Bourbon Restoration (1814–1830). In English, Le Rouge et le Noir variously is translated as Red and Black , Scarlet and Black , and The Red and the Black , without the subtitle. The title is taken to refer to the tension between the clerical and secular interests of the protagonist, represented by each of
5226-470: The title character's obscure and pedantic treatise on monogamy—alone. In two volumes, The Red and the Black: A Chronicle of the 19th Century tells the story of Julien Sorel's life in France's rigid social structure restored after the disruptions of the French Revolution and the reign of Napoleon Bonaparte . Julien Sorel, the ambitious son of a carpenter in the fictional village of Verrières, in Franche-Comté , France, would rather read and daydream about
5304-434: The title colors, but it could also refer to the then-popular card game "rouge et noir", with the card game being the narratological leitmotiv of a novel in which chance and luck determine the fate of the main character. There are other interpretations as well. Le Rouge et le Noir is the Bildungsroman of Julien Sorel, the intelligent and ambitious protagonist. He comes from a poor family and fails to understand much about
5382-402: The town has developed a reputation as one of France's leading centres of technology in all fields, including telecommunications and biotechnology. Besançon is the seat of the University of Franche-Comté . As of 2018 , there were approximately 24,000 students enrolled at the university, including around 3,000 foreign students. The Institut Supérieur d'Ingénieurs de Franche-Comté (ISIFC), part of
5460-413: The tragically conceived life of a man of low social position (as here that of Julien Sorel) within the most concrete kind of contemporary history and to develop it therefrom— this is an entirely new and highly significant phenomenon." Stendhal repeatedly questions the possibility and the desirability of "sincerity" because most of the characters, especially Julien Sorel, are acutely aware of having to play
5538-549: The urging of her confessor priest, the letter warns the marquis that Julien is a social-climbing cad who preys upon emotionally vulnerable women. On learning that the marquis now withholds his blessing of his marriage, Julien Sorel returns with a gun to Verrières and shoots Madame de Rênal during Mass in the village church; she survives, but Julien is imprisoned and sentenced to death. Mathilde tries to save him by bribing local officials, and Madame de Rênal, still in love with him, refuses to testify and pleads for his acquittal, aided by
5616-451: The war of 1870–1871, the Fort des Montboucons built from 1877 to 1880 and the Fort des Justices built from 1870. A third Lunette d'Arçon was located on the site of Fort Chaudanne; only its tower was preserved during the construction of the fort in the first half of the 19th century. The Ruty barracks, formerly Saint-Paul barracks, are made up of four pavilions surrounding a courtyard serving as
5694-520: The ways of the world he sets out to conquer. He harbours many romantic illusions, but becomes mostly a pawn in the political machinations of the ruthless and influential people about him. The adventures of the hero satirize early 19th-century French society, accusing the aristocracy and Catholic clergy of being hypocritical and materialistic , foretelling the radical changes that will soon depose them from their leading roles in French society. The first volume's epigraph "La vérité, l'âpre vérité" ("The truth,
5772-465: The world within its Centre for Applied Linguistics (CLA). The greenest city in France, it enjoys a quality of life recognized in Europe. Thanks to its rich historical and cultural heritage and its unique architecture, Besançon has been labeled a " Town of Art and History " since 1986. Its fortifications , designed by Vauban , have been listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 2008. The city
5850-459: The world. As well as being famed as one of France's finest "villes d'art" (art cities), Besançon is the seat of one of France's older universities, of France's National School of Mechanics and Micromechanics , and one of the best known French language schools in France, the CLA. The most historic center of the town is characterised by the broad horse-shoe of the river Doubs, "la Boucle", which encircles
5928-491: Was built by Vauban from 1678 to 1771 and is the most visited site in Franche-Comté with more than 250,000 visitors each year. It extends over eleven hectares at the top of Mont Saint-Étienne at an altitude between 330 and 370 meters, thus overhanging the meander of the river Doubs which has an altitude between 240 and 250 meters. It brings together a museum of Resistance and Deportation, a museum of Franche-Comté traditions,
6006-455: Was the capital of the Franche-Comté administrative région of France, a région including the four départements of Doubs, Haute-Saône , Jura and Territoire de Belfort . Franche-Comté was since merged with the neighbouring region of Burgundy , and the "préfecture" was transferred to the city of Dijon . However, Besançon remains the seat of the Bourgogne-Franche-Comté regional council and of various decentralised administrations such as
6084-424: Was the describing of the psychologies (emotions, thoughts, and interior monologues) of the characters. As a result, he is considered the creator of the psychological novel . In Jean-Paul Sartre's play Les Mains sales (1948), the protagonist Hugo Barine suggests pseudonyms for himself, including Julien Sorel, whom he resembles. In the afterword to her novel them , Joyce Carol Oates wrote that she had titled
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