If you are going to read The Red and the Black and want to know which translation to look for, the direct answer is this: the Penguin Companhia edition, translated by Raquel de Almeida Prado. It is the edition the Nous lecture recommends to anyone about to open Stendhal's novel, and every quotation you hear in the video and read on this site comes from it. The reason is practical: with the same text in hand, you can follow the lecture sentence by sentence.
The edition the Nous recommends
The lecture is explicit: whoever wants to read the novel should go through the Penguin Companhia edition, in Raquel de Almeida Prado's translation, because that is where the video's quotations come from. The Nous is not saying the other translations are worse. It is saying which one serves as company to the lecture, and why that matters for someone who reads to study: a quotation is the part of the book we want to find again, and finding the same wording avoids doubt.
The edition opens with a curious note: the book was coming off the press in the summer of 1830, when a revolution overthrew the King of France, and the subtitle is Chronicle of 1830. That is the context the lecture uses to begin, and it explains the period that closed the door on Julien.
Where to find each scene in your book
The novel is divided into two books, the first with 30 chapters and the second with 45. These are the passages the lecture cites, in the order they appear in the book. With the chapter number, any copy will do to find them:
- Book I, ch. 4: the father beats Julien, and the Memorial of Saint Helena falls into the stream.
- Book I, ch. 5: the cold sum that ends in "One has to be a priest."
- Book I, ch. 9: the night in the garden, when Julien forgets to pretend, and Napoleon's portrait is burned.
- Book I, ch. 10: the raise he celebrates as "a battle."
- Book I, ch. 26: the seminary, where science is worth nothing.
- Book I, ch. 30: the ladder and the window of Madame de Rênal.
- Book II, ch. 4: the Paris salon, where a lively idea seems like vulgarity.
- Book II, ch. 30: the comparison between Madame de Rênal and Mathilde.
- Book II, ch. 35: the lieutenant's commission, the letter, the shot in the church.
- Book II, ch. 40: the cell, and the "art of enjoying life."
- Book II, ch. 41: the speech to the jury.
- Book II, ch. 43: the "I shall never have been so happy."
Other translations?
The novel has more than one translation into Brazilian Portuguese, and that is all this article says about them, because the lecture does not discuss them. We will not rank what the video did not examine. If you already have another edition at home, or found one cheaper, nothing is lost: the scenes are the same, and what changes from one translation to another is the wording.
Two simple things help you choose and check. The first is to look at the title page before buying: the translator's name is there. The second is, if you read another edition, to treat the quotations here as a reference for the scene, not as text to copy: look up the passage by its chapter and quote the wording of your own copy. It is the same idea behind the article on which Portuguese translation of the Iliad to read: the lecture uses one translation to quote from, and your book may use another.
How many pages
There is no single number, because it varies with the publisher and the format of the volume, and the lecture does not mention it. What stays the same is the division into two books. If length weighs on your decision, check the details page of the copy you have in hand.
Where to start
The lecture gives reading advice beyond the choice of edition: start with the first chapter, the one that seems to lead nowhere. Those first chapters are exactly the ones it tells you not to skip, because that is where the trap is set. If you stall in the later chapters, or further on, the explanation is in Is The Red and the Black good? Where the book stalls, and what the novel tells, in order, is in What The Red and the Black, by Stendhal, is about.
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See recommended readingsFrequently asked questions
Which is the best translation of The Red and the Black?
The Nous recommends the Penguin Companhia edition, translated by Raquel de Almeida Prado, the same one the lecture quotes from. The video does not compare this translation with the other Portuguese editions that exist, so this article does not rank them: it names the edition that goes with the lecture and leaves the others out of the comparison.
Which edition of The Red and the Black does the Nous use in its quotations?
The Penguin Companhia edition, translated by Raquel de Almeida Prado. Every quotation from the novel in the lectures and articles of the Nous comes from it, always with book and chapter, so that you can find the passage in your copy.
How many pages does The Red and the Black have?
It depends on the edition, and the video does not give that number. What does not change from one edition to another is the division of the novel: two books, the first with 30 chapters and the second with 45.
Can I follow the lecture with another translation?
Yes. The scenes are the same in any translation, and only the wording changes from one edition to another. With the Penguin Companhia edition in hand, the words match the ones you hear in the lecture; with another translation, you recognize the scene by its chapter.
Continue: What The Red and the Black, by Stendhal, is about · Is The Red and the Black good? Where the book stalls · Who was Julien Sorel? The young man who lived on campaign · Gryllus, by Plutarch: the pig who refused to return
Source class: O Vermelho e o Negro, de Stendhal