Scarlet and Black - Penguin Classics Author:Stendhal, Margaret R. B. Shaw (Translator) Julien Sorel, the novel's restless, ambitious hero rebels against his circumstances and wills himself to make something of his life by adopting a code of hypocrisy. On the road to the surprising crime he commits (out of passion, principle or insanity) he turns into Stendahl's greatest and most completely human creation.