he local Catholic prelate secures him a post as the tutor for the children of Monsieur de Rênal, the mayor of Verrières. He falls in love with Monsieur de Rênal’s wife; it ends badly when exposed to the village, by her chambermaid, Elisa. Then, Julien goes to a seminary in Besan?on, which he finds intellectually stifling and pervaded with social cliques. Disgusted by the Church’s political machinations, Julien recommends himself as private secretary to the diplomat Marquis de la Mole, a Roman Catholic legitimist.
　　
　　Book II chronicles the time leading to the July Revolution of 1830, and Julien Sorel’s Parisian life, as an employee of the de la Mole family. Despite moving among high society, the family and their friends, condescend to Julien for being an uncouth plebeian — his intellectual talents notwithstanding. In his boundlessly ambitious rise in the world, Julien perceives the materialism and hypocrisy important to the elite of Parisian society, and that the counter-revolut