The Scarlet and the Black

Wiki says......"The novel's full title, Le Rouge et le Noir: Chronique du XIXe siècle (The Red and the Black: A Chronicle of the 19th Century),[2] indicates its twofold literary purpose as both a psychological portrait of the romantic protagonist, Julien Sorel, and an analytic, sociological satire of the French social order under the Bourbon Restoration (1814–30). In English, Le Rouge et le Noir is variously translated as Red and Black, Scarlet and Black, and The Red and the Black, without the subtitle.[3]

Lee, I read between 50 and a 100 books a year, yet I hadn't heard of it. It all depends where your tastes lie.

Nietzsche reckoned it was one of only two contemporary books worth reading (Die Leute von Seldwyla, a collection of short stories by another Swiss author, Gottfried Keller, was the other).

They're both books full of insights into how shaky the perceptions of events by people experiencing them can be. We simply don't have the perspective to appreciate fully the consequences of what's happening around us and our own reactions to them. The central character of The Red and The Black takes part in the Battle of Waterloo, for instance, but with no idea that that's what he's doing.

... Or was that Stendhal's other book, The Charterhouse of Parma?

God knows. Wish I weren't so old.