Part of the Monnaie de Paris "Les Héros Littéraires" series, this piece honors Stendhal's protagonist from Le Rouge et le Noir (1830), a novel so politically charged at publication that Stendhal reportedly wrote it in 52 days to outrun censorship concerns under the Restoration. Julien Sorel's trajectory — provincial ambition colliding with Bourbon-era class rigidity — made the character a touchstone of 19th-century French social criticism.
The series paired literary figures with denominations scaled to collector rather than circulation use, issued under the broader French commemorative program that accelerated sharply after 2010.
Part of the Monnaie de Paris "Les Héros Littéraires" series, this piece honors Stendhal's protagonist from Le Rouge et le Noir (1830), a novel so politically charged at publication that Stendhal reportedly wrote it in 52 days to outrun censorship concerns under the Restoration. Julien Sorel's trajectory — provincial ambition colliding with Bourbon-era class rigidity — made the character a touchstone of 19th-century French social criticism.
The series paired literary figures with denominations scaled to collector rather than circulation use, issued under the broader French commemorative program that accelerated sharply after 2010.