| 1 | France in 1830. The Revolution, the Empire, the Restoration and the July Monarchy. |
| 2 | Life and works of Stendhal |
| 3 | Reading "The Red and the Black", Book One, chapters 1-5. The character of Julien: pride, ambition, hypocrisy, egotism, hatred of the rich, his cult of honour and bravery, the spontaneity of his passions, his seductive qualities. The influence on him of Napoleon and Rousseau. |
| 4 | Chapters 6-11. The character of Madame de Rênal: tenderness, naivety, maternal devotion, religious piety. |
| 5 | The psychology of love in Stendhal. |
| 6 | Chapters 12-18: adultery and deception. Madame de Rênal's qualms of conscience. |
| 7 | Class distinction and the power of money. Stendhal as analyst and satirist of Restoration society and its values. |
| 8 | The scene of the royal visit. Julien between the Red (Revolution, Napoleon, Jacobinism) and the Black (the Restoration, clericalism, the Ultras). Reflections on Julien's double life. |
| 9 | Chapters 19-23: the crisis set off by the anonymous letters. Stendhal's portrait of M. de Rênal. |
| 10 | Chapters 24-30: Julien at the Seminary. The ecclesiastical background of the novel: Jansenism, Gallicanism, Ultramontanism. |
| 11 | More on the novel's picture of the Church. The Church's reaction to the French Revolution. L'Abbé Grégoire, Chateaubriand, Joseph de Maistre. |
| 12 | Julien in Paris. |
| 13 | More on the psychology of love. |
| 14 | The tragic denouement of the novel. |
| 15 | Film, "Le Rouge et le noir" (Autant-Lara) |
| 16 | Russia in the 1860s |
| 17 | Life and work of Dostoievski |
| 18 | Reading "The Idiot": we shall read Part I and exceprpts from the other three parts. |
| 19 | Part One: presentation of Myshkin |
| 20 | The Yepanchin family |
| 21 | The prince's obsessions |
| 22 | The Ivolgins |
| 23 | Rogozhin |
| 24 | Nastasya |
| 25 | The climactic scene |
| 26 | Part II, chapters 3-5: Myshkin and Rogozhin |
| 27 | Part III, chapters 5-7: Ippolit's despair. |
| 28 | Part IV, chapters 8-12: the end |
| 29 | continued |
| 30 | Film, "Hakuchi" (Kurosawa) |