An intelligent, handsome, and ambitious young man, he was born in Verrières, a small imaginary town in Doubs, though not based on any real geographical location.
The son of a carpenter, he was despised by his father and his brothers for his weakness ("his puny physique, ill adapted as it was to manual labour") and his bookish nature.
Though the red refers to another aspiration: that of love and seduction, also similar to the young Jean-Jacques Rousseau and his tryst with the older Mme de Warens.
His affair with her leads him to success, though Stendhal never delves into what exactly his feelings for Mme de Rênal are, whereas her affections are quite clear.
That said, one of the scenes at the start of the novel clearly shows the young man's psychology, when Julien grabs Mme de Rênal's hand at night.
This seduction scene is described, in Stendhal's ironic style, as a fight scene: "Au moment précis où dix heures sonneront, j'exécuterai ce que, pendant toute la journée, je me suis promis de faire ce soir, ou je monterai chez moi me brûler la cervelle".
His intelligence and his prodigious memory lead him to great success, both in the artistic circles of Paris and in diplomatic missions in foreign parts.
At the beginning of the novel, Julien is described this way: He was a young man of eighteen to nineteen years old, and of puny appearance, with irregular but delicate features, and an aquiline nose.
Dark chestnut hair, which came low down over his brow, made his forehead appear small and gave him a sinister look during his angry moods.
He was regularly beaten in the Sunday sports in the public square.The most obvious inspiration is Antoine Berthet, the real-life perpetrator of a scandalous crime.
[1][2] Julien Sorel himself links his name to that of Louis Jenrel, a criminal whose extract in his journal talks of execution, seeing in it his inevitable, predestined tragic fate.