How Red and Black differes from Charterhouse of Parma

Reading Stendahl's Red and Black for maybe the 3rd time, though it's been some time so there's a lot that I don't remember or more accurately not much that I do remember. A few years ago I read his other great work, Charterhouse of Parma, and you can see right off that R&B moves at a different pace. Charterhouse moves forward at a rapid pace, full of adventure and conflict, and that makes sense when we know that Stendahl literally wrote this novel aloud, to a dictationist, as he paced the floor over I think about a month or a little more. It just spilled out of him, it would seem. R&B feels a more crafted and carefully thought through, with the first 8 or so chapters deliberately setting up the background for the lead character, Julien Sorel (we don't meet him till I think the 3rd chapter, in fact): Stendahl first carefully establishes the social milieu of the town - Veriere? - near the Swiss Alps, with the petty class rivalries, the provincial snobbery, and the driving force of money and rank, setting up the culture from which JS will rebel. Julien, son of a wealthy sawmill owner of low social rank, goes to work for the leader of the town, the Mayor, as a tutor for the children - a social acquisition for the mayor, as nobody else in town can afford the luxury of a private tutor. Over time, Julien begins a flirtation w/ the mayor's young and attractive wife, but all the while nursing a contempt for the mayor and his values. He is planning to enter the clergy as a way to advance in rank and wealth (as in Charterhouse, the lead character takes religious orders w/ absolutely no vestige of faith nor any attempt to fulfill his vows, esp re chastity), and he keeps as a secret his reverence for the adventures, military success, and liberal values of his hero, Napoleon (if this were to be discovered he would be fired immediately - it would be like a socialist serving as a tutor and role model w/in the household of an arch-conservative, as were all members of the Mayor's caste at that time). Over time, we will watch the development and unfolding or the personality of this ambitious young man, a modern sensibility in revolt against his culture and background - and a largely unsympathetic character, at least the the outset.