Julien Sorel, Antihero

So here we have this so-called hero (of Stendahl's The Red and the Black) who, angered by a letter from her denouncing his character (quite accurately) tracks down his former mistress (wife of his employer and mother of the boys he's tutoring) and shoots her twice in the back during a Mass, and now this character - Julien Sorel (has anyone noted that Sorel is an anagram for Loser?) - goes on trial for his life (odd, in that the  victim recovered, but that's how French justice worked in the early 19th-century). His current girlfriend - soon to be the mother of their child and still madly in love w/ Julien - tries all sorts of bribery and political influence to affect the jury decision, but to no avail - Julien is sentenced to death. He becomes a kind of folk hero, especially w/ women, swooning about his looks and pleading for his acquittal (he admits guilt; his lawyer puts up a spirited defense, though J issues a statement that is nearly idiotic) - as does happen from time to time w/ handsome killers such as Gilmore or the younger Marathon bomber - but J accepts the death sentence w/ equanimity. He wants to go out bold and proud - but proud of what? He has not a moment of remorse, not a moment of reflection about his wasted life and his exploitation of women, and, unless something surprising happens in the final pages, not a moment of grace or redemption. He goes down among the antiheroes of literature - Satan, Iago, Don Juan - but by no means the greatest. His motives are petty and selfish and his death well deserved.