Julien Sorel's character flaws or lack of character (The Red and the Black)

But then - Julien seems to leave the right-wing conspiracy, which he'd aided as a courier, aside and resume his courtship of Mlle de la Mole. He does so in a comic, or I would say ridiculous, manner: Runs into a Russian prince whom he knows, confesses his love for the aristocratic beauty, and the prince gives him courtship instructions, essentially telling him to profess love to someone else and to "woo" her via letter - he gives Julien 100 or so letters, which J is to copy out and send. This strategy will supposedly win over Mlle by making her jealous. This whole set-up is out of a comedy or opera-buffo, and seems as if it's bound to fail, but strangely it works and J has Mlle de la Mole back in his arms again and, you know what, by this point I don't even care. Once again Julien seems like an insipid character w/ no values other than his own social advancement; he continues to imagine that he's brave and bold, but never shows evidence of this. He imagines he would have been a valiant soldier in Napoleon's army - easy to imagine, hard to have done. He idolizes Napoleon, yet does nothing to advance the cause of a Republic, in fact he does the opposite. Where is this long novel heading?