Julien Sorel's immorality and egotism

Almost caught, as Julien Sorel (The Red and the Black, Stendahl) learns that one of the mayor's many enemies is about to give the mayor, M de Renal) word that his wife has been having an affair w/ Julien, J and Mme de Renal engage in a tedious back and forth about what they should do. Mme d R becomes obsessed w/ the idea that god is punishing her for her adultery by striking her youngest son, Stanislas, with a serious illness. While at first she swears to break off the affair and confess to her husband if only god will relent and bring her son back to heath, over the course of their discussions she switches allegiance and decides she could not bear to give up Julien and doesn't care about the consequences - by the end of the chapter nobody's talking about poor Stanislas as all. Rather, Mme de Renal concocts a complicated plan in which she and J send a fake letter of accusation to M de Renal and she professes her innocence, blaming the letters as a calumny from one of his political rivals. Again, what strikes me here is the complete amorality Julien and the complete selfishness of all of the adults - the children, let alone the husband, are inconsequential - perhaps understandable in some contexts, but when we think of Julien's ambition and his fixation on a career in the church, his insensitivity and egotism is especially disturbing, even despicable.