Clavis Libri

Literary device

Sensory imagery

Description that appeals to the senses (what is seen, heard, smelled, tasted or touched) and makes the reader perceive the scene, not just understand it.

In The Red and the Black

There was a Te Deum, clouds of incense, endless volleys of muskets and artillery; the peasants were drunk with happiness and devotion. A day like that undoes the work of a hundred issues of Jacobin newspapers.

"Te Deum", "clouds of incense" and "endless volleys of muskets and artillery" combine song, smell and roar, and the reader hears and breathes the ceremony that intoxicates the peasants.

Book I, Chapter 18: A king in Verrières, the narrator

When Fouqué summoned the courage to look, she had placed, on a small marble table before her, Julien's head, and was kissing it on the forehead…
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Book II, Chapter 45, the narrator

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