Clavis Libri

Theme

Pride

Pride: vanity, arrogance, the excess the Greeks called hubris.

The Red and the Black

Stendhal

love as a war of vanities, in chapters 16 to 30 of Book II.

Crime and Punishment

Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoevsky

the refusal of Dunya's sacrifice (Chapter IV of Part One), the confrontation with mother and sister (Chapter III of Part Three), the night when he calls himself a louse (Chapter VI of Part Three), Katerina Ivanovna at the funeral (Chapter II of Part Five), the farewell in which he still denies being a criminal (Chapter VII of Part Six) and the illness of wounded pride in prison (Chapter II of the Epilogue).

Purgatory

Dante Alighieri

the proud bent under stones (Canto X), Omberto, who despised all men because of his blood, and Oderisi, who only later sees the vanity (Canto XI), the floor with the falls of pride (Canto XII) and Dante's fear of carrying the weight of the first ledge (Canto XIII).

Notes from Underground

Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoevsky

the susceptibility of a hunchback and a dwarf (Part One, ch. II), the chicken coop that does not become a palace (Part One, ch. X), the vanity that makes him fall silent before the officer (Part Two, ch. I), the yellow stain on his trousers at dinner (Part Two, ch. III), the three hours' walk from table to stove (Part Two, ch. IV), the script of the slap (Part Two, ch. V), the dressing gown in front of Liza (Part Two, ch. IX) and the five-ruble note (Part Two, ch. X).