Clavis Libri

Theme

Religion

Religion as practice and as institution: Church, worship, rite, clergy, Scripture, the sacred and the profane.

Madame Bovary

Gustave Flaubert

faith as sensation in Part I - The Ball as Poison, the church that does not listen in Part II, chs. 1-8 - The Show and the Seduction, and the duel of quotations at the wake in Chapter 9 of Part III.

Dom Casmurro

Machado de Assis

the vow of Dona Glória (chapter XI), the thousand Paternosters and a thousand Hail Marys (chapter XX), the vocation that comes with habit (chapter XLI), the ordained orphan in place of the son (chapter XCVI).