Introduction: "I have used similitudes" -- The theme of vocation / James Joyce's A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man -- The theme of the fall / Albert Camus' The Fall -- The theme of judgement / Franz Kafka's The Trial -- The theme of suffering / William Faulkner's The Sound and the Fury -- The theme of love / Graham Greene's The Heart of the Matter -- The theme of the remnant / Ignazio Silone's A Handful of Blackberries.
