Auto-da-Fé

Auto-da-Fé (orig. Die Blendung, "The Blinding") is a novel by Elias Canetti. The title of the English translation by C.V. Wedgwood ('46) refers to the Inquisition burning heretics. The book was banned by the Nazis & didn't become widely known until after the global success of Crowds & Power ('60). The protagonist is Peter Kien, a middle-aged philologist. He was the owner of the most important private library in the whole of the city. He carried a minute portion of it with him wherever he went. His passion for it, the only one which he had permitted himself during a life of austere & exacting study, moved him to take special precautions. Books, even bad ones, tempted him easily into making a purchase. Fortunately, the great number of the book shops didn't open until after eight o'clock. Kien is absorbed in his studies of Chinese & fears social & physical contact, but he's pressured into marrying his ignorant housekeeper, Therese Krummholz, who robs him with the help of Benedikt Pfaff, the proto-fascist apartment manager. Kien descends to the depths of society as his brother tries in vain to cure him, reaching an apocalyptic end amid his books.