He looked at her hair done up high, with the long white veil and white flowers and the high, stand-up, scalloped collar, that in such a maidenly fashion hid her long neck at the sides and only showed it in front, her strikingly slender figure, and it seemed to him that she looked better than ever—not because these flowers, this veil, this gown from Paris added anything to her beauty; but because, in spite of the elaborate sumptuousness of her attire, the expression of her sweet face, of her eyes, of her lips was still her own characteristic expression of guileless truthfulness.
— from Anna Karenina by Tolstoy, Leo, graf

The Fairy was very much flattered by this compliment, and said, calling to her servants: “You shall not wait another minute, you are so polite, and in spite of the enormous size of your nose you are really very agreeable.”
— from The Blue Fairy Book by Andrew Lang

Some have said this stone to be set as a mark in the middle of the city within the walls; but in truth it standeth far nearer unto the river of Thames than to the wall of the city; some others have said the same to be set for the tendering and making of payment by debtors to their creditors at their appointed days and times, till of later time payments were more usually made at the font in Pont’s church, and now most commonly at the Royal Exchange; some again have imagined the same to be set up by one John or Thomas Londonstone dwelling there against; but more likely it is, that such men have taken name of the stone than the stone of them, as did John at Noke, Thomas at Stile, William at Wall, or at Well, etc. Down west from this parish church, and from London stone, have ye Walbrooke corner; from whence runneth up a street, north to the Stocks, called Walbrook, because it standeth on the east side of the same brook, by the bank thereof, and the whole ward taketh the name of that street.
— from The Survey of London by John Stow

It was now the time of the spring rains, and Ona had often to ride to her work, in spite of the expense; she was getting paler every day, and sometimes, in spite of her good resolutions, it pained her that Jurgis did not notice it.
— from The Jungle by Upton Sinclair

The Goethean theory and lesson (if I may briefly state it so) of the exclusive sufficiency of artistic, scientific, literary equipment to the character, irrespective of any strong claims of the political ties of nation, state, or city, could have answer'd under the conventionality and pettiness of Weimar, or the Germany, or even Europe, of those times; but it will not do for America to-day at all.
— from Complete Prose Works Specimen Days and Collect, November Boughs and Goodbye My Fancy by Walt Whitman

I beg him to consider also, that in spite of the exceptional strength of her spirit and the very considerable amount of common sense and practical, so to say business, tact she possessed, there were moments in her life in which she abandoned herself altogether, entirely and, if it’s permissible to say so, absolutely without restraint.
— from The Possessed (The Devils) by Fyodor Dostoyevsky

He got from them also the timber suited to the construction of these canoes; and so in two days had an innumerable supply of transports, every soldier seeking to be independent of his neighbour, and to have the means of crossing in his own hands.
— from The Histories of Polybius, Vol. 1 (of 2) by Polybius

The two elder sisters were quite ignorant how the tree came where it stood; but Two-Eyes perceived that it was produced by the goat's entrails, for it stood on the exact spot where she had buried them.
— from Grimm's Fairy Stories by Wilhelm Grimm

A market town and parish, containing 678 houses, and 3269 inhabitants, situated on the east side of the river Avon.
— from Survey of the High Roads of England and Wales. Part the First. Comprising the counties of Kent, Surrey, Sussex, Hants, Wilts, Dorset, Somerset, Devon, and Cornwall. etc. by Edward S. Mogg

They were, however, in spite of their efforts, soon besieged on all sides, by reason of the superior numbers of their enemies.
— from The Chronicles of Enguerrand de Monstrelet, Vol. 07 [of 13] Containing an account of the cruel civil wars between the houses of Orleans and Burgundy, of the possession of Paris and Normandy by the English, their expulsion thence, and of other memorable events that happened in the kingdom of France, as well as in other countries by Enguerrand de Monstrelet

The remainder of the passage describes "Boggart Ho' Clough," the spot in which St. John's Fern then grew in great abundance, and where the botanists of the district still find the plant; it describes, also, the fearful enterprise of the three at the witching hour of midnight, in search of the enchanted seed:— "On the left hand, reader, as thou goest towards Manchester, ascending from Blackley, is a rather deep valley, green swarded, and embowered in plantations and older woods.
— from Lancashire Sketches Third Edition by Edwin Waugh

Once out of the gulf he would go home again, if only for a week or two, for the Capsina, as she had told him, was meaning to join the Greek fleet on its spring cruise, and till it started on that even she confessed there was no further work to hand.
— from The Capsina: An Historical Novel by E. F. (Edward Frederic) Benson

"Unlike most subjects, your organ of firmness is not confined to any one spot, but is spread over the entire skull.
— from Punchinello, Volume 2, No. 29, October 15, 1870 by Various

Finally, a thick coat of enamel, or glossy porcellaneous lime, is spread over the entire surface of the shell, from the narrow aperture to the back-line, which coat takes the form of those transverse folds which are so characteristic of the species and so elegant.
— from A Year at the Shore by Philip Henry Gosse