Literary notes about ASPERITY (AI summary)
In literature, asperity is frequently employed to convey a sharp, biting quality in both tone and description. Writers use it to characterize speech that is abrupt, irritable, or laden with underlying hostility, as when a character retorts with a brisk, unyielding edge [1, 2, 3]. It also appears in depictions of physical texture, suggesting roughness or unevenness, as when every asperity of the soil is illuminated by light [4]. Through such varied applications—from the sharpness of a diplomat's rebuke [5, 6] to the physical jaggedness of a landscape—the term enriches narrative textures by evoking a sense of uncompromising severity and emotional intensity [7, 8, 9].
- "That question would provide an interesting subject for debate at the Carlton, my dear," he replied with equal asperity.
— from The Wings of the Morning by Louis Tracy - He broke out with great asperity, and told them dictatorially, they should not alter an iota of the letter.
— from Memoirs of the Reign of King George the Third, Volume 1 (of 4) by Horace Walpole - ‘What do you mean by that, Sir?’ said Mr. Tuckle, with great asperity.
— from The Pickwick Papers by Charles Dickens - Each hillock, every rock, every stone, every asperity of the soil had its share of the luminous effulgence, and its shadow fell heavily on the soil.
— from A Journey to the Centre of the Earth by Jules Verne - “Mr. Ford has already explained the situation,” he said with asperity.
— from Martin Eden by Jack London - May I inquire who has the honour to be the first?" asked Holmes with some asperity.
— from The Hound of the Baskervilles by Arthur Conan Doyle - p. 134) censures, with becoming asperity, the style and sentiments of this intolerant law.
— from The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire by Edward Gibbon - ‘Nobody but you,’ retorted Mrs. Pott, with asperity.
— from The Pickwick Papers by Charles Dickens - "But, Bertie, dash it——" "Jeeves," I said with a certain asperity, "is no longer on the case.
— from Right Ho, Jeeves by P. G. Wodehouse