Literary notes about Amusing (AI summary)
In literature, "amusing" is employed as a versatile descriptor that conveys lighthearted humor, irony, or playful wit, often providing a nuanced counterpoint to more serious themes. Authors use it to designate curious incidents or charming behaviors—whether noting a comically developed episode ([1]) or illustrating a character’s ironic self-entertainment ([2])—and to highlight situations where the unexpected or absurd becomes a source of gentle delight ([3], [4]). In this way, the term not only enhances the texture of dialogue and narrative but also invites readers to share in a subtle, reflective enjoyment of life's quirks ([5], [6]).
- Once or twice it was comically developed, as in the following case; but this was an amusing incident, and not the rule, or near it.
— from American Notes by Charles Dickens - When Ursula toddled about, she was an absorbed, busy child, always amusing herself, needing not much attention from other people.
— from The Rainbow by D. H. Lawrence - "O Lord," he sighs with an amusing movement of his black eyebrows, "there are some funny people in the world."
— from The Bet, and other stories by Anton Pavlovich Chekhov - “PARDIEU,” cried d’Artagnan, “it will be a double amusing affair to save the queen with the cardinal’s money!”
— from The three musketeers by Alexandre Dumas and Auguste Maquet - There is nothing more amusing than such meetings as this.
— from Complete Original Short Stories of Guy De Maupassant by Guy de Maupassant - And not only is such a study instructive: he who reads for amusement only will find no chapter in the annals of the human mind more amusing than this.
— from Memoirs of Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds by Charles Mackay
