Literary notes about Between (AI summary)
The word "between" in literature is a remarkably versatile tool that can denote physical space, temporal intervals, relational boundaries, or even abstract contrasts. In many works, as in Flaubert’s depiction of delicate objects arranged “between the candelabra” [1] or Josephus’s geographical markers “between Arabia and Judea” [2], it creates precise spatial images. Meanwhile, authors like Durkheim [3, 4, 5] and William James [6, 7, 8] employ the term to bridge concepts or indicate transitional states, establishing connections or distinctions between ideas and phenomena. In narratives by Austen [9, 10] and Twain [11, 12, 13], "between" also shapes interpersonal relationships and highlights emotional distances, whether literal or metaphorical. Thus, across different genres, "between" enriches the text by marking boundaries, mediating relationships, and drawing contrasts in both the tangible and intangible realms.
- On the chimney between the candelabra there were two of those pink shells in which one hears the murmur of the sea if one holds them to the ear.
— from Madame Bovary by Gustave Flaubert - This place is between Arabia and Judea, beyond Jordan, not far from the country of Heshbon.
— from Antiquities of the Jews by Flavius Josephus - [22] The rationalism which is imminent in the sociological theory of knowledge is thus midway between the classical empiricism and apriorism.
— from The Elementary Forms of the Religious Life by Émile Durkheim - Then they put the dung, thus enveloped, on the ground between two bunches of this herb and set the whole thing on fire.
— from The Elementary Forms of the Religious Life by Émile Durkheim - Thus between the logic of religious thought and that of scientific thought there is no abyss.
— from The Elementary Forms of the Religious Life by Émile Durkheim - If the nervous communication be cut off between the brain and other parts, the experiences of those other parts are non-existent for the mind.
— from The Principles of Psychology, Volume 1 (of 2) by William James - First of all, we note a marked difference between the elementary sensations of duration and those of space .
— from The Principles of Psychology, Volume 1 (of 2) by William James - The border line between objective sense and nonsense is hard to draw; that between subjective sense and nonsense, impossible.
— from The Principles of Psychology, Volume 1 (of 2) by William James - She perfectly remembered everything that had passed in conversation between Wickham and herself, in their first evening at Mr. Phillips's.
— from Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen - Mr. Wickham did not play at whist, and with ready delight was he received at the other table between Elizabeth and Lydia.
— from Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen - God would not have permitted her to love George Selby as she did, and him to love her, if it was right for society to raise up a barrier between them.
— from The Gilded Age: A Tale of Today by Mark Twain and Charles Dudley Warner - Curst be that fortune which sets a distance between us.
— from History of Tom Jones, a Foundling by Henry Fielding - Between St. Louis and Cairo the steamboat wrecks average one to the mile;—two hundred wrecks, altogether.
— from Life on the Mississippi by Mark Twain
