Literary notes about Cavalier (AI summary)
The word "cavalier" in literature serves a dual purpose: it designates both a courtly, chivalrous figure and an air of casual, sometimes even dismissive, nonchalance. In historical and adventure narratives it often identifies a distinguished gentleman or a military retainer—one associated with royal service or noble companionship ([1], [2], [3])—while in other contexts it characterizes a light-hearted, elegantly swaggering persona ([4], [5], [6]). Additionally, the term can appear in commercial or symbolic roles, as when it names a firm or a partner in business ([7], [8]). This multiplicity of uses allows "cavalier" to evoke images of valor and refinement as well as a certain stylish indifference throughout literary works.
- He fancied he had traced them to one Georges d'Anthes, a Frenchman in the Cavalier Guard, who had been adopted by the Dutch envoy Heeckeren.
— from Eugene Oneguine [Onegin] by Aleksandr Sergeevich Pushkin - “I have the honour to introduce myself, the hereditary, honourable citizen and cavalier, Stepan Ivanovitch Kutsyn, mayor of this town.
— from Project Gutenberg Compilation of Short Stories by Chekhov by Anton Pavlovich Chekhov - He was a “cavalier” of the King’s household.
— from A Journal of the First Voyage of Vasco da Gama 1497-1499 - He was a youth again in feeling—a cavalier in action.
— from Sister Carrie: A Novel by Theodore Dreiser - At thirty-five, which was then his age, he passed, with just title, for the handsomest gentleman and the most elegant cavalier of France or England.
— from The three musketeers by Alexandre Dumas and Auguste Maquet - He felt ready to face the devil, and strutted in the ballroom with the swagger of a cavalier.
— from New Arabian Nights by Robert Louis Stevenson - In 1838, a firm of Cavalier published "The Spirit of Modern Law" by Baron Bourlac, sharing the profits with the author.
— from Repertory of The Comedie Humaine, Complete, A — Z by Cerfberr and Christophe - CAVALIER, Fendant's partner; both were book-collectors, publishers and venders in Paris, on rue Serpente in 1821.
— from Repertory of The Comedie Humaine, Complete, A — Z by Cerfberr and Christophe