Literary notes about Cirque (AI summary)
The term "cirque" in literature is remarkably versatile, serving both as a metaphor for grand natural amphitheaters and as a setting for human performance and drama. In some texts, it evokes the rugged majesty of mountain landscapes—illustrated by references to glaciated valleys and curved, rock-walled basins ([1], [2], [3], [4])—where nature’s power is rendered in vivid, almost theatrical detail. In other works, the word designates lively cultural venues, from the historic Cirque d’Hiver in Paris to various theaters and performance spaces that host ballets, concerts, and equestrian acts ([5], [6], [7], [8], [9]). This dual use enriches the term, linking the natural world with human spectacle and suggesting that both realms can be arenas of extraordinary beauty and drama ([10], [11]).
- A stone dropped from the top of the Pic du Marboré, 10,600 feet, will fall 5500 feet into the cirque.
— from A Book of the Pyrenees by S. (Sabine) Baring-Gould - We all know the face and hands of the figure, set in its marble chair, in that cirque of fantastic rocks, as in some faint light under sea.
— from The Renaissance: Studies in Art and Poetry by Walter Pater - As a powerful spring wears back a recess in the valley side where it discharges, so the fountain head of a glacier gradually wears back a cirque.
— from The Elements of Geology by William Harmon Norton - A huge cirque extending up toward Liberty Cap on the western side of the mountain.
— from Mount Rainier, a Record of Exploration - I'll tell Freluchon that she's in the ballet at the Cirque.
— from Paul and His Dog, v.1 (Novels of Paul de Kock Volume XIII) by Paul de Kock - "Monsieur likes the Cirque , does he not?"
— from Mademoiselle Blanche: A Novel by John D. (John Daniel) Barry - I went to the Cirque with my cousin, and we dined in the Palais Royal.
— from In the Days of My Youth: A Novel by Amelia Ann Blanford Edwards - He sat next to me at a Pasdeloup concert in the Cirque d'Hiver, how many years ago I do not care to say.
— from Visionaries by James Huneker - An equestrian, named Prince, was performing at the Cirque d’Été a vaulting act on two horses, which were leaping fixed bars.
— from Acrobats and Mountebanks by Jules Garnier - But the Cirque Rocambeau had been the whole of his life, childhood, boyhood, young manhood; he was linked to it by the fibres of a generous nature.
— from The Mountebank by William John Locke - "I had an engagement--at my ordinary music-hall terms--offered me at the Cirque Vendramin to fill in the blank weeks, and I couldn't afford to refuse.
— from The Mountebank by William John Locke
