Literary notes about Crypt (AI summary)
Literary works employ the term "crypt" to evoke a sense of mystery, history, and the uncanny. Often a physical subterranean chamber—be it a burial vault beneath a chapel or cathedral [1, 2, 3]—it also carries metaphorical weight, symbolizing hidden secrets or inner darkness, much like the torch that illuminates the recesses of a troubled mind [4]. In narratives ranging from gothic tales to historical epics, crypts are depicted as places of solemn rituals, forgotten relics, or even as sites harboring unexpected revelations [5, 6, 7]. The word thus becomes a powerful device, merging the concrete architecture of ancient edifices with the abstract realms of memory and mystery [8, 9].
- "I go too," replied the Captain, and they entered the crypt.
— from The Pope, the Kings and the PeopleA History of the Movement to Make the Pope Governor of the World by a Universal Reconstruction of Society from the Issue of the Syllabus to the Close of the Vatican Council by William Arthur - They descended the narrow steps which led into the crypt, and paused among the gloomy arches, in a dim and murky spot.
— from The Old Curiosity Shop by Charles Dickens - Come over to London, and I will take you down into the crypt of St. Paul's, and show you how history is presented to you there.'
— from A Red Wallflower by Susan Warner - The words “peer of France” had been to him like a torch in a dark crypt.
— from The Works of Balzac: A linked index to all Project Gutenberg editions by Honoré de Balzac - We came into an enormous crypt that evidently underlay a temple.
— from Caves of Terror by Talbot Mundy - Why had our incomprehensible guide taken us into the depths of this underwater crypt?
— from Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Seas: An Underwater Tour of the World by Jules Verne - Nothing remains of it now but the crypt, into which Théodore has probably taken you, for Gilbert burned all the rest.
— from Swann's Way by Marcel Proust - He entered, then, laying his rifle on the table, and got down the lumicon and went over to the crypt.
— from The Keeper by H. Beam Piper - The detonation rolled from echo to echo in the crypt, like the rumbling of that titanic entrail.
— from Les Misérables by Victor Hugo