Literary notes about Depression (AI summary)
The term "depression" appears with remarkable versatility in literature, serving both literal and metaphorical functions. In some works it designates a physical indentation or hollow—ranging from a dip in water [1] to a geographical hollow in the earth [2, 3]—while in others it conveys emotional heaviness or mental despondency. Authors evoke a state of sullen spirit, melancholy, or even clinical low moods [4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10], using the word to capture the profound interiority of their characters’ experiences. At times, it even connotes economic downturns or general societal malaise [11, 12, 13]. Thus, its usage oscillates between describing tangible depressions in nature and the intangible depths of the human condition [14, 15, 16].
- There was there a sort of depression in the water, as if it was suddenly lost in some fissure in the ground.
— from The Mysterious Island by Jules Verne - Abreast of the West Indies, this valley forks into two arms, and to the north it ends in an enormous depression 9,000 meters deep.
— from Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Seas: An Underwater Tour of the World by Jules Verne - The depth of the sea is not great at Newfoundland—not more than some hundreds of fathoms; but towards the south is a depression of 1,500 fathoms.
— from Twenty Thousand Leagues under the Sea by Jules Verne - This troubled state yielded by degrees, to sullen animosity, and depression of spirits.
— from The Last Man by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley - A dull depression settled on Luke's heart.
— from The Best Short Stories of 1917, and the Yearbook of the American Short Story - Depression was settling on him like a leaden weight.
— from The Secret Adversary by Agatha Christie - Happening to meet Shtcherbatsky, Kitty’s cousin, in the railway train, Levin greatly astonished him by his depression.
— from Anna Karenina by graf Leo Tolstoy - Moreover, the younger man's heart was heavy with the sort of unreasoning depression which is known only to youth.
— from Fathers and Sons by Ivan Sergeevich Turgenev - And so he wandered on, alternating between depression and elation as he stared at the shelves packed with wisdom.
— from Martin Eden by Jack London - Even his depression had passed, there was not a trace now of the energy with which he had set out “to make an end of it all.”
— from Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoyevsky - They have little to tide over a few years of economic depression, and are at the mercy of the cotton-market far more than the whites.
— from The Souls of Black Folk by W. E. B. Du Bois - Following the American occupation of the islands in 1898, came another period of depression.
— from All About Coffee by William H. Ukers - These eight hundred years had been centuries of cruel struggle, intellectual darkness, and social depression, but also of great religious devotion.
— from A History of the Philippines by David P. Barrows - " Sir James's brow had a little crease in it, a little depression of the eyebrow, which he seemed purposely to exaggerate as he answered.
— from Middlemarch by George Eliot - To lighten the depression of his spirits, the Baron hurried into the open air.
— from The Works of Edgar Allan Poe, The Raven Edition by Edgar Allan Poe - Nastasia smiled amiably at him; but evidently her depression and irritability were increasing with every moment.
— from The Idiot by Fyodor Dostoyevsky
