Literary notes about Edge (AI summary)
The word "edge" serves as a versatile metaphor and descriptor in literature, functioning both as a literal boundary and a figurative threshold between states or conditions. It frequently conveys the physical limits of landscapes—as seen in the descriptions of riverbanks, precipices, and lands [1][2][3]—as well as the brink of danger or change, where characters confront peril or transformative moments [4][5][6]. Additionally, "edge" is employed to denote the fine line between stability and chaos, whether in the tension of a duel or the precarious balance of social or emotional states [7][8][9]. In more technical or decorative contexts, it even refers to the precise boundaries that define and enhance objects, from heraldic emblems to the crafted details of everyday items [10][11][12].
- It takes a lot of water, and running strong, to sweep the outside edge of a river clear.
— from Dracula by Bram Stoker - Only a slender column of dust was still eddying at the edge of the precipice.
— from A Hero of Our Time by Mikhail Iurevich Lermontov - At the edge of the woods, at a point where the trail forked toward the old site of Smith's Pocket, he saw M'liss coming toward him.
— from The Luck of Roaring Camp and Other Tales by Bret Harte - But I had no time to think of the danger, for another stone sang past me as I hung by my hands from the edge of the ledge.
— from The Return of Sherlock Holmes by Arthur Conan Doyle - Love is a delicious flower, but one must have the courage to go and pick it on the edge of a frightful precipice.
— from On Love by Stendhal - How can she sit on the edge of the abyss of loathsomeness into which she is slipping and refuse to listen when she is told of danger?
— from Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoyevsky - Take heed, dear heart, of this large privilege; The hardest knife ill-us'd doth lose his edge.
— from Shakespeare's Sonnets by William Shakespeare - Thornton's desperate struggle was fresh-written on the earth, and Buck scented every detail of it down to the edge of a deep pool.
— from The call of the wild by Jack London - He listened with pleasure, so that he longed to laugh and laugh... all his nerves were on edge.
— from Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoyevsky - The label was originally drawn with its upper edge identical with the top of the shield (Fig. 520), but later its position on the shield was lowered.
— from A Complete Guide to Heraldry by Arthur Charles Fox-Davies - The bottom is then cut off accurately to fit the sole and sewed to the edge of the band.
— from The Declaration of Independence of the United States of America by Thomas Jefferson - 172 Casting on 173 Stitches 178 Stocking knitting 182 Scalloped edge 183 Heels 184
— from Encyclopedia of Needlework by Thérèse de Dillmont
