Literary notes about Fortuity (AI summary)
Writers often employ "fortuity" to encapsulate the unexpected or accidental nature of life’s events, highlighting the delicate interplay between fate and chance. In many instances, authors contrast intentional actions with the randomness that governs heroism or historical developments, suggesting that outcomes may be more a product of blind, unpredictable circumstance than of deliberate design [1][2][3]. The word appears in varied contexts—from describing the serendipitous invention of gunpowder [4] to emphasizing the stark randomness in pivotal, life-altering moments [5]—thereby enriching narratives with layers of irony, mystery, and existential uncertainty.
- The poetical reader cannot admire the hero who is subject to such blind fortuity.
— from The Lusiad; Or, The Discovery of India, an Epic Poem by Luís de Camões - And in some cases consideration only increases the fortuity of its results.
— from The Mountebank by William John Locke - "Here my plan with Richard was false," he reflected: "in presuming that anything save blind fortuity would bring him such a mate as he should have."
— from The Ordeal of Richard Feverel — Volume 6 by George Meredith - Gunpowder, we know, was invented by a similar fortuity.”
— from The Fitz-Boodle Papers by William Makepeace Thackeray - The first blow of the hammer was struck, by some inconceivable fortuity, at the moment when the Duchesse de Fontanges expired.
— from Court Memoirs of France Series — Complete by Various
