Literary notes about Imperceptible (AI summary)
In literature, "imperceptible" functions as a subtle yet powerful device that invites readers to notice what lies just beneath the surface. Authors use it to describe changes or movements so slight that they might easily go undetected—a thin haze cloaking a mountain crest ([1]), or an almost invisible smile hinting at concealed emotions ([2], [3]). It appears in descriptions of both the physical world, as with a flag's barely discernible detail ([4]) or the sea’s gentle swell ([5]), and the intangible realms of human thought and social change, where shifts occur gradually and with stealth ([6], [7]). By drawing attention to these minute, often overlooked phenomena, writers encourage a deeper engagement with the text, suggesting that transformation and meaning are woven into the subtlest of gradations ([8], [9]).
- A thin haze, almost imperceptible in the sunlight, hooded the blunt crest of the mountain.
— from One of Cleopatra's Nights and Other Fantastic Romances by Théophile Gautier - A second smile, almost imperceptible, stole over the rosy lips of the pretty young woman.
— from The three musketeers by Alexandre Dumas and Auguste Maquet - An imperceptible smile of triumph was expressed on the lips of the procureur.
— from The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas and Auguste Maquet - One of these flags was red and blue, with an imperceptible parting line of white.
— from Les Misérables, v. 4/5: The Idyll and the Epic by Victor Hugo - The sea was still save for an almost imperceptible swell.
— from The Country of the Blind, and Other Stories by H. G. Wells - It has no doubt absorbed many tribes in its fold, but this absorption has been of an evolutionary, imperceptible character.
— from Autobiography of a Yogi by Paramahansa Yogananda - It is easy to understand that what is imperceptible to those senses escapes me, during my bodily life, when I perceive through my senses only.
— from Emile by Jean-Jacques Rousseau - The first always pleases; it is unfettered, it perceives the most delicate and sees the most imperceptible matters.
— from Reflections; or Sentences and Moral Maxims by François duc de La Rochefoucauld - This light penetrates to the bottom of matters; it remarks all that can be remarked, and perceives what appears imperceptible.
— from Reflections; or Sentences and Moral Maxims by François duc de La Rochefoucauld
