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Literary notes about Inquisitive (AI summary)

In literature, "inquisitive" is used to convey a multifaceted sense of curiosity that can be both endearing and intrusive. Authors employ the term to illustrate subtle, observational behavior—as seen when a character turns a waistcoat’s collar with an inquisitive finger ([1]) or casts a probing gaze to recognize a familiar face ([2]). Sometimes it characterizes a meddlesome personality, one who cannot resist prying into matters best left untouched ([3], [4]), while in other contexts it hints at a broader, often adventurous urge to explore and understand the world, much like the careful examinations of an inquisitive traveller ([5], [6]). This versatile adjective enriches character portrayals and adds a layer of psychological depth, whether describing a moment of tender, reflective observation or an overt search for hidden truths ([7], [8]).
  1. But, he now leaned forward, turning the collar of his waistcoat with an inquisitive finger, and asked, 'Why, where's your watch?'
    — from Our Mutual Friend by Charles Dickens
  2. Edgar Linton, after an inquisitive stare, collected sufficient wit to recognise her.
    — from Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë
  3. He was, besides, a meddlesome, inquisitive man, who poked his nose into everything.
    — from The Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoyevsky
  4. no telling to others that make so inquisitive questions.
    — from Dracula by Bram Stoker
  5. One investigator deals with things like a policeman, another like a confessor, and yet a third like an inquisitive traveller.
    — from The Dawn of Day by Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche
  6. As Gibbon has remarked, “The place might be unknown if some broken arches of an aqueduct did not guide the footsteps of the inquisitive traveller.”
    — from The Natural History of Pliny, Volume 1 (of 6) by the Elder Pliny
  7. But, leaving that for the moment, how much did you part with, he queried, if I am not too inquisitive?
    — from Ulysses by James Joyce
  8. “You are too inquisitive,” remarked Evgenie Pavlovitch.
    — from The Idiot by Fyodor Dostoyevsky

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