Literary notes about Intimacy (AI summary)
In literature, "intimacy" is employed to capture a broad range of relationships—from the sudden, almost palpable closeness that can develop between strangers to the deeper, sometimes secret bonds that define personal or political associations. Authors use the term to suggest an immediacy in connection, as when conversation quickly ushers in a sense of mutual familiarity ([1], [2]), or to illustrate relationships marked by delicate secrecy and vulnerability ([3], [4]). At times, it even denotes the formal closeness of social or political networks, revealing both the power and the potential hazards of such bonds ([5], [6]). The term thus operates as a versatile concept that illuminates the multifaceted nature of human interaction.
- Suddenly, after a few minutes of conversation, he seemed already to be installed in my intimacy.
— from Complete Original Short Stories of Guy De Maupassant by Guy de Maupassant - A few more questions and answers followed; and after about ten remarks, a greater intimacy sprang up between them.
— from Hung Lou Meng, or, the Dream of the Red Chamber, a Chinese Novel, Book I by Xueqin Cao - Upon such Notice, unobserved by others, (for their entire Intimacy was always a Secret)
— from The Declaration of Independence of the United States of America by Thomas Jefferson - She has closely examined me as to the sort of intimacy existing between us.
— from The Romance of Lust: A classic Victorian erotic novel by Anonymous - V. 'Well, then, does sovereignty and the intimacy of kings prove able to confer power?
— from The Consolation of Philosophy by Boethius - This diabolical agent had the Divine permission, for a season, to burrow into the clergyman's intimacy, and plot against his soul.
— from The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne
