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Literary notes about Intricacy (AI summary)

In literature, the word "intricacy" is employed to capture a sense of elaborate detail and multifaceted complexity, whether in the depiction of natural scenery, the structure of a narrative, or the subtleties of human emotion. Writers often invoke the term to describe the delicate, interwoven elements of a landscape, as in the detailed mountain outlines that evoke nature’s hidden depths ([1]), while also using it to underscore the formidable complexity of intellectual or abstract problems ([2]). It appears in descriptions of both physical forms—such as the geometric precision of carvings ([3]) and the elaborate construction of manuscript initials ([4], [5])—and metaphorical constructs, like the convoluted patterns found within the inner life ([6]) or organizational structures ([7]). This careful layering of meaning lends a richly textured quality to literary works, inviting readers to explore the interplay between order and the inherent entanglement of life’s details.
  1. What is beautiful in the landscape of that northern watershed is the subtlety, delicacy, variety, and intricacy of the mountain outlines.
    — from Sketches and Studies in Italy and Greece, Second Series by John Addington Symonds
  2. Stated in its mathematical aspect, and without having its intricacy abated by any modifying circumstances, the problem is one that defies solution.
    — from The Story of the Heavens by Robert S. (Robert Stawell) Ball
  3. [pg 58] The delicacy of the carving and the apparent intricacy of the geometrical arrangement are very remarkable.
    — from Ancient and Modern Furniture and Woodwork by John Hungerford Pollen
  4. The initial letters are of gigantic size, and of extreme intricacy, and are generally surrounded with rows of minute red dots.
    — from International Weekly Miscellany of Literature, Art and Science — Volume 1, No. 3, July 15, 1850 by Various
  5. The smaller ornaments and initial letters throughout the manuscript display great intricacy of design.
    — from Bibliomania in the Middle Ages by F. Somner (Frederick Somner) Merryweather
  6. Who can hope after this to disentangle the infinite intricacy of our inner life?
    — from Unconscious Memory by Samuel Butler
  7. That is an instance of the complications of the modern railroad—the vast intricacy of organization.
    — from The Modern Railroad by Edward Hungerford

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