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Literary notes about Magnificence (AI summary)

The word "magnificence" has long been deployed in literature to evoke an impression of grandeur, splendor, and higher-than-life beauty, whether in the physical realm or the sphere of human qualities. In historical texts, such as in [1] and [2], it is used to describe regal and stately settings—from the noble bearing of a ruler’s residence to the awe inspired by the emperor's palace. At the same time, authors like Dickens [3] and Verne [4] utilize the term to suggest overwhelming, nearly ineffable displays of wealth or natural beauty, while other writers, as in [5], employ it more ironically to comment on ostentation or vanity. The word’s versatility is further underlined by its usage in philosophical and aesthetic discourses, as seen in [6], where magnificence becomes not merely a physical attribute but a marker of transcendent truth. Thus, throughout its varied applications, "magnificence" continues to capture both literal and metaphorical realms of splendor in literature.
  1. But at home, on his farm, Sigurd stood in no respect behind his brother in splendour and magnificence.
    — from Heimskringla; Or, The Chronicle of the Kings of Norway by Snorri Sturluson
  2. At the same time the emperor had a great desire that I should see the magnificence of his palace; but
    — from Gulliver's Travels into Several Remote Nations of the World by Jonathan Swift
  3. Quite overpowered by the magnificence of these transactions, I asked him where the ships he insured mostly traded to at present?
    — from Great Expectations by Charles Dickens
  4. It was the glorious and wild vegetation of the Tertiary period, in all its superb magnificence.
    — from A Journey to the Centre of the Earth by Jules Verne
  5. I'll stay here to help In working up his ardor to its height Of vain magnificence....
    — from Lysistrata by Aristophanes
  6. A breath from that early world seems to enlarge our natures, and to restore to language, which we have sophisticated, all its magnificence and truth.
    — from The Life of Reason: The Phases of Human Progress by George Santayana

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