Literary notes about SOUVENIR (AI summary)
The term "souvenir" in literature spans a wide spectrum of meanings, from a simple memento to an emblem of enduring memory. Early French texts [1][2][3] define it as a recollection or impression retained by the mind, while novelists often imbue the object with deeper emotional resonance. Stendhal, for instance, employs the term to capture a cherished remnant of a joyful encounter [4], and Conan Doyle uses it to anchor a narrative of personal intrigue [5][6]. Authors like Helen Keller and Guy de Maupassant further explore its symbolic weight, associating it with historical moments and tender farewells [7][8][9], and even framing it as a token of adventures and lost histories [10][11][12]. Thus, across diverse contexts, the souvenir becomes a bridge between the tangible and the intangible, evoking both memory and sentiment.
- reconnaissance , f. , souvenir, gratitude d'un bien reçu.
— from French Conversation and Composition by Harry Vincent Wann - souvenir , m. , impression que la mémoire conserve d'une chose.
— from French Conversation and Composition by Harry Vincent Wann - souvenir : se --, avoir mémoire d'une chose.
— from French Conversation and Composition by Harry Vincent Wann - 'Here,' she said, 'keep this souvenir of a happy night; I shall never forget it.—Why are you a Colonel?'
— from On Love by Stendhal - It is a little souvenir from the King of Bohemia in return for my assistance in the case of the
— from The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes by Arthur Conan Doyle - Since we have been so unfortunate as to miss him and have no notion of his errand, this accidental souvenir becomes of importance.
— from The Hound of the Baskervilles by Arthur Conan Doyle - So much appears in the Volta Bureau Souvenir.
— from The Story of My Life by Helen Keller - You must bring me back something; a mere trifle, just a souvenir, but a souvenir that you have chosen for me.
— from Complete Original Short Stories of Guy De Maupassant by Guy de Maupassant - He always carried in his hand a superb cane with a gold knob, which must have been for him some glorious souvenir.
— from Complete Original Short Stories of Guy De Maupassant by Guy de Maupassant - Brazil and coffee; souvenir of the Louisiana purchase exposition. 1904.
— from All About Coffee by William H. Ukers - Souvenir of the Louisiana purchase exposition. 1904.
— from All About Coffee by William H. Ukers - It is a very interesting souvenir of Columbus, and of the Fair White City; but I cannot imagine what discoveries I have made,—I mean new discoveries.
— from The Story of My Life by Helen Keller