Literary notes about Voluble (AI summary)
Writers employ "voluble" to portray characters or voices that overflow with unrestrained, often rapid, speech. In some texts, this abundance of words underscores a character’s animated nature—for instance, a character’s "voluble protests" can diminish an argument's weight [1] or highlight an inherently chatty disposition [2]. The term also captures shifts in mood, such as a normally quiet individual becoming strikingly talkative when impassioned [3], and it spans a range of tones from gentle enthusiasm [4] to ironic exuberance [5]. In its varied applications—from conveying the swift, sometimes excessive flow of dialogue in "Sister Carrie" [6] to invoking the nuanced sound of animated human chatter in works by James Joyce [7, 8]—"voluble" enriches narrative texture by vividly characterizing the act of speaking.
- He had more sense and fewer airs than any other, he saw at once that I was in earnest; and Constant's voluble protests were as so much wind.
— from The Helmet of Navarre by Bertha Runkle - " His friend Mrs. Bates is always voluble.
— from Woman's Work in English Fiction, from the Restoration to the Mid-Victorian Period by Clara Helen Whitmore - Taciturn though he was usually, at every mention of gold his eyes brightened, and he became almost voluble.
— from The Radio Boys Rescue the Lost Alaska Expedition by Gerald Breckenridge - There was a case in Colorado——” The little man’s voice trailed on, voluble, mildly enthusiastic.
— from The Secret Adversary by Agatha Christie - What fun shone in his eyes as he recalled some of her fine speeches, and repeated them, imitating her voluble delivery!
— from Villette by Charlotte Brontë - she inquired, thinking of the voluble promises he had made.
— from Sister Carrie: A Novel by Theodore Dreiser - Please, sir... Voluble, dutiful, he led the way to all the provincial papers, a bowing dark figure following his hasty heels.
— from Ulysses by James Joyce - In the daylit corridor he talked with voluble pains of zeal, in duty bound, most fair, most kind, most honest broadbrim.
— from Ulysses by James Joyce
