Literary notes about across (AI summary)
The word "across" in literature is a versatile tool that authors use to express movement, connection, and the span of both physical and abstract spaces. In many works, it conveys the literal sense of traversing a distance—for instance, a character swimming across a rapid river [1] or journeying across a vast desert [2]—while also illustrating how elements extend or merge, as in a gilded altar stretching across a chapel [3] or dark mists rolling across a plain like smoke [4]. Additionally, "across" often marks moments of transition or interaction, whether it be a glance shifting across a room [5, 6] or a gesture moving fluidly from one surface to another [7, 8]. These varied examples underscore the word’s rich ability to animate scenes by linking spaces, actions, and ideas seamlessly within the narrative.
- He swam across a rapid river when he was a hundred.
— from Pushing to the Front by Orison Swett Marden - So I believe the best way to get across the desert will be through the air.
— from The Wonderful Wizard of Oz by L. Frank Baum - Its altar, like that of all the Greek churches, is a lofty screen that extends clear across the chapel, and is gorgeous with gilding and pictures.
— from The Innocents Abroad by Mark Twain - We were plowing through great deeps of powdery alkali dust that rose in thick clouds and floated across the plain like smoke from a burning house.
— from Roughing It by Mark Twain - (Edy Boardman, sniffling, crouched with Bertha Supple, draws her shawl across her nostrils.)
— from Ulysses by James Joyce - “I see that you are professionally rather busy just now,” said he, glancing very keenly across at me.
— from The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes by Arthur Conan Doyle - He pushed the open book across the table to me, and pointed to a passage, marked by pencil lines.
— from The Moonstone by Wilkie Collins - “What may I give you?” asked the chemist’s wife, holding her dress across her bosom.
— from The Duel and Other Stories by Anton Pavlovich Chekhov
