Literary notes about baffling (AI summary)
The adjective “baffling” is employed by authors to evoke a sense of mystery and perplexity that permeates both character experiences and natural phenomena. It is used to describe maladies that strike without warning [1], paradoxical behaviours that defy conventional explanation [2, 3], and even the very elements of nature, such as winds or calms that mislead and confuse [4, 5]. In narrative discourse, writers invoke “baffling” to underline the inherent contradictions of human emotion and thought, whether it is the subtle agitation behind a smile [6] or the impenetrable darkness that enshrouds a puzzling situation [7, 8]. This versatile term thus serves as a literary tool to enhance atmospheres of uncertainty and to illustrate the mysterious quality of both events and character traits, leaving readers with an enduring sense of ambivalence about what can truly be understood [9, 10, 11].
- It was a mysterious and baffling malady; and it would not be wonderful if he should in some moment of apparent health be suddenly taken away.
— from Complete Prose Works by Walt Whitman - Adam listened with baffling intentness while his strange guest practiced strangely the telling of truth.
— from Kenny by Leona Dalrymple - Alice looked at him with a complex and baffling face; then she said in a low voice: “After it all, I am still glad you are brave.”
— from The innocence of Father Brown by G. K. Chesterton - Baffling winds prevailed for three days; but the monsoon resuming on the 16th, Suffren approached.
— from The Influence of Sea Power Upon History, 1660-1783 by A. T. Mahan - Nowhere is the wind so light, baffling, and every way unreliable, and so given to perplexing calms, as at the Encantadas.
— from The Piazza Tales by Herman Melville - A smile, whimsical and baffling, crept to the [Pg 143] corners of Patsy’s mouth.
— from Seven Miles to Arden by Ruth Sawyer - How vivid it all was, how persistent, yet how baffling its secret!
— from A Book of Bryn Mawr Stories - He strove to reason concerning the direction of his movements, but quickly abandoned the attempt as altogether baffling.
— from The Wilderness Trail by Francis William Sullivan - History had no need to ask what either might be; all it needed to know was the admission of ignorance; the mere fact of multiplicity baffling science.
— from The Education of Henry Adams by Henry Adams - In this head the all-baffling brain, In it and below it the makings of heroes.
— from Leaves of Grass by Walt Whitman - This would explain the circumstance, so baffling for the prosecution, that only eight hundred roubles were to be found in Mitya's hands.
— from The Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoyevsky
