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Literary notes about crypt (AI summary)

Literary works employ the term "crypt" to evoke a sense of mystery, history, and the uncanny. Often a physical subterranean chamber—be it a burial vault beneath a chapel or cathedral [1, 2, 3]—it also carries metaphorical weight, symbolizing hidden secrets or inner darkness, much like the torch that illuminates the recesses of a troubled mind [4]. In narratives ranging from gothic tales to historical epics, crypts are depicted as places of solemn rituals, forgotten relics, or even as sites harboring unexpected revelations [5, 6, 7]. The word thus becomes a powerful device, merging the concrete architecture of ancient edifices with the abstract realms of memory and mystery [8, 9].
  1. "I go too," replied the Captain, and they entered the crypt.
    — from The Pope, the Kings and the PeopleA History of the Movement to Make the Pope Governor of the World by a Universal Reconstruction of Society from the Issue of the Syllabus to the Close of the Vatican Council by William Arthur
  2. They descended the narrow steps which led into the crypt, and paused among the gloomy arches, in a dim and murky spot.
    — from The Old Curiosity Shop by Charles Dickens
  3. Come over to London, and I will take you down into the crypt of St. Paul's, and show you how history is presented to you there.'
    — from A Red Wallflower by Susan Warner
  4. The words “peer of France” had been to him like a torch in a dark crypt.
    — from The Works of Balzac: A linked index to all Project Gutenberg editions by Honoré de Balzac
  5. We came into an enormous crypt that evidently underlay a temple.
    — from Caves of Terror by Talbot Mundy
  6. Why had our incomprehensible guide taken us into the depths of this underwater crypt?
    — from Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Seas: An Underwater Tour of the World by Jules Verne
  7. Nothing remains of it now but the crypt, into which Théodore has probably taken you, for Gilbert burned all the rest.
    — from Swann's Way by Marcel Proust
  8. He entered, then, laying his rifle on the table, and got down the lumicon and went over to the crypt.
    — from The Keeper by H. Beam Piper
  9. The detonation rolled from echo to echo in the crypt, like the rumbling of that titanic entrail.
    — from Les Misérables by Victor Hugo

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