Literary notes about descent (AI summary)
The word "descent" in literature spans a spectrum of meanings, both literal and figurative. In some works it depicts a physical downward movement or slope—as in the startling rapid fall described amid a lunar scene [1] or the smooth, sloping path observed from a high vantage [2, 3]. In other instances it signifies lineage or heritage, linking characters to ancient nobility or claimed ancestry, as when emphasizing bloodlines or the noble descent of a protagonist [4, 5, 6]. Moreover, descent can serve as a metaphor for a decline or transformation, whether in the realms of art, philosophy, or spiritual journeys [7, 8, 9]. Thus, across varied narratives, the term enriches storytelling by simultaneously conveying tangible motion and deeper symbolic connections to identity and legacy [10, 11].
- To-day I found an enormous increase in the moon’s apparent bulk—and the evidently accelerated velocity of my descent began to fill me with alarm.
— from The Works of Edgar Allan Poe — Volume 1 by Edgar Allan Poe - From where we stood to the ground below there stretched a smooth sloping descent in which the sun was reflected as in a looking-glass.
— from Project Gutenberg Compilation of Short Stories by Chekhov by Anton Pavlovich Chekhov - The descent of the mountain was a labor of only four minutes.
— from The Innocents Abroad by Mark Twain - This orthography might have confounded the pretensions put forward in the last century by the Vicomte de Gestas, of a descent from the wicked thief.
— from Les Misérables by Victor Hugo - I know the duty of a husband, and will protect your gentleness to the utmost, as much as if you were a princess by descent.
— from Pamela, or Virtue Rewarded by Samuel Richardson - People believed what he said of his paternal descent, because King Harald himself had testified to it, and he did not resort to the ordeal of iron.
— from Heimskringla; Or, The Chronicle of the Kings of Norway by Snorri Sturluson - The poem closes with the magnificent description of the descent of Dullness and her final conquest of art, philosophy, and religion.
— from The Rape of the Lock, and Other Poems by Alexander Pope - Prosperity is denominated ascent, and adversity descent.
— from A Treatise of Human Nature by David Hume - And Osiris of Egypt also is represented as making a descent into hell, and after a period of three days rose again.
— from The World's Sixteen Crucified Saviors; Or, Christianity Before Christ by Kersey Graves - If we wish to reach the real origin of this hypothesis of Practical Reason, we must trace its descent a little further back.
— from The Basis of Morality by Arthur Schopenhauer - The pride of royal descent was irritated by flattery; and the service in which he gloried had proved him capable of bold and sanguinary deeds.
— from The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire by Edward Gibbon
