Literary notes about effrontery (AI summary)
The word "effrontery" has long served as a literary device to characterize audacity and shameless boldness. In classic literature, it is used to denote overt impertinence and moral insolence, as seen when a character's brazen impudence nearly rivals political defiance [1], [2]. Similarly, authors employ the term to critique behaviors that flout societal norms, whether in the derisive reflections of Chekhov’s narrative critique [3] or in the satirical observation of social etiquette by Emily Post [4]. From describing a lawyer’s unyielding nerve [5] to the insolent declaration in Wilde’s witty exclamation [6], the term encapsulates both humorous and severe judgments, emphasizing moments where personal or collective modesty is profoundly challenged.
- “These Gascons,” said the cardinal, laughing, “almost beat the Italians in effrontery.”
— from Twenty years after by Alexandre Dumas and Auguste Maquet - In France, my dear sir, half such a piece of effrontery as that would cause you to be quickly despatched to Toulon for five years, for change of air.”
— from The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas and Auguste Maquet - What I feel when in my presence she has the effrontery to support her errors by blasphemously quoting the teaching of Christ!
— from Project Gutenberg Compilation of Short Stories by Chekhov by Anton Pavlovich Chekhov - It is also effrontery for a younger person to call an older by her or his first name, without being asked to do so.
— from Etiquette by Emily Post - The lawyer's natural effrontery did not desert him.
— from Complete Prose Works by Walt Whitman - What effrontery!
— from The Importance of Being Earnest: A Trivial Comedy for Serious People by Oscar Wilde
