Literary notes about enervation (AI summary)
In literature, "enervation" is employed as a term that extends beyond mere physical tiredness to encompass a profound, often multi-dimensional depletion of energy and spirit. It can denote the gradual erosion of moral vigor, as when the corruption of character is framed through the enervation of manhood and womanhood [1], or the debilitating effect of excessive luxury and refinement on personal resolve and creativity [2][3]. The word often carries an ambivalent tone, sometimes suggesting a languorous, almost pleasant state of quietude—as in the gentle enervation brought on by the fragrance of orange blossoms [4] or the blissful weariness following strenuous activity [5]—yet in other contexts it signals a catastrophic decline in individual or societal well-being [6][7]. Thus, whether illustrating the effects of systemic decay or the subtle vanishing of youthful energy, "enervation" serves as a powerful metaphor to capture the complex interplay between vitality and exhaustion that is central to many literary works [8][9].
- [Pg 267] result ensues in the enervation of manhood and the corruption of womanhood.
— from The Expositor's Bible: The Book of Proverbs by Robert F. (Robert Forman) Horton - The accomplishments of life are in nowise productive of effeminacy or enervation.
— from The Abominations of Modern Society by T. De Witt (Thomas De Witt) Talmage - If France had been beaten at the Marne, notice would have been served on humanity that thrift and refinement mean enervation.
— from My Second Year of the War by Frederick Palmer - Her passionate, tumultuous soul seemed to fall into a languorous enervation under the fragrance of the orange blossoms.
— from The Torrent (Entre Naranjos) by Vicente Blasco Ibáñez - After the roughness and hardships of the last week he felt a pleasant sense of quiet, of relaxation, of enervation.
— from Vandover and the Brute by Frank Norris - And thus are being sown the seeds of our national enervation.
— from The Schemes of the Kaiser by Juliette Adam - The result is general enervation, deterioration both as economic and political agents.
— from Influences of Geographic EnvironmentOn the Basis of Ratzel's System of Anthropo-Geography by Ellen Churchill Semple - The night had exacted its penalty in physical enervation as well as mental torment.
— from The New Boys at Oakdale by Morgan Scott - She dwelt in an atmosphere of excessive luxury, and found herself loving it more and more as she yielded to the spell of its subtle enervation.
— from An Ambitious Woman: A Novel by Edgar Fawcett
