Literary notes about four (AI summary)
The word “four” serves as a versatile, almost symbolic numeral in literature, employed to indicate time, quantity, structure, and even fate. It appears to count tangible things—as in four legions marching into battle ([1]), four rooms in a modest flat ([2]), or four couples enlivening a festive scene ([3])—but also to mark moments or durations, like four years of change ([4], [5]) or four days of endurance ([6]). Moreover, “four” can structure mythical or religious narratives, appearing in prophecies about four sons ([7]), in apocalyptic descriptions of the four winds ([8]), or in ritual texts referencing four sacred Vedas ([9]). This multiplicity of uses—from practical measures such as four hours in a journey ([10]) to symbolic groupings like the four corners of a table ([11])—illustrates how authors across genres strategically invoke “four” to give a sense of order, balance, or significance within their works.
- 184 That is, four legions and their regular contingent of socii.
— from The Histories of Polybius, Vol. 1 (of 2) by Polybius - Poni Aniele had a four-room flat in one of that wilderness of two-story frame tenements that lie “back of the yards.”
— from The Jungle by Upton Sinclair - The four merry couples, mingled with the sun, the fields, the flowers, the trees, were resplendent.
— from Les Misérables by Victor Hugo - In the space of four years about six hundred volumes were bought at his request.
— from Project Gutenberg Compilation of Short Stories by Chekhov by Anton Pavlovich Chekhov - Even the pride and disdainful aloofness for which he had been so detested four years before was now liked and respected.
— from The possessed : by Fyodor Dostoyevsky - I could not hold out for four days.
— from Notes from the Underground by Fyodor Dostoyevsky - He spoke; nor was his prayer denied: The best of Bráhmans thus replied: “Four sons, O Monarch, shall be thine, Upholders of thy royal line.”
— from The Rámáyan of Válmíki, translated into English verse by Valmiki - MEPHISTOPHELES Who knows, now, whither the four winds have blown it?
— from Faust [part 1]. Translated Into English in the Original Metres by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe - These ritual texts not only never enumerate the Vedas without including the Atharva , but even sometimes place it at the head of the four Vedas.
— from A History of Sanskrit Literature by Arthur Anthony Macdonell - I told you it must be ready by four o’clock.”
— from Dubliners by James Joyce - Thou shalt prepare also four golden rings, and shalt put them in the four corners of the same table, over each foot.
— from The Bible, Douay-Rheims, Complete
