Literary notes about frisson (AI summary)
The term "frisson" is deployed in literature to capture a momentary surge of emotion or physical sensation that can range from a tingling thrill to a deep, almost overwhelming shock. In some passages, it alludes to a spontaneous, bodily response—a shiver or a chill traced along the spine (ID [1], ID [2]), while in others it expresses an elevated aesthetic or emotional experience that lends a sense of vitality and passion to the narrative (ID [3], ID [4]). Authors employ it as a tool to evoke both the subtle and the profound, as when it is associated with moments of revelation, romantic excitement, or existential introspection (ID [5], ID [6], ID [7]). In this way, "frisson" becomes a multifaceted symbol, bridging the physical and the emotional, and enriching the reader’s experience through its nuanced implications of both pleasure and terror (ID [8], ID [9]).
- Ma première sensation fut un frisson dans le dos.
— from Human Personality and Its Survival of Bodily Death by F. W. H. (Frederic William Henry) Myers - Je sentis dans mes os un étrange frisson; Dans ma tête siffla le tintement d'un son; L'œil fixe, le cou roide et
— from My Memoirs, Vol. VI, 1832 to 1833 by Alexandre Dumas - En pleine chair, en plein ciel suis-je, (Trébuchant vers quatre horizons Pour retomber en un frisson)
— from Poems & Poèmes; autres alliances by Natalie Clifford Barney - The narrow streets were black tunnels into which Parisians plunged with an exquisite frisson of romantic fear.
— from The Soul of the War by Philip Gibbs - One gained from it that nouveau frisson which it was its aim to produce.
— from Intentions by Oscar Wilde - Our little Parisienne will get a frisson all right, all right, and such a one she’ll not be wanting any of again very soon.
— from The Missourian by Eugene P. (Eugene Percy) Lyle - Never a fine inspiration, a deep emotion, a profound joy or a profound pain—never a thrill, or, as the French say so much better than we, a frisson .
— from The Life and Letters of Lafcadio Hearn, Volume 2 by Elizabeth Bisland - p. 45), as he attributes the contraction of the platysma to the shivering of fear ( frisson de la peur )
— from The Expression of the Emotions in Man and Animals by Charles Darwin - “The frisson , oh, those few exquisite seconds of emotion, eh Berthe?”
— from The Missourian by Eugene P. (Eugene Percy) Lyle
