Literary notes about instant (AI summary)
The word "instant" is deployed in literature to portray moments of abrupt change or decision, emphasizing both the brevity and significance of such junctures. Authors use it to capture the immediate onset of emotion or action, as when a character's resolve is crystallized in a heartbeat [1] or a sudden rush of color betrays deep feeling [2]. It is also employed to frame pivotal narrative shifts, from the transformative flash of realization [3] to the instantaneous reactions that redirect events [4, 5]. In some works, the term underscores not only swift physical actions—like drawing a weapon with little warning [6]—but also fleeting psychological states that leave lasting impressions on the reader [7, 8].
- This settled me; it is better to fall down a precipice and die than be laughed at by such a woman; so I clenched my teeth, and in another instant
— from She by H. Rider Haggard - Dounia said this, speaking hurriedly, and for an instant the colour rushed to her face.
— from Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoyevsky - For instance, if I am recalling an incident very vividly I go back to the instant of its occurrence: I become absent-minded, as you say.
— from The Time Machine by H. G. Wells - At that instant his father, who had been running after him, snatched him up and carried him out of the crowd.
— from Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoyevsky - The next instant I threw myself through, and lay half-fainting upon the other side.
— from Adventures of Sherlock Holmes by Arthur Conan Doyle - Candide in an instant drew his rapier, and plunged it up to the hilt in the Jesuit's belly; but in pulling it out reeking hot, he burst into tears.
— from Candide by Voltaire - Gold, for the instant, lost its lustre in his eyes, for there were countless treasures of the heart which it could never purchase.
— from Nicholas Nickleby by Charles Dickens - It was an instant of full, direct, purely instinctive joy.
— from Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoyevsky
