Literary notes about lair (AI summary)
In literature, the word “lair” is often used to evoke a sense of a hidden, sometimes sinister, refuge that serves as the dwelling of beasts, villains, or reclusive figures. Its usage spans from the natural dens of animals—as seen in fables where a hare retreats to its lair ([1], [2])—to the secretive abodes of criminal or mysterious characters, implying both physical shelter and metaphorical depths of isolation or corruption ([3], [4]). Authors employ the term to enrich the atmosphere by hinting at danger and the unknown, whether it is the dread of an enemy’s lair in heroic quests ([5]) or the unsettling quiet of a hideout that reflects internal tumult ([6], [7]).
- poor, wretched hare, Back comes he to his lair, To meet destruction there!
— from Fables of La Fontaine — a New Edition, with Notes by Jean de La Fontaine - The frightened hare Beneath a monster cabbage made his lair.
— from The Fables of La Fontaine by Jean de La Fontaine - I left my lair as the crowds diminished, and prowled cautiously out into the less desolate parts of the shop.
— from The Invisible Man: A Grotesque Romance by H. G. Wells - that hatred, tyranny, and fear could no longer make their lair in the human heart!
— from The Last Man by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley - Sigurd rode along Fafnir's track to his lair, which he found open.
— from The Elder Eddas of Saemund Sigfusson; and the Younger Eddas of Snorre Sturleson by Sæmundur fróði - The crone makes back for her lair, swaying her lamp.
— from Ulysses by James Joyce - He formed a lair somewhere in the forest, and became solitary.
— from The island of Doctor Moreau by H. G. Wells
