Literary notes about miles (AI summary)
In literature, "miles" is used both as a precise unit of measurement and as a symbolic marker of distance that shapes the narrative’s physical and emotional landscapes. Authors like Pliny [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6] and Gibbon [7, 8, 9, 10, 11] employ "miles" to provide concrete geographical context—indicating specific separations between cities, territories, or natural landmarks—while writers such as Mark Twain [12, 13, 14, 15, 16] and Jane Austen [17, 18] use it to evoke the relentlessness of travel or isolation. Moreover, the word appears as a character’s name in Henry James’s work [19, 20], adding a layer of playful ambiguity. This diverse usage—from literal distances in military or exploratory narratives [21, 22, 23, 24, 25] to metaphorical measures of time, effort, or emotional separation—demonstrates how "miles" enriches texts by linking the tangible world with broader themes of journey and endurance.
- Some writers place it at the modern Aintab, seventy-five miles north-east of Aleppo.
— from The Natural History of Pliny, Volume 1 (of 6) by the Elder Pliny - It is distant seven miles and a half from the nearest point of the mainland.
— from The Natural History of Pliny, Volume 1 (of 6) by the Elder Pliny - This island is thirty-seven miles and a half in circumference, and welcomes us with eight fine harbours.
— from The Natural History of Pliny, Volume 1 (of 6) by the Elder Pliny - At a distance of ninety-four miles from Samos is the free island of Chios 4252 , its equal in fame, with a town of the same name.
— from The Natural History of Pliny, Volume 1 (of 6) by the Elder Pliny - 3641 A city eight or ten miles from the village Emmaüs of the New Testament.
— from The Natural History of Pliny, Volume 1 (of 6) by the Elder Pliny - At a distance of thirty-five miles from this last is the town of Volubilis, which is just that distance also from both 3249 seas.
— from The Natural History of Pliny, Volume 1 (of 6) by the Elder Pliny - From the recent sack of Prusa, the Goths advanced within eighteen miles.
— from The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire by Edward Gibbon - Eighteen miles below Antioch, the River Orontes falls into the Mediterranean.
— from The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire by Edward Gibbon - Lictori cedunt aquilae, ridetque togatus Miles, et in mediis effulget curia castris.
— from The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire by Edward Gibbon - ] Note 87 ( return ) [ Laodicea, on the sea-coast, sixty-five miles from Antioch, (see Noris Epoch.
— from The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire by Edward Gibbon - Beyond the utmost limits of the Moors, the vast and inhospitable desert of the South extends above a thousand miles to the banks of the Niger.
— from The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire by Edward Gibbon - We had to drive those hogs home—ten miles; and no ladies were ever more fickle-minded or contrary.
— from A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court by Mark Twain - A few miles out from Invercargill, passed through vast level green expanses snowed over with sheep.
— from Following the Equator: A Journey Around the World by Mark Twain - When you left, three miles of the London, Canterbury and Dover were ready for the rails, and also ready and ripe for manipulation in the stock-market.
— from A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court by Mark Twain - It was a five miles’ drive home.
— from Project Gutenberg Compilation of Short Stories by Chekhov by Anton Pavlovich Chekhov - Four hundred miles away,
— from What Is Man? and Other Essays by Mark Twain - We shall live within a few miles of each other, and shall meet every day of our lives.
— from Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen - "And a very good living it was," Charles added: "only five-and-twenty miles from Uppercross, and in a very fine country: fine part of Dorsetshire.
— from Persuasion by Jane Austen - “I’ll tell you everything,” Miles said—“I mean I’ll tell you anything you like.
— from The Turn of the Screw by Henry James - “No; Master Miles only said, ‘We must do nothing but what she likes!’
— from The Turn of the Screw by Henry James - ACHIEVEMENTS OF THE ARMY OF THE VALLEY 354 was unsupported; Ord’s division was fifteen miles in rear, and Bayard’s cavalry still further east.
— from The King James Version of the Bible - Passing "Sutton's Field," we followed a new-cut road two miles farther, which brought us to its termination.
— from Twelve Years a Slave by Solomon Northup - The infantry scouts sent out by Colonel Hildebrand found the enemy's cavalry mounted, and watching the Inca road, about two miles back of Eastport.
— from Memoirs of General William T. Sherman — Complete by William T. Sherman - The taffrail-log marked eighteen miles and three-quarters, and four iron belaying-pins were missing round the mainmast.
— from Lord Jim by Joseph Conrad - This will give fifteen depots upon a line of three hundred miles, which should be divided into three or four brigades of depots.
— from The Art of War by baron de Antoine Henri Jomini
