Literary notes about pertinacity (AI summary)
The use of "pertinacity" in literature frequently emphasizes an unyielding, often obsessive determination that can both empower and frustrate its subjects. Authors like Edgar Allan Poe employ the term to evoke a fixation so intense it seems almost tangible—as when a character dwells upon an idea with a relentless intensity [1, 2, 3, 4]—while others, such as Dumas and Thackeray, illustrate it as the necessary persistence in inquiry or everyday endeavor [5, 6, 7]. At times, the word carries a critical tone, describing obstinate stubbornness that borders on annoyance or error, as seen in the works of Brontë, Hawthorne, and Byron [8, 9, 10]. Moreover, in more concise or abstract settings, authors like Kate Greenaway and Ben Jonson reduce "pertinacity" to a stark, almost emblematic quality [11, 12, 13, 14, 15]. This range highlights how pertinacity is simultaneously a mark of admirable perseverance and a potential flaw—its precise meaning shifting subtly according to the literary context [16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26].
- I dwelt upon it with a pertinacity of attention—as if, in so dwelling, I could arrest here the descent of the steel.
— from The Works of Edgar Allan Poe, The Raven Edition by Edgar Allan Poe - It followed my footsteps with a pertinacity which it would be difficult to make the reader comprehend.
— from The Works of Edgar Allan Poe — Volume 2 by Edgar Allan Poe - I dwelt upon it with a pertinacity of attention—as if, in so dwelling, I could arrest here the descent of the steel.
— from The Works of Edgar Allan Poe — Volume 2 by Edgar Allan Poe - It followed my footsteps with a pertinacity which it would be difficult to make the reader comprehend.
— from The Works of Edgar Allan Poe, The Raven Edition by Edgar Allan Poe - They had not shown sufficient pertinacity in their inquiries.
— from Twenty years after by Alexandre Dumas and Auguste Maquet - It was wonderful to see the pertinacity with which the washerwoman from Tooting brought the cart every Saturday, and her bills week after week.
— from Vanity Fair by William Makepeace Thackeray - s I am told, to haggle for bargains with the pertinacity which now distinguishes them.
— from Vanity Fair by William Makepeace Thackeray - I was as much astonished as exasperated at this singular pertinacity and imperturbable assurance on his part.
— from The Tenant of Wildfell Hall by Anne Brontë - But Guasconti, finding Baglioni's pertinacity intolerable, here broke away, and was gone before the professor could again seize his arm.
— from Mosses from an old manse by Nathaniel Hawthorne - Had Buonaparte won at Waterloo, It had been firmness; now 't is pertinacity: Must the event decide between the two?
— from Don Juan by Baron George Gordon Byron Byron - Pertinacity.
— from Language of Flowers by Kate Greenaway - PERTINACY, pertinacity.
— from The Alchemist by Ben Jonson - Pertinacity Clotbur.
— from Language of Flowers by Kate Greenaway - Pertinacity.
— from Language of Flowers by Kate Greenaway - PERTINACY, pertinacity.
— from Every Man in His Humor by Ben Jonson - Another friend has positive, emphatic hands which show great pertinacity of opinion.
— from The World I Live In by Helen Keller - What L’Etoile says in respect to this abbreviation of the garter’s being an usual occurrence, shows nothing beyond its own pertinacity in error.
— from The Works of Edgar Allan Poe, The Raven Edition by Edgar Allan Poe - So far, ye august Senators, with your Tennis-Court Oaths, your inertia and impetus, your sagacity and pertinacity, have ye brought us.
— from The French Revolution: A History by Thomas Carlyle - But his pertinacity was far from pleasing to the king, who had finally made up his mind to wear ringlets.
— from Memoirs of Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds by Charles Mackay - Indignantly have I heard women argue in the same track as men, and adopt the sentiments that brutalize them with all the pertinacity of ignorance.
— from A Vindication of the Rights of Woman by Mary Wollstonecraft - It was no business of mine, to be sure, but with none the less pertinacity did I occupy myself in attempts to resolve the enigma.
— from The Works of Edgar Allan Poe, The Raven Edition by Edgar Allan Poe - They fought with more pertinacity than bulldogs.
— from Walden, and On The Duty Of Civil Disobedience by Henry David Thoreau - ”—The pertinacity of her friend seemed more than she could bear.
— from Emma by Jane Austen - And all this pertinacity flows from a conviction that we have no right to renounce the fulfilment of our task.
— from The Will to Believe, and Other Essays in Popular Philosophy by William James - If you had heard that cry, if you had seen her face, you would understand my pertinacity.
— from Project Gutenberg Compilation of Short Stories by Chekhov by Anton Pavlovich Chekhov - What L’Etoile says in respect to this abbreviation of the garter’s being an usual occurrence, shows nothing beyond its own pertinacity in error.
— from The Works of Edgar Allan Poe — Volume 1 by Edgar Allan Poe
