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Literary notes about philanderer (AI summary)

Writers frequently use the term “philanderer” to underscore a character’s unfaithfulness or a cavalier attitude toward love, often layering the label with irony or social critique. It can serve as both a pejorative marker and a nuanced portrayal of a man whose amorous exploits border on the farcical, as when a character’s lighthearted self-identification contrasts with the harsher judgments of others [1, 2]. In some works the descriptor is employed to satirize the ideals of modernity and romantic inconstancy [3, 4], while in others it dramatizes the fine line between charm and ignominy through understated humor and pointed commentary on societal expectations [5, 6]. This multifaceted usage enriches the narrative, offering insight not only into personal character but also into the broader cultural attitudes toward love and loyalty.
  1. I say, I believe I am not a deeply passionate chap at all; I believe I am just .... a philanderer!
    — from Dear Brutus by J. M. (James Matthew) Barrie
  2. “You see, my career as a philanderer has only just begun.
    — from Jacob's Ladder by E. Phillips (Edward Phillips) Oppenheim
  3. But, as he satirizes everything, himself included, he has his laugh at the Ibsen cult in “The Philanderer.”
    — from The Connecticut Wits, and Other Essays by Henry A. (Henry Augustin) Beers
  4. The first act of The Philanderer would have made Henry Becque smile.
    — from Iconoclasts: A Book of Dramatists Ibsen, Strindberg, Becque, Hauptmann, Sudermann, Hervieu, Gorky, Duse and D'Annunzio, Maeterlinck and Bernard Shaw by James Huneker
  5. Bill Malcolm , universal philanderer, lent themselves to this quality of understatement.
    — from Punch, or the London Charivari, Vol. 158, 1920-02-25 by Various
  6. A clever philanderer, it was quite his pride that he did not boast of his conquests.
    — from The Titan by Theodore Dreiser

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