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Literary notes about troubling (AI summary)

In literature, the term "troubling" serves as a versatile marker of both physical disturbance and inner unrest. At times it reflects a polite apology or an imposition of one's concerns on another, as seen when characters say "excuse me for troubling you" ([1], [2], [3]). In other contexts, it conveys deep-seated emotional or existential agitation—for instance, a secret sorrow that weighs on the heart ([4], [5], [6]). The word also describes disruptions on a broader social or political scale, unsettling traditional norms and expectations ([7]), while at other moments it creates a longing for a peaceful haven where such disturbances cease ([8], [9]). Thus, "troubling" is employed to evoke a spectrum of feelings from gentle regret to profound anxiety across diverse literary canvases.
  1. "Excuse me for troubling you," said the gentleman in raccoon, "but I ...
    — from Short Stories by Fyodor Dostoyevsky
  2. “Excuse my troubling you....” “Oh, not at all, as often as you like.
    — from Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoyevsky
  3. Pardon my troubling you with these details; my sister was very right in saying you’ve been taken into the family.
    — from The Portrait of a Lady — Volume 1 by Henry James
  4. His friends teased him, asked him if he were in love, if some secret sorrow was troubling his mind and heart.
    — from Complete Original Short Stories of Guy De Maupassant by Guy de Maupassant
  5. ” That was the only doubt often troubling Pierre.
    — from War and Peace by graf Leo Tolstoy
  6. The only thing now troubling me is the fact that my mother is so good-naturedly fussy.
    — from Fathers and Sons by Ivan Sergeevich Turgenev
  7. They were revolutionary, troubling all the old conventions and values, as the screws of ocean steamers must trouble a school of herring.
    — from The Education of Henry Adams by Henry Adams
  8. She had gone "where the wicked cease from troubling, and the weary are at rest."
    — from Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl, Written by Herself by Harriet A. Jacobs
  9. Let us be thankful that some time or other we shall go 'where the wicked cease from troubling, and the weary are at rest.'"
    — from Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl, Written by Herself by Harriet A. Jacobs

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