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.
- "Excuse me for troubling you," said the gentleman in raccoon, "but I ...
— from Short Stories by Fyodor Dostoyevsky - “Excuse my troubling you....” “Oh, not at all, as often as you like.
— from Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoyevsky - 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 - 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 - ” That was the only doubt often troubling Pierre.
— from War and Peace by graf Leo Tolstoy - 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 - 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 - 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 - 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