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Literary notes about unprecedented (AI summary)

In literature, "unprecedented" is often employed to emphasize events, actions, or qualities that surpass anything known or experienced before. Authors use it to highlight breakthroughs or unexpected twists—such as a character’s unusual response or a phenomenon that defies standard expectations—as seen when a reply is described as completely out of the ordinary [1] or when an entirely new kind of challenge is posed [2]. The term can lend a dramatic flair, underscoring both the novelty and intensity of a moment, whether it be the appearance of an eerie vision [3] or the stirring of thoughts never before encountered [4]. It thereby serves as a powerful marker to signal that what is being described stands far apart from the customary.
  1. M. Dupin returned this unprecedented answer, "I do not see any urgency.
    — from The History of a Crime by Victor Hugo
  2. Is it possible for the College to accommodate itself to these unprecedented conditions, so as to enable me to pursue my studies at Radcliffe?
    — from The Story of My Life by Helen Keller
  3. Now Javert threw himself back, and he was suddenly terrified by this unprecedented apparition: a gulf on high.
    — from Les Misérables by Victor Hugo
  4. I can only say that I took long and searching eyesweeps as I sat there, and it seem'd so, rousing unprecedented thoughts, problems unanswerable.
    — from Complete Prose Works by Walt Whitman

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