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Literary notes about vainglorious (AI summary)

Vainglorious is often employed as a richly descriptive adjective that conveys excessive pride or ostentatious self-importance, whether applied to grandiose individuals or even to natural elements. In some works, such as in the account where a character confesses to being "a trifle vainglorious" [1], the term reveals a self-awareness tinged with irony. Meanwhile, in historical narratives or political commentary—like where self-serving ambitions are criticized for being driven by "purely selfish and vainglorious ends" [2]—it takes on a pejorative tone that sharpens the moral critique. At times, vainglorious also decorates vivid imagery, as when a mighty oak is humorously dubbed "the vainglorious oak" [3], demonstrating the word’s versatility in evoking both grandiosity and mockery.
  1. In short, as you see, I’m a trifle vainglorious.
    — from The Works of Robert Louis Stevenson - Swanston Edition, Vol. 25 by Robert Louis Stevenson
  2. They were cruel and unmitigated scoundrels working for purely selfish and vainglorious ends.
    — from The American Occupation of the Philippines 1898-1912 by James H. Blount
  3. THE VAINGLORIOUS OAK AND THE MODEST BULRUSH A bulrush stood on a river's rim,
    — from Fables for the Frivolous by Guy Wetmore Carryl

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