Literary notes about work (AI summary)
The term "work" in literature carries a multitude of meanings, oscillating between the literal and the metaphorical. In many narratives it denotes the tangible efforts and routines of everyday life, as seen in references to office duties and physical labor ([1], [2], [3]). Yet, it is also used metaphorically to signify the creative output or cumulative achievements of individuals—be it in art, craftsmanship, or intellectual endeavor ([4], [5], [6]). Some authors employ the word to highlight social or hierarchical structures, where work becomes a badge of responsibility or a measure of worth ([7], [8], [9]). Thus, "work" functions as a versatile concept, bridging the gap between the mundane and the sublime, the physical and the abstract.
- During the day, at his work in the office, he kept himself suspended.
— from The Rainbow by D. H. Lawrence - It was a hard trip, with the mail behind them, and the heavy work wore them down.
— from The call of the wild by Jack London - The colonists divided their work, and their arms never tired.
— from The Mysterious Island by Jules Verne - This was the work of the dynamo and the Virgin of Chartres.
— from The Education of Henry Adams by Henry Adams - But I never dream of reforming, knowing that I must take myself as I am and get what work I can out of myself.
— from Man and Superman: A Comedy and a Philosophy by Bernard Shaw - " "Basil, my dear boy, puts everything that is charming in him into his work.
— from The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde - All Fellow Crafts must work in a lodge of Fellow Crafts three months, before they can be raised to the sublime degree of Master Mason.
— from The Principles of Masonic Law by Albert Gallatin Mackey - If all the year were playing holidays, To sport would be as tedious as to work;
— from The Complete Works of William Shakespeare by William Shakespeare - In its fuller development this inner setting becomes the ambition for leadership in the affairs of practical life or in the sphere of cultural work.
— from Introduction to the Science of Sociology by E. W. Burgess and Robert Ezra Park
