Literary notes about appearance (AI summary)
The term "appearance" in literature is used in a variety of ways to convey both tangible impressions and more abstract or symbolic ideas. It may simply denote the physical look or presence of a person or object, as when grief manifests externally in a man’s sorrowful demeanor ([1]) or when the imposing façade of a building is described in striking detail ([2]). In other contexts, "appearance" highlights the moment of emergence or arrival—be it the sudden entrance of a character to shift the narrative’s course ([3], [4]) or the formal debut of a concept that transforms understanding ([5], [6]). Furthermore, writers employ the word to hint at deeper philosophical contrasts between what is immediately visible and what lies beneath, as seen in the discussions of surface versus substance ([7], [8], [9]). Thus, "appearance" serves as a versatile literary tool that enriches descriptions and prompts readers to look beyond what is merely seen.
- After the death of the woman who had adopted him, he wept from morning till night, plunged, at least to all appearance, in the most violent grief.
— from Complete Original Short Stories of Guy De Maupassant by Guy de Maupassant - It had all the appearance of being a tomb, and was lit up by a fire that burnt in its centre with a whitish flame and without smoke.
— from She by H. Rider Haggard - Well, this evening, as on every other evening, we awaited the appearance of strange faces.
— from Complete Original Short Stories of Guy De Maupassant by Guy de Maupassant - On the present occasion the shadows of night had settled heavily before the youth made his appearance.
— from Complete Prose Works by Walt Whitman - That work had been published in 1646, sixty-five years before the appearance of the Spectator , and Greaves died in 1652.
— from The Spectator, Volume 1 by Joseph Addison and Sir Richard Steele - It makes its first appearance in the Royal Arch, and forms, indeed, the most important symbol of that degree.
— from The symbolism of Freemasonry : by Albert Gallatin Mackey - Concerning logical appearance.
— from The Will to Power: An Attempted Transvaluation of All Values. Book III and IV by Nietzsche - ‘Yes, but only in appearance.’
— from The Republic of Plato by Plato - What is thus dominated, though it is the primary existence itself, is thereby degraded to appearance.
— from The Life of Reason: The Phases of Human Progress by George Santayana
