Literary notes about gentility (AI summary)
Literary authors deploy the term “gentility” in multifaceted ways—as both an aspirational marker of refinement and as a target for ironic critique. In some works, it designates an expected air of cultured comportment and high social standing (e.g., [1], [2]), while elsewhere it is employed to highlight the decay or pretense of established status ([3]). At times, the word is invoked to celebrate a natural, unforced nobility of spirit—as seen in accounts elevating the unconstraint of the great poets ([4])—and in other contexts it becomes a measure of both genuine and affectatious taste, suggesting that true gentility transcends mere birth or external decors. Overall, authors shape the concept into a versatile tool for examining and questioning the conventions of social hierarchy and propriety.
- Not me, for one; when you're my wife you won't have overmuch time for gentility, my girl.
— from Lady Audley's Secret by M. E. Braddon - But, the idea of attaching any considerations of gentility to my noble, manly, daring profession, sounded so absurd, I could not avoid laughing.
— from Afloat and Ashore: A Sea Tale by James Fenimore Cooper - It was, however, a decayed family, so impoverished as to find it difficult to maintain the position of gentility.
— from Ferdinand De Soto, The Discoverer of the MississippiAmerican Pioneers and Patriots by John S. C. (John Stevens Cabot) Abbott - The old red blood and stainless gentility of great poets will be proved by their unconstraint.
— from Complete Prose Works by Walt Whitman
