Literary notes about hideous (AI summary)
Writers have long deployed "hideous" to conjure strong, visceral reactions, often marking the intersection of physical repulsion and moral decay. It frequently describes beings or appearances that defy conventional beauty—from the ominous nightmares encountered at night [1] and deformed, monstrous progeny [2, 3] to the ghastly, repellent traits of characters and landscapes [4, 5]. In some works, the term intensifies the bleak atmosphere of societal corruption and brutal realities, as when language itself is critiqued for its crudity or when justice is depicted as a "brutal lie" [6, 7, 8]. This strategic use of "hideous" not only evokes horror but also deepens the thematic undercurrents of decay and moral perversion across narratives [9].
- I had strange and hideous dreams whenever I slept.
— from The War of the Worlds by H. G. Wells - And now, once again, I bid my hideous progeny go forth and prosper.
— from Frankenstein; Or, The Modern Prometheus by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley - Why did you form a monster so hideous that even you turned from me in disgust?
— from Frankenstein; Or, The Modern Prometheus by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley - The Thing in the coffin writhed; and a hideous, blood-curdling screech came from the opened red lips.
— from Dracula by Bram Stoker - The very rats, which here and there lay putrefying in its rottenness, were hideous with famine.
— from Oliver Twist by Charles Dickens - But can we wonder at the hideous coarseness of their language when we remember the savage rudeness of their lives?
— from Sybil, Or, The Two Nations by Earl of Beaconsfield Benjamin Disraeli - Their justice—it was a lie, it was a lie, a hideous, brutal lie, a thing too black and hateful for any world but a world of nightmares.
— from The Jungle by Upton Sinclair - There is corruption under all illustrious tyrants, but the moral pest is still more hideous under infamous tyrants.
— from Les Misérables by Victor Hugo - The hideous potion of absinthe-porter and alcohol had thrown him into a lethargy.
— from Les Misérables by Victor Hugo
