Literary notes about indulgent (AI summary)
In literature, the term "indulgent" is employed in multifaceted ways that illuminate both character and circumstance. Authors often use it to denote a gentle leniency or a forgiving nature, as when a parent or master is portrayed as tenderly permissive toward a child or subordinate [1, 2]. At the same time, the word can carry connotations of excess or overgenerosity, suggesting a self-indulgence that borders on intemperance [3, 4]. It is also used to evoke a sense of accommodating benevolence in social and political contexts, whether describing a ruler’s magnanimity or the mild, humane quality of a government [5, 6]. In these varying contexts, "indulgent" serves as a nuanced descriptor, enriching our understanding of both personal and societal temperaments [7, 8].
- She treated her therefore, with all the indulgent fondness of a parent towards a favourite child on the last day of its holidays.
— from Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen - My parents were indulgent, and my companions amiable.
— from Frankenstein; Or, The Modern Prometheus by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley - we are a self-indulgent race, this present generation.
— from The Ladies' Book of Etiquette, and Manual of Politeness by Florence Hartley - I do not look on self-indulgent, sensual people as worthy of my hatred; I simply look upon them with contempt for their poorness of character.'
— from North and South by Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell - The reader sees how much I kept within Dr. Buchan’s indulgent allowance.
— from Confessions of an English Opium-Eater by Thomas De Quincey - France, however, is certainly the great empire in Europe, which, after that of Great Britain, enjoys the mildest and most indulgent government.
— from An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations by Adam Smith - Assured, my dearest Sir, of your goodness, your bounty, and your indulgent kindness, ought I to form a wish that has not your sanction?
— from Evelina, Or, the History of a Young Lady's Entrance into the World by Fanny Burney - So I sought out a school conducted on a more indulgent system, and near enough to permit of my visiting her often, and bringing her home sometimes.
— from Jane Eyre: An Autobiography by Charlotte Brontë
