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Literary notes about ingenuous (AI summary)

In literature, the term "ingenuous" is often used to evoke a sense of unguarded honesty and youthful simplicity, capturing both sincere candor and an almost artless openness in character. Writers such as Hawthorne in [1] and Dickens in [2, 3] employ the word to highlight characters whose straightforwardness can be both endearing and revealing of deeper social or moral conditions. It frequently contrasts with calculated guile, suggesting instead a natural, sometimes naive, disposition that underlines a character’s inner purity—a theme also noted in passages like those by Thackeray [4] and Nietzsche [5]. This rich layering of meaning shows how "ingenuous" continues to provide a nuanced description of behavior that is at once candid and disarmingly sincere.
  1. "I rejoice to hear so favorable and so ingenuous an account of my cousin Clifford," said the benevolent Judge.
    — from The House of the Seven Gables by Nathaniel Hawthorne
  2. He was much amused and interested when he heard this and said, "No, really?" with ingenuous simplicity.
    — from Bleak House by Charles Dickens
  3. I was ingenuous and young, and I thought so.
    — from David Copperfield by Charles Dickens
  4. This incident damped the ingenuous youth's spirits, and no word of yea or nay could he be induced to utter during the rest of the drive.
    — from Vanity Fair by William Makepeace Thackeray
  5. On this account, woman is ingenuous, owing to the subtlety of her instincts which reveal to her the utility of a state of innocence.
    — from The Will to Power: An Attempted Transvaluation of All Values. Book III and IV by Nietzsche

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