Literary notes about late (AI summary)
In literature, the word "late" wears many hats, functioning both as a marker of time and a descriptor of state. It is used in the temporal sense to indicate that an action or event happens after its expected time—as seen when characters are “too late” to undo the past ([1], [2]) or when someone arrives later than anticipated ([3], [4]). At the same time, "late" serves as a respectful epithet for someone who has passed away, such as a "late master" or "late King" ([5], [6]). Moreover, authors employ "of late" to express recent developments or changes in disposition, as in a growing indifference or evolving circumstances ([7], [8], [9]). This multifaceted usage allows writers to nuance the progression of time, fate, and memory within their works.
- It was too late; a surgeon had been sent for to open a vein in her arm, but the poor woman was dead.
— from Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen by H. C. Andersen - John Canty delivered himself of a furious curse and commanded a retreat; but it was too late.
— from The Prince and the Pauper by Mark Twain - Yes, unfortunately I came too late, you had already gone upstairs; and I thought I couldn't go away again without having seen you.
— from A Doll's House : a play by Henrik Ibsen - I shall be late!’
— from Alice's Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll - ‘Why, sir, she is my late master’s daughter: Catherine Linton was her maiden name.
— from Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë - That old man says, all this was actually done to a prisoner who made an attempt on the life of the late King, Louis Fifteen.
— from A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens - Besides, I have become of late so indifferent to everything that it is really all the same to me where I go, to Harkov, or to Paris, or to Berditchev.
— from Project Gutenberg Compilation of Short Stories by Chekhov by Anton Pavlovich Chekhov - Much attention has been given of late to primitive life as an introduction to learning history.
— from Democracy and Education: An Introduction to the Philosophy of Education by John Dewey - Much is due in this direction to the progress of enlightened ideas, which have of late been strongly put forward by Hindu social reformers.
— from Omens and Superstitions of Southern India by Edgar Thurston
