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Literary notes about more (AI summary)

The word “more” functions as a multifaceted tool in literature, serving both to intensify qualities and to mark repetition or addition. Authors employ it to amplify adjectives and comparisons, as seen when characters or settings are described as “more austere, more gloomy, and more pitiless” [1] or when beauty is elevated from the outside into something deeper [2]. It also underscores repeated actions or renewed states, such as a character returning “once more” to a familiar place [3, 4]. In narrative contexts, “more” lends precision to measurements and quantifications—whether it’s specifying dimensions like “15 feet or more[5] or hinting at numerical limits in dialogue [6]—while also enriching figurative expressions and emotional subtleties [7, 8]. This versatility renders “more” a powerful device that dynamically bridges the literal and the symbolic in literary storytelling.
  1. This was a place of expiation, and not of punishment; and yet, it was still more austere, more gloomy, and more pitiless than the other.
    — from Les Misérables by Victor Hugo
  2. He has set around us a beautiful world, and one still more beautiful within us.
    — from The Life of Reason: The Phases of Human Progress by George Santayana
  3. In her own old place sat Peggotty, once more, looking (but for her dress) as if she had never left it.
    — from David Copperfield by Charles Dickens
  4. Once more Juan went to his tree, this time determined to cut it down.
    — from Philippine Folk Tales
  5. These trees have done remarkably well in Lubec, the trunks being 8-9 inches in diameter, while the height is 15 feet or more and the spread 20 feet.
    — from Northern Nut Growers Association Report of the Proceedings at the 44th Annual Meeting
  6. I do not think more than thrice,' said Mahbub simply.
    — from Kim by Rudyard Kipling
  7. Not only in figurative expression, but much more in spirit, he belongs with the poets of the revival.
    — from English Literature by William J. Long
  8. It’s more in your interest, believe me.”
    — from Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoyevsky

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