Literary notes about office (AI summary)
The term "office" in literature is employed with a striking versatility, serving both as a locus of mundane routine and as a symbol of public duty and authority. In some works, it describes the physical space where daily tasks and correspondence occur, as seen in the recurring references that highlight long, laborious mornings surrounded by letters and business ([1], [2], [3]). In other narratives, however, "office" connotes an official capacity or public trust, evoking roles from high governmental or judicial positions ([4], [5], [6]) to notionally sacred responsibilities ([7]). It is equally at home in modern settings—almost a byword for professional engagement ([8], [9])—and in more traditional or historical accounts where it reflects the weight of societal and administrative functions ([10], [11]). Thus, "office" becomes a multifaceted term through which authors explore the interplay between personal diligence and the broader framework of civic duty and institutional structures.
- All the morning at my office; then to the Exchange (with my Lord Bruncker in his coach) at noon, but it was only to avoid Mr. Chr.
— from The Diary of Samuel Pepys — Complete by Samuel Pepys - At the office all the morning, dined at home with my wife.
— from The Diary of Samuel Pepys — Complete by Samuel Pepys - So home, and late at my office, and so home to bed.
— from The Diary of Samuel Pepys — Complete by Samuel Pepys - Jupiter, indignant at such inveterate faultfinding, drove him from his office of judge, and expelled him from the mansions of Olympus.
— from Aesop's Fables by Aesop - The orator, whose petition is extant to the emperor Valentinian, was conscious of the difficulty and danger of the office which he had assumed.
— from The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire by Edward Gibbon - His mind was improved by literature; and, in the council of the chiefs, the eloquent Stephen was chosen to discharge the office of their president.
— from The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire by Edward Gibbon - On the contrary, when it shines in the west, it is named Vesper, as prolonging the light, and performing the office of the moon.
— from The Natural History of Pliny, Volume 1 (of 6) by the Elder Pliny - On a typical morning, I go directly from bed to my office to switch my communications computer on.
— from The Online World by Odd De Presno - Its business office is located at 809 North 1500 West, Salt Lake City, UT 84116, (801) 596-1887, email business@pglaf.org.
— from The Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoyevsky - Mr. Garth had a small office in the town, and to this Fred went with his request.
— from Middlemarch by George Eliot - War Department, U.S. Surgeon General's Office, Washington, 1920.
— from Introduction to the Science of Sociology by E. W. Burgess and Robert Ezra Park