Literary notes about pleasant (AI summary)
The word "pleasant" functions as a versatile marker in literature, often imbuing scenes, characters, or experiences with an aura of agreeable charm or subtle irony. It can characterize a simple domestic moment or landscape—evoking, for instance, tranquil brooks or delightful company ([1], [2], [3])—while also underscoring refined manners or spirited conversation in characters ([4], [5], [6]). In other contexts, it offers a nuanced counterpoint to less agreeable circumstances, hinting at a bittersweet or ironic undertone where what is expected to be pleasing is rendered otherwise ([7], [8]). Across diverse narratives, this word is skillfully deployed to enrich a tone that is both familiar and multifaceted, illustrating its enduring appeal in literary descriptions ([9], [10], [11]).
- At noon home to dinner, Mr. Hunt and his wife with us, and very pleasant.
— from The Diary of Samuel Pepys — Complete by Samuel Pepys - Pleasant brooks murmured beneath umbrageous boughs, little worthy of this name, for no shade did they give.
— from A Journey to the Centre of the Earth by Jules Verne - This frequently took place; but a high wind quickly dried the earth, and the season became far more pleasant than it had been.
— from Frankenstein; Or, The Modern Prometheus by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley - ‘They must have been pleasant thoughts, Kate,’ rejoined Nicholas gaily, ‘to make time pass away like that.
— from Nicholas Nickleby by Charles Dickens - He would also be very pleasant and gracious.
— from Meditations by Emperor of Rome Marcus Aurelius - “Going far?” asked the smaller man in a pleasant disinterested way.
— from This Side of Paradise by F. Scott Fitzgerald - So it was not very pleasant when she opened the door of her room, to see Martha standing waiting for her with a doleful face.
— from The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett - But in all cases we must guard most carefully against what is pleasant, and pleasure itself, because we are not impartial judges of it.
— from The Ethics of Aristotle by Aristotle - And Ráma there, with Lakshmaṇ's aid, A pleasant little cottage made, And spent his days with Sítá, dressed In coat of bark and deerskin vest.
— from The Rámáyan of Válmíki, translated into English verse by Valmiki - ‘Pleasant, pleasant country,’ sighed the enthusiastic gentleman, as he opened his lattice window.
— from The Pickwick Papers by Charles Dickens - They are not so large as I expected, but yet pleasant; and the town most of stone, and clean, though the streets generally narrow.
— from The Diary of Samuel Pepys — Complete by Samuel Pepys
