Literary notes about private (AI summary)
The term "private" in literature is used to signal matters belonging to individual experience or restricted domains rather than the public sphere. In some works it marks subjects of personal import, where concerns discussed in confidence are distinguished from those of common knowledge, as when a narrator delineates issues of private rather than public significance [1]. It also appears as a designation of lower military rank or modest personal roles, highlighting an individual's humble position or limited authority [2, 3]. At times, the word underscores intimate communications, such as confidential letters or secluded discussions that remain inaccessible to the wider world [4, 5, 6]. Moreover, "private" may refer to exclusive property or enterprises—setting apart personal wealth or spaces from public assets [7, 8, 9]—as well as to personal emotions and motives that impact social or political actions [10, 11]. This versatile usage enriches narratives by continually drawing a line between the inner life of characters and the external forces of society.
- We come from Ithaca under Neritum, 28 and the matter about which I would speak is of private not public import.
— from The Odyssey by Homer - What price the sergeantmajor? PRIVATE CARR: Bennett?
— from Ulysses by James Joyce - “There goes my best friend,” exclaimed a private of Capt. Fisher’s company.
— from The Waterloo Roll Call by Charles Dalton - "But it is no longer in my power," says Probus, in a private letter, "to lay down a title so full of envy and of danger.
— from The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire by Edward Gibbon - (Private and confidential, quite unknown to Judy.)
— from Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave by Frederick Douglass - I want to have some talk with you, particularly, and in private.
— from The Old Curiosity Shop by Charles Dickens - The name was indeed well known to us as belonging to the senior partner in the second largest private banking concern in the City of London.
— from The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes by Arthur Conan Doyle - The streets are broad and airy, the shops extremely good, the private residences remarkable for their elegance and neatness.
— from American Notes by Charles Dickens - At that time, however, the railways were private property.
— from The Economic Consequences of the Peace by John Maynard Keynes - And the consequences are uniformly such as may be expected to proceed from such polluted sources, private misery, and public servitude.
— from A Vindication of the Rights of Woman by Mary Wollstonecraft - He thinks, like Plato, that if he abolishes private feelings and interests, a great public feeling will take their place.
— from The Republic by Plato
