Literary notes about small (AI summary)
The word "small" functions as a versatile tool in literature, serving to both precisely describe physical dimensions and to convey nuance in abstract qualities. It may refer to tangible attributes, as when a narrow detachment succeeded in maneuvering around a flank [1], a modest suit-case hints at personal history [2], or a quaint village is portrayed in a setting [3]. At other times, it quantifies value or significance, marking slight yet meaningful quantities such as small change extracted from a pocket [4] or a small insight that promises deeper reflection [5]. Whether delineating a physical space like a small grassy plot [6] or accentuating a character’s modest presence [7], the adjective "small" enriches narrative texture by drawing attention to elements that, though diminutive in stature, often carry enormous weight in meaning.
- At Mayence the lines were attacked in front, only a small detachment having succeeded in passing around the right flank.
— from The Art of War by baron de Antoine Henri Jomini - Her lips were set grimly together, and she carried a small suit-case.
— from The Mysterious Affair at Styles by Agatha Christie - To the right, beyond a steep ravine, was a small village and a landowner’s house with a broken roof.
— from War and Peace by graf Leo Tolstoy - He turned it all out of his pockets; even the small change—two pieces of twenty copecks—he pulled out of his waistcoat pocket.
— from The Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoyevsky - I lay claim to no higher gift than a small insight into the glorious art of petitioning and thanksgiving, as practiced in psalmody.”
— from The Last of the Mohicans; A narrative of 1757 by James Fenimore Cooper - It had a large bay window bulging out from the second floor, and was graced in front by a small grassy plot, twenty-five feet wide and ten feet deep.
— from Sister Carrie: A Novel by Theodore Dreiser - The person addressed was the barin's servant—a round-cheeked young fellow with small, dull eyes and a chin adorned with a tuft of pale-coloured down.
— from Fathers and Sons by Ivan Sergeevich Turgenev
