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Literary notes about droll (AI summary)

The term "droll" has been employed widely in literature to encapsulate a distinctive, often understated sense of humor and oddity. In many works, it is used to depict characters or situations whose amusing qualities are both subtly ironic and quietly entertaining—as seen in descriptions of personalities with droll expressions or actions ([1], [2], [3]). Authors like Jane Austen, Dickens, and Joyce have applied the word to both people and events, suggesting a blend of eccentricity and wit—whether referring to a "droll little church" ([4]) or a humorous, unexpected occurrence that one might simply describe as "droll" ([5]). Additionally, in narrative accounts and folk tales, "droll" can mark a bridge between the comically absurd and the quaintly curious, underscoring the multifaceted nature of humor throughout literary traditions ([6], [7], [8]).
  1. He is so droll!
    — from Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen
  2. I remember they made me laugh uncommonly—there's a droll bit about a postilion's breeches.
    — from Middlemarch by George Eliot
  3. Mrs. Linton eyed him with a droll expression—half angry, half laughing at his fastidiousness.
    — from Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë
  4. "It is a droll little church.
    — from Middlemarch by George Eliot
  5. " "That would be droll enough!"
    — from Mosses from an old manse by Nathaniel Hawthorne
  6. The “Vānarinda-jātaka,” No. 57, contains what I believe is the original of the “house-answering owner” droll episode in our Pampangan variant.
    — from Filipino Popular Tales
  7. Whether or not this droll reached the Philippines by way of the Iberian Peninsula, is hard to say definitely.
    — from Filipino Popular Tales
  8. None of these tales, however, assume the droll form: they are told as serious etiological myths.
    — from Filipino Popular Tales

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