Literary notes about legal (AI summary)
In literature, the word "legal" is deployed in a multifaceted manner that underscores not only strict adherence to law but also the broader implications of authority, legitimacy, and societal order. In some contexts, authors use it in a straightforward sense—as in questioning whether an action is "legal" [1] or delineating documents as "semi-legal" [2]—while in other works it evokes the formalities and rituals of society, seen in references to legal innovations [3] or rights that shape social and political identities [4, 5]. Additionally, writers like Victor Hugo [6, 7] and Charles Dickens [8, 9, 10] underscore how "legal" matters serve as both practical necessities and symbolic markers of moral and institutional order. This diversity of usage illustrates how the term traverses from concrete legal documents and procedures to allegorical reflections on justice and personal destiny.
- Was it legal?
— from The Invisible Man: A Grotesque Romance by H. G. Wells - It was a semi-legal document, clothed in the quaint phraseology of a bygone period.
— from The Luck of Roaring Camp and Other Tales by Bret Harte - Every year, or, according to Procopius, each day, of his long reign, was marked by some legal innovation.
— from The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire by Edward Gibbon - While single, their legal rights are the same as [Pg 108] those of men; when married, their legal rights are chiefly suspended.
— from History of Woman Suffrage, Volume I - And under the terms of Grandfather’s will, you’ll own nothing except an allowance until you reach legal age.
— from The Lani People by Jesse F. Bone - That is legal and delightful.
— from Les Misérables by Victor Hugo - Such is the origin of the legal consecration of the establishment of the Benedictines of the Perpetual Adoration of the Holy Sacrament at Paris.
— from Les Misérables by Victor Hugo - That individual is in legal possession of the premises, under a distress for rent.
— from David Copperfield by Charles Dickens - And Mr. Weller shook his head with legal solemnity.
— from The Pickwick Papers by Charles Dickens - At all events, Mr. Pickwick, we must despatch this legal business before we can do anything else.
— from The Pickwick Papers by Charles Dickens
