Citations:distress

English citations of distress

					1818 1827 1843
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1818, Mary Shelley, Frankenstein:
"Be happy, my dear Victor," replied Elizabeth; "there is, I hope, nothing to distress you; and be assured that if a lively joy is not painted in my face, my heart is contented.

1827, Stendhal, chapter 31, in Armance‎^[1]:
She respects me, no doubt, but has no longer any passionate feeling for me, and my death will distress her without plunging her in despair.

1843, Charles Dickens, A Christmas Carol:
Scrooge's nephew, whom he had scarcely seen but once, and who, meeting him in the street that day, and seeing that he looked a little — "just a little down you know," said Bob, inquired what had happened to distress him.

			1678	1719 1759	1818 1833 1894	1967
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1678, John Bunyan, The Pilgrim's Progress:
In this plight, therefore, he went home and refrained himself as long as he could, that his wife and children should not perceive his distress; but he could not be silent long, because that his trouble increased.

Then was Christian in great distress, and knew not what to do; for he wanted that which used to relieve him, and that which should have been his pass into the Celestial City.

Now in this place Christian had double sorrow, because it was through his unadvised counsel that they were brought into this distress.

1719, Daniel Defoe, chapter 13, in Robinson Crusoe‎^[2]:
I immediately considered that this must be some ship in distress, and that they had some comrade, or some other ship in company, and fired these gun for signals of distress, and to obtain help.

1759, Voltaire, chapter 42, in Candide‎^[3]:
At length they perceived a little cottage; two persons in the decline of life dwelt in this desert, who were always ready to give every assistance in their power to their fellow-creatures in distress.

1818, Mary Shelley, Frankenstein:
He could have endured poverty, and while this distress had been the meed of his virtue, he gloried in it; but the ingratitude of the Turk and the loss of his beloved Safie were misfortunes more bitter and irreparable.

In this manner many appalling hours passed; several of my dogs died, and I myself was about to sink under the accumulation of distress when I saw your vessel riding at anchor and holding forth to me hopes of succour and life.

1833, John Trusler, chapter 8, in The Works of William Hogarth: In a Series of Engravings‎^[4]:
To heighten his distress, he is approached by his wife, and bitterly upbraided for his perfidy in concealing from her his former connexions (with that unhappy girl who is here present with her child, the innocent offspring of her amours, fainting at the sight of his misfortunes, being unable to relieve him farther), and plunging her into those difficulties she never shall be able to surmount.

1894, James Kent with William Hardcastle Browne, Commentaries on American Law, page 645:
This power of distress, as anciently used, became as oppressive as the feudal forfeiture. It was as hard for the tenant to be stripped in an instant of all his goods, for arrears of rent, as to be turned out of the possession of his farm.

1967, Barbara Sleigh, Jessamy, Sevenoaks, Kent: Bloomsbury, published 1993, →ISBN, page 122:
At any other time Jessamy would have laughed at the expressions that chased each other over his freckled face: crossness left over from his struggle with the baby; incredulity; distress; and finally delight.