Literary notes about desperado (AI summary)
The term "desperado" appears in literature with a range of connotations, from noble valor to unruly menace. For instance, Edgar Allan Poe’s works lavishly mix the idea with grandiosity and marvel, as seen when a “perfect desperado” is linked with prodigious valor ([1], [2]). In contrast, Mark Twain employs the term in a more literal sense to depict a rough, dangerous man capable of physical aggression ([3]). The ancient strategist Sunzi uses the term to highlight a fundamental imbalance in value between a life-affirming man and a desperado ([4]), while William James intriguingly casts a philosophic rebel in the guise of a desperado, suggesting that intellectual unorthodoxy can be as outrageous as it is stimulating ([5]). Additionally, Benito Pérez Galdós offers a brief, vivid portrayal of a desperado as a fire-eater with a rough edge ([6]).
- great man!—perfect desperado—immortal renown—prodigies of valor!
— from The Works of Edgar Allan Poe, The Raven Edition by Edgar Allan Poe - this is a wonderful age for invention—O dear me, I’m out of breath—quite a desperado—prodigies of valor— never heard!!
— from The Works of Edgar Allan Poe, The Raven Edition by Edgar Allan Poe - An armed desperado slapped my face in the presence of twenty spectators.
— from What Is Man? and Other Essays by Mark Twain - The truth is, that a desperado and a man who sets some value on his life do not meet on even terms.
— from The Art of War by active 6th century B.C. Sunzi - He vaults into the saddle, and from that time his career is that of a philosophic desperado,—one series of outrages upon the chastity of thought.
— from The Will to Believe, and Other Essays in Popular Philosophy by William James - matón fire-eater, desperado, rough.
— from Doña Perfecta by Benito Pérez Galdós
