perspicacity

The host, who was not endowed with great perspicacity, did not observe the expression which his words had given to...

Alexandre Dumas -- The Three Musketeers

Monsieur Rodolphe Boulanger was thirty-four; he was of brutal temperament and intelligent perspicacity, having, moreover, had much to do with women, and knowing them well.

Gustave Flaubert -- Madame Bovary

He stood behind Farfrae’s chair, watching his dexterity in clearing up the numerical fogs which had been allowed to grow so thick in Henchard’s books as almost to baffle even the Scotchman’s perspicacity.

Thomas Hardy -- The Mayor of Casterbridge

With your perspicacity, I’m surprised you ask.

Robert Ludlum -- The Bourne Supremacy

She was a woman of middle-age, with well-formed features of the type usually found where perspicacity is the chief quality enthroned within.

Thomas Hardy -- The Return of the Native

You will forgive an old friend for not expressing any great surprise, as the matter was writ large enough between the lines of your letters, and could easily be divined, without any great perspicacity on the reader’s part.

Margaret Atwood -- Alias Grace

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But I have desired to avoid distracting the attention of the reader from the narrative, and have mainly left the understanding of it to his good sense and perspicacity.

Dante Alighieri -- Dante’s Inferno

He winced a little at her terrifying perspicacity, and longed to ask: "And May—do they quote her?"

Edith Wharton -- The Age of Innocence

How well she deceived her father we shall have occasion to learn; but her innocent arts were of little avail before a person of the rare perspicacity of Mrs. Penniman.

Henry James -- Washington Square

"You go and fetch her down, Tom," said Mr. Tulliver, rather sharply,—his perspicacity or his fatherly fondness for Maggie making him suspect that the lad had been hard upon "the little un," else she would never have left his side.

George Eliot -- The Mill on the Floss

Doubtless Swann’s voice shewed a finer perspicacity than his own when it refused to utter those words full of disgust at the Verdurins and their circle, and of joy at his having shaken himself free of it, save in an artificial and rhetorical tone, and as though his words had been chosen rather to appease his anger than to express his thoughts.

Marcel Proust -- Swann’s Way

Madame Merle had predicted to Mrs. Touchett that after their young friend had put her hand into her pocket half a dozen times she would be reconciled to the idea that it had been filled by a munificent uncle; and the event justified, as it had so often justified before, that lady’s perspicacity.

Henry James -- The Portrait of a Lady - Volumes 1 & 2

He seemed pleased at my perspicacity.

Jack London -- Sea Wolf

The surgeon spoke with the fluency due to long practice and with the admirable perspicacity which distinguished him.

W. Somerset Maugham -- Of Human Bondage

Very likely, with the perspicacity of her sex, she gave out as an accomplished fact what she felt was pretty sure to become a fact in a few days.

Fyodor Dostoyevsky -- The Idiot

Their talk was full of exclamations, they paced excitedly up and down the room, marvelling at each other’s perspicacity, or stood in silence by the window drumming on the glass, deeply moved by the exalting discovery of how completely they understood each other.

Boris Pasternak -- Doctor Zhivago

Henry James -- The Portrait of a Lady - Volume 1

THE PERSPICACITY OF MASTER SCAUFFLAIRE "Yes."

Victor Hugo -- Les Miserables

"Sire," said Villefort, "the suddenness of this event must prove to your majesty that the issue is in the hands of Providence; what your majesty is pleased to attribute to me as profound perspicacity is simply owing to chance, and I have profited by that chance, like a good and devoted servant—that’s all.

Alexandre Dumas -- The Count of Monte Cristo

For instance, we could use the dinner hour …" The embassy man was making sure a Company executive in Washington realized the perspicacity of his contributions.

Robert Ludlum -- The Bourne Identity

I admire your perspicacity as well as your caution," said the Jackal’s intermediary.

Robert Ludlum -- The Bourne Ultimatum

THE PERSPICACITY OF MASTER SCAUFFLAIRE "That is understood."

Victor Hugo -- Les Miserables

THE PERSPICACITY OF MASTER SCAUFFLAIRE The Fleming remained "utterly stupid," as he himself said some time afterwards.

Victor Hugo -- Les Miserables

THE PERSPICACITY OF MASTER SCAUFFLAIRE This cashier occupied a room situated directly under M. Madeleine’s chamber.

Victor Hugo -- Les Miserables

THE PERSPICACITY OF MASTER SCAUFFLAIRE From the town-hall he betook himself to the extremity of the town, to a Fleming named Master Scaufflaer, French Scaufflaire, who let out "horses and cabriolets as desired."

Victor Hugo -- Les Miserables