They provide a frisson of moral satisfaction.
"A murder in the family can provide a frisson of excitement at fashionable dinner parties," James's omniscient narrator hopefully remarks, then quickly changes course, concluding, in a perfect Austenlike summation, "But little social credit can be expected from the brutal dispatch of an undistinguished captain of the infantry, without money or breeding to render him interesting".
(That gruesome detail is not part of the Bravo narrative, but has been picked up by bloggers and reviewers, for whom it provides a frisson of horror and the suggestion of "family -style business gone awry).
Even minute additions — like Nabokov's reference to the "frozen wave" of the mussed-up carpet in the book's final, terrible tableau (Albinus dead on the floor with the gun underneath him, Margot fleeing through the open door) — provided a frisson of excitement, as did the apparent speed with which Nabokov composed his superb additions, some of which are scribbled almost illegibly.
It's amusing, clever and -- I don't want to give away too much, so let me just say that it raises Smell-o-Vision and the concept of the "feelies" from "A Clockwork Orange" to an art, providing a frisson of delight, if not momentary shock.
En route, it provided a frisson for Tsonga, one that passed in the blinking of an eye as a genius blurred in front of him.
Female sibling rivalry provides a fleeting frisson of camp to the otherwise mechanically fantastical stodge of The Huntsman: Winter's War (Universal, 12).
Fundamentally, served straight from the toaster and sufficiently slathered with the right fat, any toasted bread will provide you with a frisson of exceptional pleasure.
Charitably speaking, he provided a tantalising frisson of anticipation.
Even those among the US audience who don't know Mirren will be gripped by her accent and no-nonsense attitude... and some will find the her stern discipline provides a veritable frisson of pleasure.
For the curious audiophile watching "Alex, Inc.," catching a rare glimpse of a microphone, a recording-equipment bag, or egg-crate padding in a sound booth provided a little frisson of excitement, like seeing an actor friend playing a perp on a police procedural.
