“Lily, the caretaker’s daughter, was literally run off her feet. Hardly had she brought one gentleman into the little pantry … than the wheezy hall-door bell clanged again and she had to scamper along the bare hallway to let in another guest.” - James Joyce, The Dubliners, 1914
“And when the middle of the afternoon came, from being a poor poverty-stricken boy in the morning, Tom was literally rolling in wealth.” - Mark Twain, The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, 1876
“She took me to herself, and proceeded literally to suffocate me with her unrestrained spirits.” Charlotte Bronte, Vilette, 1853
“His looks were very haggard, and his limbs and body literally worn to the bone, but there was something of the old fire in the large sunken eye notwithstanding, …” Charles Dickens, Nicholas Nicklesby, 1839
What a pack of unlettered morons.