| 1. | But the whale rushed round in a sudden maelstrom seized the swimmer between his jaws and rearing high up with him, plunged headlong again, and went down. - from Moby Dick; or The Whale by Herman Melville |
| 2. | Paris is a maelstrom where everything is lost, and everything disappears in this belly of the world, as in the belly of the sea. - from Les Miserables by Victor Hugo |