Anna Karenina vocabulary

"Don't you agitate yourself," laughed the zoologist. "You can set your mind at rest; the duel will end in nothing. Laevsky will magnanimously fire into the air— he can do nothing else; and I daresay I shall not fire at all. To be arrested and lose my time on Laevsky's account— the game's not worth the candle. By the way, what is the punishment for duelling?"

Anton Chekhov. The Duel and Other Stories

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Borset, on seeing me, said he would be hanged if he would ever serve City clerks any more—the game wasn’t worth the candle. I restrained my feelings, and quietly remarked that I thought it was possible for a city clerk to be a gentleman. He replied he was very glad to hear it, and wanted to know whether I had ever come across one, for he hadn’t.

George and Weedon Grossmith. The Diary of a Nobody (1882)

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What kind of bird may it be, pray?" added Ryabinin, looking contemptuously at the snipe: "a great delicacy, I suppose." And he shook his head disapprovingly, as though he had grave doubts whether this game were worth the candle.

Leo Tolstoy. Anna Karenina (Translated by Constance Garnett)

Stephen King. The Stand (1990)