Уильям Коллинз: Лучшие романы Уилки Коллинза / The Best of Wilkie Collins

Richardson– Samuel Richardson (1689–1761), an English novelist, the author of ‘Pamela’ and ’Clarissa’, most popular novels of the 18th–19th centuries

Mackenzie– Henry Mackenzie (1745–1831), a Scottish novelist, playwright and poet

Roscoe– William Roscoe (1712–1865), an English writer and politician

Robertson– William Robertson (1721–1793), a Scottish historian and one of the most prominent British historians of the 18th century

omens– an omen is a thing or event regarded as a sign or a warning of fortune

occult– magical, supernatural, secret

Oxford Street– one of the main streets in central London, a shopping centre of London

paletot– a coat

gaiters– a kind of stockings covering legs from knee to ankle, usually made of wool or leather

metamorphosis– change, often radical, caused by develop-ment or natural reasons

neophyte– a person newly converted to some religion or faith

catechism– religious instruction in the form of questions and answers

Rotterdam– an important European port, one of the largest cities in the Netherlands, first mentioned in 1283

garret– a small room in the roof or on the upper floor of the house

Bombay– now Mumbai, a large city in southwestern India, India’s commercial, financial and religious centre, the main port on the Arabic Sea

NOTE. – Wherever the Report touches on the events of the birthday, or of the three days that followed it, compare with Betteredge’s Narrative, chapters viii. to xiii.

Calais– a large port in northern France, located on the Straight of Dover, 34 km from England

Plymouth– a city and seaport in the county of Devon in the southwest of England

Kattiawar– Kattiawar Peninsula and province of the same name in west-central India, in Gujarat state

Dwarka– Dwarkeswar, a river and province in southeastern India, in West Bengali state

Krishna– one of the most worshipped Indian divinities, the eighth incarnation of the Hindu god Vishnu and the hero of the epic ‘Mahabharata’

Hindoo-Boodhist– the follower of Hindu-Buddhism, an In-dian variety of Buddhism, a phylosophicai and religious teach-ing of Buddha; Buddhism first appeared in the 4th century BC in northern India.

pilgrims– persons who go to some sacred religious place

breezes– a breeze is soft light wind

Padua– a city in northern Italy, west of Venice, first men-tioned in 302 BC

impromptu– smth. sudden, without preparation

Dante– Dante Alighieri (1265–1321), an Italian poet and philosopher, the author of the ‘Divine Comedy’, one of the world’s greatest works

the Hell of Dante– in the ‘Divine Comedy’, Dante makes a journey to Hell descending seven circles of the pit of Hell

phlegm– a type of character when a person shows little emo-tions, acts and thinks slowly

Esquire– a title written in the address of a letter after the family name

Cumberland– a historic county in the northwest of England bordering Scotland

guinea– money for which there are no coins or banknotes; it is still used in stating prices, charges and salaries.

the Regent’s Park– one of the main parks in central London (197 hectares), developed in 1810–1820 by John Nash, a famous city architect, for the Royal family and aris-tocracy

St. John’s Woodis located west of the Regent’s Park; Lord’s Cricket Ground was moved to St. John’s Wood in 1811.

Baronet– a title of hereditary nobility, lower in rank than baron

the Lake country– the Lake District, a national park famous for its beauty, located in the county of Cumbria; the largest lake is Windermere.

backgammon– a game for two players played on a special board with draughts and dice

eulogy– a speech or letter in which smb. is highly praised

chiffoniers– low cupboards used as tables

buhl– inlaid decoration of furniture

marquetterie– inlaid work for decorating furniture

Dresden– the capital of Saxony, a state in eastern Germany and the third largest city in eastern Germany

Goths– a Germanic tribe originated in southern Scandina-via; after defeating the Vandals they settled in the Baltic Sea region.

Charles the Fifth(1500–1558) – the Holy Roman Emperor (1519–1556); he inherited a Spanish and Habsburg empire ex-tending from Spain in the west to Austria in the east.

Titian(1488–1576) – the greatest Italian painter of the Vene-tian school of the Renaissance period

Raphael(1483–1520) – an Italian painter and architect of the Renaissance period; he is famous for his Madonnas.

Rembrandt(1606–1669) – a great Dutch painter and print-maker famous for the portraits of his contemporaries

plebeian– n a representative of lower classes; adj low, vulgar

chalet– a Swiss mountain wooden hut with sharply sloping roof

muslin– thin fine cotton cloth

Mozart– Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756–1791), one of the greatest composers in the history of Western music

Syren– in Greek mythology, a woman with wings whose songs charmed the sailors and brought death to them