Array Коллектив авторов - 20 лучших повестей на английском / 20 Best Short Novels

plaster-of-paris – white paste made of gypsum

Cicero – Marcus Tullius Cicero (106 BC–43 BC), the greatest Roman orator, lawyer and writer; the author of orations, rhetoric, philosophical and political works.

dilemma – a situation of choice between two unfavourable things, options, ways, etc.

hermitage – a lonely dwelling

Petra – an ancient city of the Roman times in what is now southwestern Jordan

Carthage – an ancient Phoenical city in northern Africa (Tunisia), founded in 814 BC

Adam – in the Bible, the first man created by God ‘in his own image’ on the sixth day of creation

Broadway – a thoroughfare in New York City, an important theatre district since the 19th century, the centre of American theatrical activity

chimera – a fantastic idea or imagination; in Greek mythology, a monster, a strange combination of a lion, a goat and a dragon

choleric – hot-tempered, irritable

pro and con= for and against

Virginia – a state on the US Atlantic coast

Jersey City – a city at the mouth of the Hudson opposite New York City, founded by the Dutch in 1618

Hoboken – a city on the Hudson River near Jersey City

Manhattanville, Astoria – districts of New York City

alms-house – a house where poor people, unable to earn money, can live without paying rent

Sing-Sing – a state prison in Ossining, New York

the Dead Letter Office – the office where letters that can’t be delivered, because the addressee is either dead or absent, are kept

Butler – Samuel Butler (1612–1680), a famous poet and the first English satirist, the author of ‘Hudibras’, the most burlesque English-language poem

Ben Jonson(1572–1637) – a famous English dramatist, poet and critic

Ay esleu gazouiller et siffler oye, comme dit le commun proverbe, entre les cygnes, plutoust que d’estre entre tant de gentils po’tes et faconds orateurs mut du tout estime.– They prefer, as the proverb says, to cackle and hiss among the swans, as geese do, rather than, among good poets and eloquent speakers, to pass for the dumb. (French)

Rabelais– François Rabelais (1494–1553), a French writer and humanist, the author of the famous ‘Gargantua and Pantagruel’

Lincoln – Lincolnshire, a historic county on the North Sea, in eastern England

Christabel – a poem by Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1772–1834), an English poet and philosopher

tædium vitae= aversion to life ( Latin )

felo de se= suicide ( Latin )

Ecclesiastes – a book of wisdom in the Old Testament, usually placed between Proverbs and The Song of Solomon

seraglio= a palace (of a sultan) or harem

ad libitum – here: as you wish, as you prefer ( Latin )

Kantian – related to Immanuel Kant (1724–1804), one of the greatest philosophers of all time who opened a new era in the development of philosophical thought

ignis fauus= stupid luminary ( Latin )

Manichean – related to Manichaeism, a religious movement founded in Persia in the 3d century by Mani, who was called ‘Apostle of Light’ and ‘Illuminator’

Millenarian – follower of Millenarianism, the belief that Christ is going to establish a 1000-year reign of the saints before the Last Judgement, expressed in the Book of Revelation

Revelations – The Book of Revelation by John (or Apocalypse), the last book of the New Testament

vicar – in the Western Christian Churches, a clergyman in charge of a parish

‘The Sorrows of Young Wert(h)er’ – a famous novel by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749–1832), an outstanding German poet, novelist, scientist and philosopher

transcendental philosophy – the term applied to Kant’s study of nature, origin of things and limited human knowledge

illuminati – followers of illuminism, a secret religious and political movement of the 18th century, founded by the German religious leader Adam Weishaupt (1748–1830)

eleutherarchs – leaders of the secret society

esoterical – secret, known only by the initiates

exoterical – not secret, comprehensible, accessible to everybody

nil curo – here: indifference ( Latin )

chariot – an open, two-wheeled carriage

Allegro Vivace – a musical term meaning ‘up-tempo, gaily’

Andante Doloroso – a musical term meaning ‘moderately slow, wistfully’

inamorato – lover, man in love ( Italian )

Rosalia, Carlos – characters in ‘The Genius’, a novel by the German writer Carl Grosse (1761–1811)

&c.= etc.

Madeira – Portuguese fortified wine from the island of Madeira

Ahrimanic philosophy – in Zoroastrism, the ancient Persian religion, Ahriman is the evil spirit who represents greed, wrath and envy, attacks light, creates demons, etc.

Thalia – in Greek mythology and religion, the Muse of comedy

Melpomene – in Greek mythology and religion, the Muse of tragedy

Allegra, Penserosa – an Italian translation of the names of the muses of comedy and tragedy

Rondo – a musical form with the initial statement and subsequent restatement of a certain melody