75 лучших рассказов / 75 Best Short Stories

claret – famous Bordeaux wine made since Roman times in the region around the city of Bordeaux in France; the word claret is not used in modern French.

50

hansom – a low two-wheeled open carriage with the elevated driver’s seat

51

West Kensington – a fashionable district in central London

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W.  – West

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brougham – a four-wheeled one-horse carriage designed in 1838 by Henry Brougham, a former lord chancellor of England

54

kept me on tenter-hooks – idiom kept me in a state of anxiety

55

Alabama – the US state in the south (131 334 sq. km); the first Europeans who came there were the Spanish, the first settlement was founded by the French in 1701; after the war of 1763, the territory was ceded to England.

56

the Federal army – the army of the federal government in the American Civil War of 1861–1865 with 11 Southern states

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the Southern cause – the southern states seceded from the Union in 1860–1861; the Northern and the Southern states had different economies, different attitude to slavery, trade and the very idea of states’ rights.

58

Corinth – a city in northeastern Mississippi; the bloody battle took place to the north of the city during the American Civil War.

59

the Yanks – Yankees, a nickname of the citizens of New England states; the word was used by Southerners for Northerners and Federal soldiers during the American Civil War.

60

Niagara – Niagara Falls on the Niagara River in northeastern North America, on the USA-Canadian border

61

Aeolian harps – Aeolian harp is a musical instrument in which sound is produced by the movement of the wind over the strings; in Greek mythology, Aeolus is the god of the winds.

62

delirium – mental state marked by confused thinking, hallucinations, etc. as a result of the intoxication of the brain caused by fever or some other physical disorder

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Monterey – a city in California, 135 km south of San Francisco; the first Europeans in the region were the Spanish in 1542.

64

the Blavatsky people – followers of Helena Blavatsky (1831–1891), an occultist and spiritualist; she founded the Theosophical Society to promote theosophy (divine wisdom), a philosophical-religious system.

65

Sepoy – 1) a place in India; 2) an Indian soldier in the service of the British India Company.

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the Thugs – members of the Indian organization of professional assassins who travelled throughout the country for several cen-turies since 1356

67

vraisemblance = love of truth ( French )

68

Garrick – David Garrick (1717–1779), a famous English actor, producer and dramatist, one of the managers of the Drury Lane Theatre in London

69

the Syndicate Mill – a mill belonging to the Syndicate, an association of racketeers in control of organized crime in the USA

70

Dionysius (430 BC–367 BC) – a tyrant of Syracuse, an ancient Greek city on the east coast of Sicily

71

Pall Mall – Pall Mall Gazette, a British newspaper, one of the “poplars”

72

tetradrachm – an ancient Greek coin used for trade with the Scythians and the Celts

73

Offa – the king of Mercia (757–796), one of the most powerful kings of Anglo-Saxon England

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Mercia – one of the most powerful kingdoms of Anglo-Saxon England in the 7th–9th centuries

75

Richmond – an outer borough (an incorporate town or district with special privileges) of London, along the River Thames

76

Padua – a city in northern Italy, west of Venice, first mentioned in 302 BC

77

Euclideas – here: one of ancient Greek coins

78

Kentuckian – a resident of Kentucky, the US state in the south (102 694 sq. km)

79

a Sandwich Islander – a resident of the Sandwich Islands, the second name of the Hawaiian Islands, a group of the volcanic islands in the Pacific Ocean; the first European who visited the islands in 1778 was Captain James Cook (1728–1779).

80

Pompadour – Marquise de Pompadour (1721–1764), the mistress of Louis XV, king of France; she was a well-educated woman and a patron of art and literature.

81

Olympus – a mount in Greece (2,917 m); in Greek mythology, the place where gods lived.

82

the Lost Atlantis – a legendary island in the Atlantic Ocean, described by antique authors as a highly developed and powerful civilization

83

Florence – a city in central Italy, founded in the 1st century BC and notable for its works of art

84

the Commandments – in the Bible, the list of religious principles revealed to Moses, a Hebrew prophet of the 14th—13th centuries BC, on Mount Sinai

85

the Mosaic Law – the religious principles of Judaism revealed to Moses, a Hebrew prophet of the 14th—13th centuries BC

86

the Legion of Hono(u)r – the National Order of the Legion of Honour, a military and civil order of the French Republic, created by Napoleon in 1802

87