75 лучших рассказов / 75 Best Short Stories

Hermes – in Greek mythology, the son of Zeus, and the god of cattle and sheep; he was also a dream god and the messenger of the gods.

198

Pall Mall – a broad road in central London between Trafalgar Square and St. James Park

199

Madeira – a fortified wine, originally from the Portuguese island of Madeira

200

Venus – in Roman mythology, the goddess of love

201

Salamander – an amphibian, a small lizard-like animal; it was once supposed that salamanders could live in fire.

202

Galileo Isaac Newton – the character of the story was christened after Galileo (1564–1642), a great Italian philosopher, astronomer and mathematician, and Isaac Newton (1642–1727), an English physicist and mathematician, one of the greatest figures of the scientific revolution of the 17th century.

203

Holborn-hill – Holborn is an area in central London west to the city.

204

quadrille – a dance for four couples in square formation, popular in the 18th–19th centuries

205

minuet – an aristocratic couple dance of the 17th–18th centuries

206

gavotte – a lively kissing dance that came into fashion in England and France in the 17th–18th centuries

207

fandango – a Spanish courtship dance of Moorish origin, popular in Europe in the 17th century

208

farinagholkajingo – a dance and the corresponding word invented by the author

209

negus – a drink of hot sweetened wine, lemon juice, water, etc.

210

the Serpentine – a part of a large curved lake in Hyde Park used for boating in summer and skating in winter

211

babel – a noisy and confused company

212

lorgnette – a pair of eye-glasses on a long handle

213

Harvard – the USA oldest higher educational institution, founded in 1636

214

Princeton – the fourth oldest university in the USA, founded in New Jersey in 1746

215

Yale – a private university in New Heaven, the third oldest in the US, founded in 1701

216

Williams – Roger Williams University in Nashville, Tennessee, US

217

Cornell – a university in Ithaca, a city in southcentral New York state, founded in 1862

218

New Haven – a city in south-central Connecticut, founded in 1638

219

the League of Nations – the organization for international cooperation, the predecessor of the United Nations Organization, created in 1919 and disbanded in 1946

220

Marie Antoinette (1755–1793) – the queen of France, wife of Louis XVI, executed during the French Revolution

221

guillotine – a beheading instrument invented in 1792 during the French Revolution

222

Greenwich Villager – resident of Greenwich Village, an exclusive residential area in Lower Manhattan in New York City; in the first half of the 20th century it became the place where intellectuals, writers, artists and bohemians used to meet.

223

anachronism – 1) smth. or smb. out of date; 2) mistake in chronological relation.

224

Baltimore – a city in north-central Maryland, US, founded in 1729

225

the Confederacy – 11 Southern states that seceded from the Union in 1860–1861 and formed the Confederate States of America; the secession caused the American Civil War of 1861–1865.

226

septuagenarian – a person from 70 to 79 years of age

227

Methuselah – the Old Testament patriarch; he was 969 years old, and was considered the longest-lived man.

228

Havana – a famous cigar

229

the Wandering Jew – a legendary character doomed to live until the end of the world in punishment for taunting Jesus Christ on his way to the Crucification

230

mantilla – a large veil or scarf worn to cover the hair and shoulders

231

San Juan Hill – the highest point of San Juan Ridge where one of the battles of the American-Spanish War took place in 1898

232

persona grata – a person who is acceptable

233

Y. W. C. A.  – Young Women’s Christian Association

234

sans = without ( French )

235

gingham – a strong, plain-woven cotton fabric

236

Westmoreland – a historic county in northwestern England

237

Northumberland – a historic county on the North Sea in northeastern England, to the south of Scotland

238

Carlisle – a city and district in Cumberland in northwestern England, on the Scottish border; Cumberland is a historic county along the western coast of England.

239

the Cumberland Fells – a part of the Cumbrian Mountains

240

Newcastle – a city in the historic county of Northumberland; the new castle from which the town got its name was built in 1080.

241

gowk = a fool

242

maud – a grey Scottish plaid, tartan

243

bairn = a child ( Scottish )

244

bairnie = babe, kid ( Scottish )

245

Spectre(-)Child = a ghost of a child

246