The Kill - Emile Zola [168]
Champs-Elysées: a broad avenue in Paris that stretches from the Arc de Triomphe to the place de la Concorde.
Grand Cordon: decoration associated with the Legion of Honor.
CHAPTER 4
black satin domino: Earlier Renée had said she was going to wear a blue domino; a domino is a long hooded cloak, usually worn with a half-mask as a masquerade costume.
Epinal print: illustrated broadsheets printed in Epinal, France, during the nineteenth century; they told religious stories, patriotic histories, and fairy tales using a cartoonlike narrative form.
Piron’s obscene poetry: Alexis Piron (1689–1783) was a French playwright and writer of obscene verse whose “Ode to Priapus” was considered “a masterpiece of licentious verse.”
Sèvres: fine porcelain, often elaborately decorated, made at the royal factory at Sèvres, France.
Chaplin: Charles Chaplin (1825–1891), a fashionable painter of the period.
CHAPTER 5
Vincennes: former royal hunting preserve east of Paris, which was converted into a fortress in 1840.
Musée Campana: museum housing the collection of the marquis de Campana.
Bal de l’Opéra: the opera house ball.
La Belle Hélène: heroine of the 1864 operetta of the same name by French composer Jacques Offenbach (1819–1880), who used the story of Helen of Troy to comment satirically on Parisian society.
Tannhäuser: grand opera by German composer Richard Wagner (1813–1883), written in 1845 and revised in 1860 for performance in Paris, where it was badly received.
Théâtre-Italien: theater in Paris offering Italian-language performances of a range of classic plays.
Ristori: Italian actress Adelaide Ristori (1822–1906) won international renown for her performances in tragic roles.
Phèdre: Tragedy by French dramatist Jean Racine (1639–1699), based on the Greek myth of Phaedra, the wife of Theseus, who conceived an incestuous love for Hippolytus, her stepson. Hippolytus rejected her overtures but was falsely accused of assaulting her; to punish his son, Theseus invoked the aid of the god Neptune, who sent a sea monster to devour Hippolytus. Phaedra then poisoned herself out of remorse.
Bou fes: The Bouffes-Parisiens was a theater for light and comic opera established by Jacques Offenbach in 1855.
Olympus: abode of the gods in Greek mythology.
Chapelle Expiatoire: somber neoclassical church designed by Pierre Fontaine in 1815.
Mid-Lent Thursday: the Thursday before the fourth Sunday in Lent, sometimes celebrated as a holiday in order to encourage the faithful to continue through the penitential season of Lent.
CHAPTER 6
Narcissus: in Greek mythology, a beautiful youth who fell in love with his own reflection in a pool; he was loved by the nymph Echo, but after he failed to return her affection, she retreated to a cave and died of longing, and only her voice was left.
Mohammed’s houris: the beautiful maidens that the prophet Mohammed said would await the devout Muslim in Paradise.
Henry III’s mignons: Henry III, king of France from 1574 until his death in 1589, bestowed many favors on a select group of handsome young men known as his mignons.
Juno: the wife of Jupiter, who punished Echo for her idle chatter by condemning her to do nothing but repeat the words of others.
Pradier: the sculptor James Pradier.
Lesbos: island in the Aegean Sea; as the home of the ancient Greek poet Sappho, it was associated with female homosexuality.
cotillion: an elaborate ballroom dance with frequent changing of couples carried out under the leadership of a single person or couple.
Ovid’s Metamorphoses: poetic work that retells classical myths concerning love and transformation, by the Roman poet Ovid (43 B.C.–A.D. 17).
Charenton: site of the insane asylum where the Marquis de Sade (1740–1814), famous for his erotic writings and elaborate sexual perversions, was finally committed.
CHAPTER 7
loves of Louis XV: The favorite mistress of French king Louis XV (1710 –1774) was Madame de Pompadour (1721–1764), who wielded great power