The meaning of the Clerical movement to which I have referred is twofold. In the first place there is the perfectly15[Pg x] natural and legitimate16 desire of the French Catholics to recover lost ascendancy17; and in the second place there is the conviction of the Vatican and the French episcopate generally that France is the only country which under favourable18 circumstances might be in a position to restore the temporal power of the Holy See. In that respect the Pope can hope for nothing from Spain or Austria or the Catholic States of Germany. In France rests the sole hope of the Papacy; and thus on political as well as religious grounds the establishment of a Catholic régime in place of the present-day free-thought Republic is the one great dream of those who direct the fortunes of the Holy Roman and Apostolic Church.
All who know anything of modern history are aware that in 1849 a French army overthrew19 the Roman Republic and reinstated Pius IX. in possession of the so-called patrimony20 of St. Peter, and that in after years, until France indeed was vanquished21 at Sedan, the presence of French forces alone enabled the Pope to continue in the exercise of his territorial22 sway. Both the Royalist reactionaries23 who sat in the National Assembly of the Second Republic, and the Prince-President of that time, afterwards Napoleon III., lent support to Pius IX., and in return expected to receive the countenance24 and help of the French clergy25 in their various designs upon France. But the clergy always seeks its own ends, and more than once its policy varied26, now being in favour of the Royalists and now in favour of Louis Napoleon, according as it seemed likely to secure greater benefits from one or the other.
Even when the contest for supremacy27 was over, when the Republic had been murdered at the Coup28 d'état, and the hopes of the Count de Chambord had been destroyed by the triumph of Napoleon the Little, the clergy did not give unqualified support to the new government. True, on the 1st of January, 1852, Monseigneur Sibour, Archbishop of Paris, officiated at a solemn 'Te Deum' at Notre Dame30 in honour of the triumph of a bribed31 and drunken soldiery over the defenders32 of the Constitution; but Louis Napoleon had[Pg xi] scarcely become Emperor before a large section of the clergy began to protest that the new régime was by no means sufficiently33 Clerical. The course adopted in these circumstances was very characteristic and significant. An education law had been passed in 1850, giving many privileges and advantages to the clergy, such indeed as they had not possessed34 since the downfall of Charles X. But comparative liberty in educational matters was more than the French episcopate, eager for domination as the price of its adhesion to imperialism35, could willingly allow, and before long a celebrated36 and remarkably37 well written newspaper, 'L'Univers,' initiated38 a campaign against the Empire, taking as its standpoint that the Pope was the virtual sovereign of the world, and that everything must be subservient39 to the interests of the Roman Church. Half the French episcopate actively40 supported the view which followed, i.e. that the education of the young ought to be entirely41 under priestly control, the priests being the vicars of the Pope, even as he (the Pope) was the vicar of the Deity42. There were some curious and even amusing incidents in the course of that now forgotten campaign. For instance, it was actually proposed to abolish the study of the Greek and Latin classics in France, a suggestion which many of the Bishops43 vigorously upheld, though others of a scholarly turn pleaded plaintively44 in favour of Horace and a few others, whose writings, if edited in a Christian45 spirit, might yet, they thought, be allowed among young men of proved morality!
With the educational controversy46 many political matters soon became blended. The Italian revolutionaries were at that time doing their utmost to frighten Napoleon III. into fulfilment of his early promises respecting the liberation of Italy; and the Vatican, anxious for the maintenance of the old order of things, since any change must help on its own fall, made desperate efforts to prevent the interference of France in Italian affairs, unless indeed it were for the consolidation47 of the Papal power. Even as in recent times the Assumptionist Fathers have intrigued48 for the overthrow49 of the Third Republic, so did the Société de St. Vincent de Paul—which[Pg xii] nominally50 was a mere51 charitable organisation—seek to turn the Empire into a priestly régime, or in default thereof to overthrow it. The position of Napoleon III. was the more difficult since his own wife, the Empress Eugénie, acted as the Vatican's spy and agent. Matters at last reached such a pass that the Emperor's Minister, Billault, had on the one hand to prohibit political allusions52 in sermons, under pain of fine and imprisonment53, and on the other to break up and scatter54 the intriguing55 religious societies. Nevertheless the Empire's position remained a difficult one to the very last, and Napoleon III. was often sorely puzzled how to steer56 a safe course between the claims of the Pope and the clergy and the aspirations57 of Italy and its well-wishers; to say nothing of the views of all those who, thinking of France alone, by no means approved of priestly power in politics.
It is on the state of affairs to which I have alluded58, the hostility59 of a part of the French clergy to the Empire in its earlier years, that M. Zola has based his novel, 'The Conquest of Plassans.' The priests, subservient to the Vatican, lead the town into a course of opposition60 against imperial institutions, and the Government then despatches thither61 an impecunious62 and unscrupulous priest, one Abbé Faujas, for the purpose of winning it back again. Such tactics were not infrequently employed at that time. Whilst a part of the clergy simply followed its own inclinations63, others venally64 took pay from the Empire to do its dirty work. As often as not they subsequently betrayed their paymaster, using the positions into which they were thrust for the satisfaction of their personal ambition. Still, for a while these needy65 hangers-on at the Ministry66 of Public Worship proved useful allies, and the Empire was only too ready to employ them. It will be seen, then, that the theme chosen by M. Zola rests upon historical fact, and it may be taken that his story embodies67 incidents which actually occurred under such conditions as those that I have described.
The 'Conquest of Plassans' may well be read in conjunction with 'The Fortune of the Rougons,' M. Zola's earlier[Pg xiii] work, as the scene in both instances is the same, and certain personages, such as Félicité Rougon and Antoine Macquart, figure largely in both books. In the earlier volume we see the effect of the Coup d'état in the provinces, almost every incident being based upon historical fact. For instance, Miette, the heroine of 'The Fortune of the Rougons,' had a counterpart in Madame Ferrier, that being the real name of the young woman who, carrying the insurgents68' blood-red banner, was hailed by them as the 'Goddess of Liberty' on their dramatic march. And in like way the tragic69 death of Silvère, linked to another hapless prisoner, was founded by M. Zola on an incident that followed the rising, as recorded by an eyewitness70.[1] Amidst all the bloodshed, the Rougons, in M. Zola's narrative71, rise to fortune and power, and Plassans (really Aix-en-Provence) bows down before them. But time passes, the revolt of the clergy supervenes, by their influence the town chooses a Royalist Marquis as deputy, and it becomes necessary to conquer it once again.
Abbé Faujas, by whom this conquest is achieved on behalf of the Empire, is, I think, a strongly conceived character, perhaps the most real of all the priests that are scattered72 through M. Zola's books. I do not say this because he happens to be anything but a good man. M. Zola has sketched73 more than one good priest in his novels, as, for instance, Abbé Rose in 'Paris;' but in this one, Faujas, there is more genuine flesh and blood than in all the others. True, his colleagues, Bourrette and Fenil, are admirably suggested; the Bishop29, too, an indolent prelate who surrenders the government of his diocese to his vicar-general, and spends his time in translating Horace (for he is one of the few who favour the classics), leaves on one an impression of reality; yet no other priestly creation of M. Zola's pen can to my thinking vie with the stern, chaste74, authoritative75, ambitious[Pg xiv] Faujas, the man who subdues76 Plassans, and who wrecks77 the home of the Mouret family, with whom he lives.
Leading parts in the story are assigned to Mouret and his wife Marthe, both of whom are extremely interesting figures. The genesis of the former's career and fate is contained in one of M. Zola's short stories, 'Histoire d'un Fou,' which he contributed to the Paris 'événement' before he took to book writing. The idea, so skilfully worked out, is that of a man who, although perfectly sane78, is generally believed to be mad, and who by force of being thus regarded does ultimately lose his wits. In Marthe his wife, the grand-daughter of a mad woman, we find the hereditary79 flaw turning to hysteria, in a measure of a religious character, such as subsequently becomes manifest in her son Serge, the chief character of 'Abbé Mouret's Transgression,' which work proceeds directly from 'The Conquest of Plassans.'
In the latter book, as in 'The Fortune of the Rougons,' M. Zola skilfully depicts80 all the life of a French provincial81 town such as it was half a century or so ago, and in this respect he has simply drawn82 upon his own recollections of Aix, where he spent so many years of his boyhood. Much that he records might be applied83 to such towns even nowadays, for electric lighting84, and tramcars, and motor-cars, and increased railway facilities, have made little change in provincial society. There are still rival salons85 and coteries86 and petty jealousies87 and vanities all at work; and if new parties have succeeded old ones, their intrigues88 have remained of much the same description as formerly89. The many provincials90 who in M. Zola's narrative gravitate around the chief characters are pleasantly and skilfully diversified91, and seem very life-like with their foibles and 'fads92' and rivalries93 and ambitions. Possibly the most interesting are the Paloques, husband and wife, whom envy, hatred94 and all uncharitableness incessantly consume. Again, Madame Faujas, the priest's mother, is a finely-drawn character, but perhaps the failings of her daughter Olympe, and of Trouche, Olympe's husband, verge95 slightly upon caricature. As for old Rose, the Mourets'[Pg xv] servant, though her ways are very amusing, and the part she plays in the persecution96 of her master renders her an indispensable personage in the narrative, it may be pointed97 out that she is virtually the same woman who has done duty half a dozen times in M. Zola's books—for instance, as Martine in 'Dr. Pascal,' as Véronique in 'The Joy of Life,' and so forth. It is rather curious, indeed, that M. Zola, so skilful10 in portraying98 diversity of character and disposition99 among his other personages, should have clung so pertinaciously100 to one sole type of an old servant-woman.
It is not my purpose here to analyse in detail the plot of 'The Conquest of Plassans,' but, having dealt at some length with the historical incidents on which the work is based, it is as well that I should point out that politics are not obtruded101 upon the reader in M. Zola's pages. Indeed, the book largely deals with quite another matter, that of 'the priest in the house,' showing as it does how the Mourets' home was wrecked102 by the combined action of the Faujases and the Trouches. In this connection the dolorous103 career of the unhappy Marthe is very vividly104 pictured. A fairly contented105 wife and mother at the outset of the story, she is won over to religion by Faujas, whose purpose is to utilise her as an instrument for the furtherance of his political and social schemes. But religion for her becomes a mysticism full of unrealisable yearnings, for she expects to taste the joys of Heaven even upon earth. Carried away by her religious fervour, she soon neglects her home; and her husband, it must be admitted, takes anything but the right course to win her back. She begins to loathe106 him and to indulge in an insane passion for the priest by whom she is spurned107. Then hysteria masters her and consumption sets in; and between them those fell diseases bring her to an early grave. There are some finely conceived scenes between Marthe and Faujas; but the climax108 only comes towards the end of the volume, when Mouret, the husband who has been driven mad and shut up in a lunatic asylum109, returns home and wreaks110 the most terrible vengeance111 upon those who have wronged him.[Pg xvi] The pages which deal with the madman's escape and his horrible revenge are certainly among the most powerful that M. Zola has ever written, and have been commended for their effectiveness by several of his leading critics.
E. A. V.
MERTON, SURREY: Sept. 1900.
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1 revival | |
n.复兴,复苏,(精力、活力等的)重振 | |
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2 forth | |
adv.向前;向外,往外 | |
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3 annihilate | |
v.使无效;毁灭;取消 | |
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4 steadily | |
adv.稳定地;不变地;持续地 | |
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5 incessantly | |
ad.不停地 | |
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6 discord | |
n.不和,意见不合,争论,(音乐)不和谐 | |
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7 coalitions | |
结合体,同盟( coalition的名词复数 ); (两党或多党)联合政府 | |
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8 paramountcy | |
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9 diffusion | |
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10 skilful | |
(=skillful)adj.灵巧的,熟练的 | |
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11 skilfully | |
adv. (美skillfully)熟练地 | |
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12 patriotism | |
n.爱国精神,爱国心,爱国主义 | |
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13 lavishly | |
adv.慷慨地,大方地 | |
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14 derived | |
vi.起源;由来;衍生;导出v.得到( derive的过去式和过去分词 );(从…中)得到获得;源于;(从…中)提取 | |
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15 perfectly | |
adv.完美地,无可非议地,彻底地 | |
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16 legitimate | |
adj.合法的,合理的,合乎逻辑的;v.使合法 | |
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17 ascendancy | |
n.统治权,支配力量 | |
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18 favourable | |
adj.赞成的,称赞的,有利的,良好的,顺利的 | |
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19 overthrew | |
overthrow的过去式 | |
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20 patrimony | |
n.世袭财产,继承物 | |
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21 vanquished | |
v.征服( vanquish的过去式和过去分词 );战胜;克服;抑制 | |
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22 territorial | |
adj.领土的,领地的 | |
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23 reactionaries | |
n.反动分子,反动派( reactionary的名词复数 ) | |
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24 countenance | |
n.脸色,面容;面部表情;vt.支持,赞同 | |
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25 clergy | |
n.[总称]牧师,神职人员 | |
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26 varied | |
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27 supremacy | |
n.至上;至高权力 | |
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28 coup | |
n.政变;突然而成功的行动 | |
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29 bishop | |
n.主教,(国际象棋)象 | |
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30 dame | |
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31 bribed | |
v.贿赂( bribe的过去式和过去分词 );向(某人)行贿,贿赂 | |
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32 defenders | |
n.防御者( defender的名词复数 );守卫者;保护者;辩护者 | |
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33 sufficiently | |
adv.足够地,充分地 | |
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34 possessed | |
adj.疯狂的;拥有的,占有的 | |
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35 imperialism | |
n.帝国主义,帝国主义政策 | |
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36 celebrated | |
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37 remarkably | |
ad.不同寻常地,相当地 | |
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38 initiated | |
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39 subservient | |
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40 actively | |
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41 entirely | |
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42 deity | |
n.神,神性;被奉若神明的人(或物) | |
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43 bishops | |
(基督教某些教派管辖大教区的)主教( bishop的名词复数 ); (国际象棋的)象 | |
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44 plaintively | |
adv.悲哀地,哀怨地 | |
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45 Christian | |
adj.基督教徒的;n.基督教徒 | |
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46 controversy | |
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47 consolidation | |
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48 intrigued | |
adj.好奇的,被迷住了的v.搞阴谋诡计(intrigue的过去式);激起…的兴趣或好奇心;“intrigue”的过去式和过去分词 | |
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49 overthrow | |
v.推翻,打倒,颠覆;n.推翻,瓦解,颠覆 | |
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50 nominally | |
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51 mere | |
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52 allusions | |
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53 imprisonment | |
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54 scatter | |
vt.撒,驱散,散开;散布/播;vi.分散,消散 | |
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55 intriguing | |
adj.有趣的;迷人的v.搞阴谋诡计(intrigue的现在分词);激起…的好奇心 | |
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56 steer | |
vt.驾驶,为…操舵;引导;vi.驾驶 | |
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57 aspirations | |
强烈的愿望( aspiration的名词复数 ); 志向; 发送气音; 发 h 音 | |
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58 alluded | |
提及,暗指( allude的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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59 hostility | |
n.敌对,敌意;抵制[pl.]交战,战争 | |
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60 opposition | |
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61 thither | |
adv.向那里;adj.在那边的,对岸的 | |
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62 impecunious | |
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63 inclinations | |
倾向( inclination的名词复数 ); 倾斜; 爱好; 斜坡 | |
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64 venally | |
adv.唯利是图地,以权谋私 | |
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65 needy | |
adj.贫穷的,贫困的,生活艰苦的 | |
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66 ministry | |
n.(政府的)部;牧师 | |
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67 embodies | |
v.表现( embody的第三人称单数 );象征;包括;包含 | |
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68 insurgents | |
n.起义,暴动,造反( insurgent的名词复数 ) | |
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69 tragic | |
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70 eyewitness | |
n.目击者,见证人 | |
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71 narrative | |
n.叙述,故事;adj.叙事的,故事体的 | |
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72 scattered | |
adj.分散的,稀疏的;散步的;疏疏落落的 | |
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73 sketched | |
v.草拟(sketch的过去式与过去分词形式) | |
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74 chaste | |
adj.贞洁的;有道德的;善良的;简朴的 | |
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75 authoritative | |
adj.有权威的,可相信的;命令式的;官方的 | |
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76 subdues | |
征服( subdue的第三人称单数 ); 克制; 制服 | |
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77 wrecks | |
n.沉船( wreck的名词复数 );(事故中)遭严重毁坏的汽车(或飞机等);(身体或精神上)受到严重损伤的人;状况非常糟糕的车辆(或建筑物等)v.毁坏[毁灭]某物( wreck的第三人称单数 );使(船舶)失事,使遇难,使下沉 | |
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78 sane | |
adj.心智健全的,神志清醒的,明智的,稳健的 | |
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79 hereditary | |
adj.遗传的,遗传性的,可继承的,世袭的 | |
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80 depicts | |
描绘,描画( depict的第三人称单数 ); 描述 | |
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81 provincial | |
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82 drawn | |
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83 applied | |
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84 lighting | |
n.照明,光线的明暗,舞台灯光 | |
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85 salons | |
n.(营业性质的)店( salon的名词复数 );厅;沙龙(旧时在上流社会女主人家的例行聚会或聚会场所);(大宅中的)客厅 | |
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86 coteries | |
n.(有共同兴趣的)小集团( coterie的名词复数 ) | |
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87 jealousies | |
n.妒忌( jealousy的名词复数 );妒羡 | |
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88 intrigues | |
n.密谋策划( intrigue的名词复数 );神秘气氛;引人入胜的复杂情节v.搞阴谋诡计( intrigue的第三人称单数 );激起…的好奇心 | |
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89 formerly | |
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90 provincials | |
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91 diversified | |
adj.多样化的,多种经营的v.使多样化,多样化( diversify的过去式和过去分词 );进入新的商业领域 | |
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92 fads | |
n.一时的流行,一时的风尚( fad的名词复数 ) | |
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93 rivalries | |
n.敌对,竞争,对抗( rivalry的名词复数 ) | |
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94 hatred | |
n.憎恶,憎恨,仇恨 | |
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95 verge | |
n.边,边缘;v.接近,濒临 | |
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96 persecution | |
n. 迫害,烦扰 | |
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97 pointed | |
adj.尖的,直截了当的 | |
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98 portraying | |
v.画像( portray的现在分词 );描述;描绘;描画 | |
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99 disposition | |
n.性情,性格;意向,倾向;排列,部署 | |
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100 pertinaciously | |
adv.坚持地;固执地;坚决地;执拗地 | |
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101 obtruded | |
v.强行向前,强行,强迫( obtrude的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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102 wrecked | |
adj.失事的,遇难的 | |
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103 dolorous | |
adj.悲伤的;忧愁的 | |
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104 vividly | |
adv.清楚地,鲜明地,生动地 | |
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105 contented | |
adj.满意的,安心的,知足的 | |
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106 loathe | |
v.厌恶,嫌恶 | |
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107 spurned | |
v.一脚踢开,拒绝接受( spurn的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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108 climax | |
n.顶点;高潮;v.(使)达到顶点 | |
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109 asylum | |
n.避难所,庇护所,避难 | |
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110 wreaks | |
诉诸(武力),施行(暴力),发(脾气)( wreak的第三人称单数 ) | |
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111 vengeance | |
n.报复,报仇,复仇 | |
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