Word: devilishness
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...spending more time in boudoirs than in darkrooms. When the lonely princess and mother of two takes up with an eligible aristocrat, Roddy Llewellyn, the earl appears on television. There, playing the crocodile cuckold, he tearfully begs indulgence for Princess Margaret and the children. "Lord Snowdon," Margaret concludes, "was devilish cunning...
...having both under control." Hayman begins the book with a short chapter that underlines Kafka's skill at using his fiction both to confront and masochistically magnify his fallings as a person, Kafka's short story. "The Judgment"--in which a father condemns his son for being a "devilish human being" and pronounces his death sentence, which the submissive son faithfully carries out--is a pivotal point in Kafka's ego-defensive writing...
...build the City, along with his design specifications, were received in 1977, says Roberts, while he was spending time alone in a Southwest desert following the death of his daughter and her husband in a plane crash. Carrying out the divine instructions was not easy. Roberts tells of devilish obstructions. On a visit to Israel, he says, Satan attempted to tumble him into the Sea of Galilee. There were mundane problems as well. Donations flagged, and local and federal groups objected to the project on grounds that Tulsa was already overloaded with hospital beds...
...stumbled into the line for "The Demon." This ride seemed a more conventional roller coaster with a hill, a turn, a rise, a dip, none of which looked terribly menacing. But as the line snaked its way around a plaster mountain placed there for atmospheric effect, "The Demon's" devilish aspects revealed themselves. I had seen the tame initial drop; I had not seen the loop that towered over the fake mountain. My first inclination was to leave the line, but embarrassment is a powerful force. I stayed put. A few minutes later I saw the next terror: another loop...
When P.G. Wodehouse, a shy man, was persuaded for once to give a public reading, he became so absorbed in his own story that he quite forgot his audience. "By Jove, that's good! I'd no idea," he muttered. "Devilish funny." Millions agreed with him. Bertrand Russell could hardly wait for the next Bertie Wooster novel. Bix Beiderbecke quoted Psmith by the page. Evelyn Waugh, scarcely noted for charitable overstatement, called his colleague "preeminent and undisputed...