Word: genteel
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Venus has the oddly elusive flavor of a 19th century novel. The two central characters, seemingly so genteel, are an unlikely pair to wash up on the wilder shores of love. Grace and Caro Bell are sisters, beautiful and well-bred, with neither property nor prospects. Orphaned young in their native Australia, they emigrate to England in their early 20s, accompanied by their half-sister Dora, who is both incubus and guardian. To the touch, the girls' surface is all coolness; the heat seems to have been drawn out of them during their struggle against Dora's ravenous...
Snow's distinguished careers began in modest circumstances; he championed ambition and meritocracy because he was the successful product of both. He was born in the industrial city of Leicester, the son of a clerk in a shoe factory. His family, as he often remarked later, was "shabby genteel, not working class but no money to spare." The boy gave signs early on that lower-middle-class neighborhoods would not hold him long. He showed an aptitude for science, a field he took up because his grammar school offered no arts courses. He won a scholarship to Leicester University...
Looking like a skinny William Shatner, Heard's Jack appears as unlikely to start the Beat Generation as the real Kerouac must have. Torn between the genteel sobriety of California suburbia and literary fame as a New York author, Kerouac compromised and died an alcoholic wimp in Florida. We last see him warming in the sun, a camp blanket tossed across his kness as if he were a suburban Ezra Pound who had anticipated his usefulness or outlived his youthfulness and was only good for gardening, pushing down daisies...
...over the years clients began drifting away because of Ayer's genteel Main Line fustiness, and the agency became known as the "great gray womb...
...channel the refuse of daily existence-cans, bottles, newspapers-into recycling systems. Some restaurants report more calls for doggie bags for taking home leftovers. A few garbage collectors complain about a decrease in good recyclable items in the trash. Observers report an increase in the number of otherwise genteel people scouting curbside junk heaps for usable stuff such as carpets and furniture. Many people, it is said, are even learning to turn out lights when they...