Word: gentlefolk
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...society, under the leadership of the dissolute regent, the Due d'Orleans, gave itself over to a rabid pursuit of pleasure, rivaling that of Imperial Rome. Hairdos, fashions and morals reached undreamed-of heights, lengths and depths. Theaters, operas and court ballets were packed the year round, while gentlefolk staged amateur theatricals by the score in their chateaux and country houses. Costume balls, hunts, public spectacles and private liaisons dangereuses were the order of the day-and night...
Petersburg, needled Russia with a masterly seriocomic study of a chronic lazybones whom he called Oblomov. The book was largely ignored by readers rushing to buy the latest novel-A Nest of Gentlefolk-by Turgenev. Literate Russians eventually recognized Goncharov's genius, but after nearly a century, his major work is still little known in the West. Probably no finer introduction exists than the supple, perceptive new English translation (the first in 25 years) by David Magar-shack, himself the author of two good biographies of Chekhov and Turgenev...
British Conservatives gave a cautious cheer last week. In two by-elections, their candidates won handsomely. Both seats are Tory strongholds: the Arundel & Shoreham district of West Sussex is a rich man's garden, and Harrogate is a Yorkshire spa packed with retired gentlefolk. But in face of the traditional loss of popularity of the party in power, the Tories won a higher percentage of the vote than they had in the 1951 election. That made it seven by-elections in a row (six of them Tory victories) in which the Tories have increased their 1951 percentages...
Scarcely had the rodeo roughnecks wahooed out of Manhattan's Madison Square Garden when the gentlefolk of horsedom cantered in. Unmannerly broncos and bucking Brahman bulls were replaced by mannerly hunters and harness ponies, five-gaited mares that would no more buck than fly. The crowd was different too: vulgar cheers were taboo; from the Golden Oval of boxes came only polite applause, an occasional bravo that rang no rafters. With its black toppers, red tail coats and trumpets signaling the start of Manhattan's social season, last week the 63rd National Horse Show was in full swing...
...Wisteria Trees (by Joshua Logan; based on Anton Chekhov's The Cherry Orchard; produced by Mr. Logan & Leland Hayward) converts Chekhov's 19th Century Russian landowners into turn-of-the-century Louisiana gentlefolk. Thereafter there are perhaps as many subtle differences between The Wisteria Trees and The Cherry Orchard as there are obvious resemblances. The difference that matters most: The Wisteria Trees is immeasurably inferior...