Word: priggishly
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...expert at suggesting the blend of revival-meeting urgency, circus gaiety, and kith-and-kin intimacy that flavors rural Southern politics. But the serpentine twists and turns of logic in his novel would tax Laocoön on a good wrestling day. There is a baffling subplot about a priggish schoolteacher and his nymphomaniac wife, who farms out her favors on a faded billiard table. Though the teacher is unnerved by a hint of scandal, he spends most of his time goading his wife into the arms of her lovers. One is Ol' Gene, and by the time...
...whose 1957 analysis of "The Monarchy Today" thoughtfully explored the Crown's position in a world where "republics are the rule," but earned him inglorious publicity for his choice of phrases about the Queen's speaking style ("a pain in the neck") and manner ("that of a priggish schoolgirl, captain of the hockey team"); and Marian Campbell, 27, editor of a youth magazine published by Altrincham; in Tormarton, England...
Other members of the faculty have expressed admiration for Curley's wit. Professor Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr. Warns against a priggish approach to the man. Mr. Louis Lyons, Curator of the Nieman Fellowships, grants him "talent, and a wonderful voice." To Professor John K. Galbraith, "He was clever and articulate, and had both an audacious sense of humor and a highly developed if somewhat indiscriminate imagination." Professor Oscar Handlin sees in the man "a certain kind of charm, and a lot of blarney...
...sniff of hot pie in payment of his feudal dues, that a certain bone from the body of a pure black cat that had been boiled alive was believed to make one invisible. Against these curiosa, the characters still manage to hold their own: Sir Galahad, who is so priggish a saint that lesser knights loathe him; Jenny, who cannot make her mind up whether to be a good woman or go on in her usual way; Lancelot, the ugly duckling who is loved by all save himself. Balancing his own sprightly colloquialisms with the archaic grandeur of the Malory...
Every traditional schoolboy value-loyalty to comrades, gaiety and spontaneity-was smothered in great quilts of priggish guff. Wolfgang found that the bully was esteemed by the teachers. When one pupil from Hamburg Sunday-punched a little fellow half his size, the smaller student was denounced for having behaved in a "provocative" manner. Wolfgang was reported for having remarked that some Spanish girl students were very pretty; this kind of frivolity would not do. The result was an episode recorded like "My First Communion" in a pietistic work-"My First Self-Criticism." He duly denounced himself, but he could never...