I just finished reading this book. Wow. Quite interesting for such a short novel. It’s set in the Congo, at the time when the Germans are trying to capture it from the Belgians. If you don’t know the story, it’s a pretty quick read—well-written and interesting. Nothing that requires too much analysis or contemplation, a true piece of entertainment that is really about the relationship of two people in unlikely circumstances.
It’s a good story, with a lovely bit of romance. I have added the movie to my library requests and am really looking forward to seeing Humphrey Bogart play a cockney engineer, and Katherine Hepburn play a minister’s sister. I think it will all come off pretty well.
While I was reading the book, I came across several words that I either didn’t recognize at all, or knew but didn’t fully understand. When this happens once, I just kind of skim over the word, but when it happens several times, as it did with this novel, I think it’s fun to look words up. It’s an opportunity to expand my vocabulary. I know that there is this idea that we are supposed to use the most simplistic form of words available for clarity, etc. but that must be balanced with the opportunity we have to develop nuance in our meaning by using more refined words. That is my justification anyway for trying to expand my vocabulary.
Here are the 5 words that I came across, their sentences to give them context, and their heretofore unknown meanings (from the Pocket Oxford English Dictionary-my copy is from 1996):
1. Surfeit: “Surfeit was yet to come.”
Meaning: an excess, esp. in eating or drinking
2. Casuistry: “All the same, and in a fashion completely devoid of casuistry, Rose was appreciative of the difference between business and pleasure.”
Meaning: person who uses clever but false reasoning in matters of conscience, etc
3. Uxorious: “As it was, the discussion ended eventually, as was quite inevitable, in Allnutt’s saying that ‘he would see what he could do,’ just as some other uxorious husband in civilization might see what could be done about buying a new drawing-room suite.”
Meaning: greatly or excessively fond of one’s wife
4. Objurgations: “‘Which way are they going?’ asked Rose, cutting through his objurgations.”
Meaning: a harsh rebuke (according to Merriam-Webster as it was not listed in my pocket dictionary)
5. Peroration: “This peroration annoyed the President; it was almost impertinence on the part of a mere lieutenant to tell a commander what was the extent of his powers.”
Meaning: concluding part of a speech
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