Лучшие рассказы О. Генри = The Best of O. Henry

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cryptograph – a specialist in cryptography, the practice of using cipher with a secret code in messages

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the worm dieth seldom – a part of the phrase from the Bible that describes the blazing inferno

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rayjict = reject

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the blowing of Gabriel’s dinner horn – Archangel Gabriel, the messenger of the God, according to the Old Testament texts blew a trumpet (horn)

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‘Parsifal’ – opera by Richard Wagner, written in 1882 and based on the early 13th century epic poem of the same name, written by Wolfram von Eschenbach

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Grecian = Greek

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Eve-sister – any woman; in the Old Testament, Eve was the first woman on the Earth.

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Sabine – a member of the Sabini, an ancient Italian tribe

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Venus – in Roman mythology, the goddess of love, beauty, spring and gardens

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Circe – 1) in Greek mythology, a sorceress, the daughter of the sun god and an ocean nymph; 2) an insidious seducer.

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pompadour – high hair-do with a roll over the forehead, named after Marquise de Pompadour (1721–1764), the mistress of Louis XV of France

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Persian lamb – expensive fur

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Gabriel – in the Old Testament, and in the three religions – Judaism, Christianity and Islam, one of the archangels, God’s messenger often depicted with a trumpet

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Tiffany(’s) – a famous luxury jewelry selling company founded in New York by Charles Lewis Tiffany and John B. Young

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noblesse oblige = position entails responsibility(French)

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dactylis – here: a ring with an engraving

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Mormon – a member of the Mormon church founded in the United States by Joseph Smith (1805–1844) in 1830; the church is characterized by respect of authority and family life, desire for order, and work ethic.

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physiopathic ward – here: ward for mentally ill patients

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Esau – in the Old Testament, the son of Isaac who sold his birthright of the eldest son to his brother for a plate of pottage

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she kept the lamp trimmed and burning to receive the bridegroom – in the Testament parable, the maidens kept their lamps burning to receive their heavenly bridegroom.

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Nimrod – in the Old Testament, a biblical figure, a good hunter and a king of Assyria and Babel who is said to have built Nineveh, one of the most famous cities of the ancient world

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Gibsonian – here: drawn by Charles Dana Gibson (1867–1945), a popular American artist and illustrator

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Aeolian – from Aeolus, in Greek mythology, the god of the winds

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al Raschids – Haroun al-Rashid (763–809), the fifth caliph of the Abbasid dynasty who ruled in Baghdad, the main character of ‘The Thousand and One Nights’

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Wall Street – a short and narrow street in New York City where the main financial institutions are located, the financial centre of the United States

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rubáiyát – in Persian literature and poetry, a quatrain, a rhymed couplet; the best known rubáiyát were written by Omar Khayyám (1048–1131), an outstanding Persian mathematician, astronomer and poet.

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Scotch – famous whisky made of malted barley

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Bohemia – a social group not living in a way that is considered normal or conventional in the society

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booze = strong drink, alcoholic drink

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sot = a heavy drinker or alcoholic

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a dime and nickel = small coin; nickel = 5 cent coin, dime = 10 cent coin (American)

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Sullivan County – a county in southwestern New Hampshire, US, on the border with Vermont

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Abraham Lincoln (1809–1865) – the 16th president of the United States who abolished slavery and preserved the Union during the American Civil War

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Darwin – Charles Darwin (1809–1882), an English naturalist, the author of the theory of evolution by natural selection

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Chianti – dry red wine from the district of Chianti near Siena in Tuscany, Italy

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rigadoon – the late 17th century French dance, named after its inventor, a dance teacher called Rigaud

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banjo – a stringed musical instrument popular in the United States, brought by African slaves from their native land

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quickstep – a dynamic dance, fast foxtrot

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the Manhattan Elevated – the Manhattan Elevated Railroad in New York City

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delirium tremens – the state of mental disturbance seen in severe cases of alcoholism

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the Yalu – a river in Asia on the border between North Korea and China, the place of the battle during the Sino-Japanese War at the end of the 19thcentury

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Aurora – in Greek and Roman mythology, the symbol of dawn and daylight

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hymeneal = marriage (adj); in Greek mythology, Hymen is the god of marriage.

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cherubim = pl. of cherub – in Jewish, Christian and Islamic tradition, a celestial being with wings; in the hierarchy of angels, the throne bearer of God.

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Thanksgiving Day – the United States national holiday; its history goes back to 1621 when the English colonists celebrated the autumn harvest feast together with the Indians.

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President Roosevelt – Theodore Roosevelt (1858–1919), the 26th president of the United States in 1901–1909

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Puritans – followers of Puritanism, a religious movement of the 16th–17th centuries that tried to ‘purify’ the Church of England

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Plymouth Rocks – in American history, the place in southeastern Massachusetts where the first British colonists landed on December 26, 1620

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the Magna C(h)arta – the charter of liberties granted by King John of England in 1215 to prevent the outbreak of civil war

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Santos-Dumont – Alberto Santos-Dumont (1873–1932), a famous Brazilian aviator

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the Declaration of Independence – the declaration adopted on July 4, 1776; it announced the independence of 13 British colonies in North America from Great Britain.

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Aqua pura = pure water (Latin)

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pint – measure of volume equal to 0.473 litre in the USA

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sodium chloride = salt

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gallons – gallon is a measure of volume equal to 3.78 litre in the USA

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the Croton reservoir – a part of the water-supply system in New York City, the first artificial source of water in the city

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Chartreuse – liqueur made from 130 plants by the monks near Grenoble, France

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Izaak Walton (1593–1683) – an English writer and biographer, the author of extremely popular books on fishing