Fwd: one-handed quote search

[Chris Waigl]

Benjamin Zimmer wrote:
>
> On Wed, 17 Aug 2005 01:18:11 -0400, Douglas G. Wilson
> <douglas at NB.NET> wrote:
>
>>> <<... que j'avais plus de trente ans avant que j'eusse jeté les
>>> yeux sur aucun de ces dangereux livres qu'une belle dame de par
>>> le monde trouve incommodes, en ce qu'on ne peut les lire que
>>> d'une main.>>
>>
>> Translation of that last part (from Google Print):
>>
>> <<... that I was more than thirty years old before I so much as
>> glanced at one of those dangerous books which one lovely woman of
>> the world finds inconvenient, so she says, because they can only be
>> read with one hand.>>
>
>
> Hmmm, so it was originally a *woman* making the "one hand" joke? That
> certainly puts a spin on the expected readership of those dangerous
> books.

The "so she says" isn't in the French, but yes, it is implied that this
is her opinion.

But then, she is "une belle dame de par le monde", which makes me think
of Mme de Merteuil or people like that. Certainly, neither Mme de
Tourvel nor young Cécile would have found those books suitable.

Chris Waigl

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