101 of the Most Beautiful Words in the English Language*

*According to someone I nicked this post from on tumblr...

Ailurophile A cat-lover.
Assemblage A gathering.
Becoming Attractive.
Beleaguer To exhaust with attacks.
Brood To think alone.
Bucolic In a lovely rural setting.
Bungalow A small, cozy cottage.
Chatoyant Like a cat’s eye.
Comely Attractive.
Conflate To blend together.
Cynosure A focal point of admiration.
Dalliance A brief love affair.
Demesne Dominion, territory.
Demure Shy and reserved.
Denouement The resolution of a mystery.
Desuetude Disuse.
Desultory Slow, sluggish.
Diaphanous Filmy.
Dissemble Deceive.
Dulcet Sweet, sugary.
Ebullience Bubbling enthusiasm.
Effervescent Bubbly.
Efflorescence Flowering, blooming.
Elision Dropping a sound or syllable in a word.
Elixir A good potion.
Eloquence Beauty and persuasion in speech.
Embrocation Rubbing on a lotion.
Emollient A softener.
Ephemeral Short-lived.
Epiphany A sudden revelation.
Erstwhile At one time, for a time.
Ethereal Gaseous, invisible but detectable.
Evanescent Vanishing quickly, lasting a very short time.
Evocative Suggestive.
Fetching Pretty.
Felicity Pleasantness.
Forbearance Withholding response to provocation.
Fugacious Fleeting.
Furtive Shifty, sneaky.
Gambol To skip or leap about joyfully.
Glamour Beauty.
Gossamer The finest piece of thread, a spider’s silk.
Halcyon Happy, sunny, care-free.
Harbinger Messenger with news of the future.
Imbrication Overlapping and forming a regular pattern.
Imbroglio An altercation or complicated situation.
Imbue To infuse, instill.
Incipient Beginning, in an early stage.
Ineffable Unutterable, inexpressible.
Ingénue A naïve young woman.
Inglenook A cozy nook by the hearth.
Insouciance Blithe nonchalance.
Inure To become jaded.

Iridescent showing luminous colours.

Labyrinthine Twisting and turning.
Lagniappe A special kind of gift.
Lagoon A small gulf or inlet.
Languor Listlessness, inactivity.
Lassitude Weariness, listlessness.
Leisure Free time.
Lilt To move musically or lively.
Lissome Slender and graceful.
Lithe Slender and flexible.
Love Deep affection.
Mellifluous Sweet sounding.
Moiety One of two equal parts.
Mondegreen A slip of the ear.
Murmurous Murmuring.
Nemesis An unconquerable archenemy.
Offing The sea between the horizon and the offshore.
Onomatopoeia A word that sounds like its meaning.
Opulent Lush, luxuriant.
Palimpsest A manuscript written over earlier ones.
Panacea A solution for all problems
Panoply A complete set.
Pastiche An art work combining materials from various sources.
Penumbra A half-shadow.
Petrichor The smell of earth after rain.
Plethora A large quantity.
Propinquity An inclination.
Pyrrhic Successful with heavy losses.
Quintessential Most essential.
Ratatouille A spicy French stew.
Ravel To knit or unknit.
Redolent Fragrant.
Riparian By the bank of a stream.
Ripple A very small wave.
Scintilla A spark or very small thing.
Sempiternal Eternal.
Seraglio Rich, luxurious oriental palace or harem.
Serendipity Finding something nice while looking for something else.
Summery Light, delicate or warm and sunny.
Sumptuous Lush, luxurious.
Surreptitious Secretive, sneaky.
Susquehanna A river in Pennsylvania.
Susurrous Whispering, hissing.
Talisman A good luck charm.
Tintinnabulation Tinkling.
Umbrella Protection from sun or rain.
Untoward Unseemly, inappropriate.
Vestigial In trace amounts.
Wafture Waving.
Wherewithal The means.
Woebegone Sorrowful, downcast.

Why I Think Book Covers Are Important (Part One)

I Capture the Castle is one of my favourite books of all time and I have multiple copies of it. I have only one copy that I actually like the cover of, but I have affection for the ugly, well-thumbed ones as well. This collection of covers spans from the initial print to the current Vintage Press cover, and, as you can see, the covers between them have some incredible variation.

I just want to record some of my reactions to this display of covers to begin with…

(a) The first edition just goes to show how very different the book market is these days - I can’t imagine how anyone would pick this up off the shelf, perhaps even give it a second glance if they had no prior knowledge of what the book was about or inkling of how good it was. Perhaps the pastoral scene was a popular selling point back in 1949 - but to my eyes it looks like the kind of yawn fest tome your grandmother had on her bookshelves when you were a kid that you wouldn’t touch, no matter how bored you were at her house…

(b) Hardly an improvement. What’s with the wallpaper pattern in the background?? What has wallpaper got to do with a girl who lives in a crumbling ruin surrounded by some of the most eccentric characters written about in the 20th Century?

(c) While that’s definitely a castle, I have to wonder EXACTLY WHAT CRACK someone was smoking when they decided that I Capture the Castle was in fact THE HAUNTED CASTLE IN WHICH PEOPLE MEET THEIR UNTIMELY AND BLOODY END BY DECAPITATION AND OR BAMBOO TORTURE.

(d) Dodie Smith by way of Nicholas Sparks. This cover tells you that the book underneath it is i) a trashy beach read ii) a collection of halcyon vignettes with nauseating sex scenes or iii) a brochure for Devon tourist attractions.

e) All things considered, an improvement. A pensive model as Cassandra with pen in hand - tick. However, slightly bloody colour tones might lead one to ponder whether you are about to read a murder mystery. Also, horrible font (more on fonts another time. FONTS ARE SO IMPORTANT GAAAH).

f) Movie tie-in. Difficult to say whether you’d pick this up unless you’d actually seen the film. Other things: a little too clinical in design, very washed out photo. Also inaccurate in that however beautiful Romola Garai is, anyone who’s seen the film knows that she never once looks like a girl who just bleached her hair. Nor would Cassandra condone such drastic action upon her scalp (warning: conjecture)

g) Nearly my favourite. The colours are beautiful and summery. The dress is exactly something that Cassandra would wear. The flowers are something that she could have picked up near the Belmotte tower for her Midsummer Rites… Even if I didn’t know the book, I think there’s something appealing about the mystery of this cover. It’s tantalising but without veering into the obscure. Everything about it says ‘coming of age story’ to me which fits it perfectly. There’s no appearance of Cassandra’s journal, though, which would have MADE it for me.

h) Veers back into WTF territory. No clear connections to the story. Strange wannabe vintage lettering. Strangest of all, this is the same Vintage Press that also issued my favourite, cover (g). What they were thinking is a mystery.

i) My favourite so far. I think it might be the first time anyone’s actually commissioned a cover specifically for the book, which is why it works so well. I love the slight childishness of the silhouettes but it’s got an inviting feel to it all the same. Good hand lettered font. Big yes.

So why do we have the famous saying, ‘Don’t judge a book by it’s cover?’.

I think I should point out here that what I am NOT saying is that a cover is the most important thing about a book. I AM saying that it definitely IS important on some level.

Give the extreme variations of these covers, and my extreme variation in reaction to those covers, it is becoming clearer and clearer to me, the wannabe author, that should I get published, my book might well go through several drab and or eye-watering covers before something half decent AND eye catching comes along. 

Anyway, it makes you think… I shall muse upon it some more and no doubt come up with something a bit more insightful. ANYWAY, as you were. 

The Beginning: