Béatrix · Chapter
Endnotes explained
This chapter contains a series of endnotes providing brief explanations or translations for terms used in the main text, including a fish, a word derivation, a joke about soy, a pun, and a legal term.
What happens
This chapter contains a series of endnotes providing brief explanations or translations for terms used in the main text, including a fish, a word derivation, a joke about soy, a pun, and a legal term.
Key passages
“A sort of fish.”
A type of fish.
Clarifies an obscure term.
“Buis , “whence” (says Balzac) “the word buisson ,” shrub or bush.”
Buis, from which Balzac says the word buisson (shrub or bush) derives.
Explains a word origin.
“Balzac has hannetons , cockchafers. It was an old joke that soy was made of cockroaches. —Translator”
Balzac uses the word hannetons (cockchafers); there was an old joke that soy sauce was made from cockroaches.
Provides cultural context for a joke.
“Unripping a rip.”
Undoing a tear.
Clarifies a pun.
“A legal form by which French sons can reduce the obstinacy of recalcitrant parents when they refuse their consent to a marriage.”
A legal procedure allowing French sons to overcome parental refusal of marriage consent.
Explains a legal term.