View terms by Michel Houellebecq (4)
p.9
dithyrambic »
(noun) a usually short poem in an inspired wild i…
p.10
insalubrious »
(adjective) not conducive to health; unwholesome
p.38
frisson »
(noun) a brief moment of emotional excitement; sh…
p.205
exegesis »
(from the Greek for "to lead out") a critical exp…
View notes by Michel Houellebecq (21)
[...] Yet the special thing about literature, the major art…
[...] And yet the morning after I defended my dissertation …
[...] The moment I walked into the Basque restaurant where …
My meal with Sandra followed a similar pattern, albeit with…
Had I fallen prey, in middle age, to a kind of andropause? …
View terms by Michel Houellebecq (3)
p.9
saurian »
(noun) any of a suborder (Sauria) of reptiles inc…
p.14
rictus »
(noun) the gape of a bird's mouth / (noun) the mo…
p.36
peremptory »
(adjective) putting an end to or precluding a rig…
View notes by Michel Houellebecq (18)
[...] Father, father, I said to myself, how great was your …
I spent the last day of my compassionate leave in various t…
[...] her passion for contemporary art is real. As far as I…
In the years that followed, pork prices continued to plumme…
[...] Meanwhile, people were working, making useful commodi…
View terms by Michel Houellebecq (8)
p.5
demotic »
(adjective) of, relating to, or written in a simp…
p.41
sobriquet »
(noun) a descriptive name or epithet; nickname
p.55
concupiscence »
(noun) strong desire / (noun) sexual desire
p.163
sybaritic »
fond of sensuous luxury or pleasure; self-indulge…
p.174
stentorian »
(adjective) extremely loud
View notes by Michel Houellebecq (19)
[...] There were also, of course, the honest folk, those wh…
During the first phases of my rise to fortune and glory, I …
That show also marked the beginning of my brief—but lucrati…
It was then that I decided to marry Isabelle; we had known …
What was worse, however, was that this ideal of plastic bea…