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Appearance

Elaborate preparations

apprêts

Preparations or artificial finishing touches, especially to appearance.

From the book

The Gods Are Athirst

Anatole France · Diotimos Editions · 2026

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Meaning

Lemma.

Preparations or artificial finishing touches, especially to appearance. The phrase under so much preparation places Rochemaure’s still-fresh flesh beneath cosmetics, wig and perfume. It does not mean that her vitality is entirely false: bodily freshness survives beneath the strenuous work of fashion.

Places to read

  1. Chapter VII, paragraph 3Frenchsous tant d’apprêts: Beneath so much preparation. The narrator distinguishes flesh from its elaborately fashioned surface.