If by chance the wife of a receiver-general of finances was to have this chapter read at her toilette by the bel-esprit of the house, she would have a strange contempt for the Romans of the three first centuries, and would not allow a Manlius, Curius, or Fabius to enter her antechamber, should he come on foot, and not have wherewithal to take his part at play. ❋ Unknown (2007)
“And that father of hers, with his doubtful past and his cruelties, and the bel-esprit her mother, with her doubtful reputation.” ❋ Unknown (2003)
Madame de Pompadour joked my companion about her 'bel-esprit', but sometimes she reposed confidence in her. ❋ Mme. Du Hausset (N/A)
He is our best number here, a bel-esprit and an original, but especially a man of soul, which is after all the chief thing. ❋ Various (N/A)
Moreover, he was a bel-esprit, writing epilogues and prologues, and was at one time the observed of all observers. ❋ A. M. W. [Compiler] Stirling (N/A)
He was a statesman, a bel-esprit, a virtuoso, and a connoisseur. ❋ William A. Ross (N/A)
The author desires to entertain as much as to teach, the thinker is also a bel-esprit, the jurisconsult has a touch of the coxcomb, and a perfumed breath from the temple of Venus has penetrated the tribunal of Minos. ❋ Henri Fr��d��ric Amiel (1885)
She has a clear complexion, is young, tall; her manners are doucereuses, for, besides being a beauty, she has pretensions, I understand, to bel-esprit. ❋ John Oliver Hobbes (1886)
"And that father of hers, with his doubtful past and his cruelties, and the bel-esprit her mother, with her doubtful reputation." ❋ Leo Tolstoy (1869)
He declared that to Weymouth he could not have the honour of attending her: if her ladyship thought the claims and feelings of her protégées of greater consequence than his, if she held herself more bound by the promises she had given to Mr. Seebright, Miss Kew, or any of her bel-esprit friends, than by those with which she had honoured his aunt, he could not presume to dispute her pleasure, or further to press Lady B. 's request; he could only lament -- and submit. ❋ Maria Edgeworth (1808)
If she had more courage, and would hazard more in conversation, if she had, in short, _l'art de se faire valoir_, one could hand her verses about, and get her forward in the bel-esprit line. ❋ Maria Edgeworth (1808)
Angelica Headingham shone forth a beauty, a bel-esprit, and a patroness; and though she appeared as it were _impromptu_ in these characters, yet, to do her justice, she supported them with as much spirit, truth, and confidence, as if she had been in the habit of playing them all her life, and as if she had trod the fashionable stage from her teens. ❋ Maria Edgeworth (1808)
I was a rich heiress -- I had, I believe, a hundred thousand pounds, or more, and twice as many caprices: I was handsome and witty -- or, to speak with that kind of circumlocution which is called humility, the world, the partial world, thought me a beauty and a bel-esprit. ❋ Maria Edgeworth (1808)
I was a rich heiress – I had, I believe, a hundred thousand pounds, or more, and twice as many caprices: I was handsome and witty – or, to speak with that kind of circumlocution which is called humility, the world, the partial world, thought me a beauty and a bel-esprit. ❋ Unknown (1801)
Hence arises that superficial and frivolous bel-esprit that we often see hold sway in social conditions and in circles where men pride themselves, and not unreasonably, on the finest culture. ❋ Johann Christoph Friedrich Von Schiller (1782)
He hated Fouquet because he was so much admired, -- because he was called the Magnificent, -- because his châteaux and gardens were incomparably finer than St. Germain or Fontainebleau, -- because he was surrounded by the first wits and artists, -- no trifling matter in that bright morning of French literature, when every gentleman of station in Paris aspired to be a bel-esprit, or, if that was impossible, to keep one in his employ. ❋ Various (N/A)
She was the authoress of some literary pieces, which the world willingly and speedily let die; but even very moderate pretensions to bel-esprit may have seemed wonderfully refreshing to a man wearied to death by the illiterate stupidity of his daily companion. ❋ Morley, John, 1838-1923 (1905)
"[My brother] [Greg] is a bel-esprit who always livens up family get togethers with his [comedy] routines." ❋ Talk2me-JCH2 (2022)
He is a gentleman , a [scholar], & a bel-esprit. She was gorgeous, a southern [belle] & bel-esprit.
A person of great wit and [intellect].
(Standard definition says great wit OR intellect instead of AND) ❋ Richrodg (2017)
