Library cupola (The Pretext)

In Wentworth, or rather Wentworth University there is a library at the end of the long green campus with the elm walk opposite of Hamblin Hall. The library has a cupola on top of the roof (Lewis, 1968, p. 641) which is “a round part on top of a building (like a small dome)” (Hornby, 2015, p. 375).

In “The Pretext” Mrs. Margaret Ransom is accompanied by Guy Dawnish out of Hamblin Hall and because of the light of the sunset the library cupola “assumed a Bramantesque grace” (Lewis, 1968, p. 641). “Bramantesque” is derived from Donato Bramante and means that something has a Renaissance style of architecture with classical forms (Bramantesque, 2019). Bramante was an Italian architect and painter who lived around 1500 and worked for some quite famous clients (Chisolm, 1910, p. 418).

Sources:

Chisolm, H. (Ed.) (1910). The Encyclopedia Britannica. A Dictionary of Arts, Sciences, Literature and General Information. Eleventh Edition. Volume VI. Châtelet to Constantine. New York: The Encyclopedia Britannica Company.

Hornby, A. S. (2015). Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary of Current English. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Lewis, R. W. B. (1968). The Collected Short Stories of Edith Wharton. New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons.

“Bramantesque”. Merriam-Webster, 2019, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/Bramantesque. Accessed May 20, 2021.