W. Somerset Maughamの "The Moon and Sixpence" を読み始めました。 III章から引用します。
They are like cells in the body, essential, but, so long as they remain healthy, engulfed in the momentous whole. The Stricklands were an avarage family in the middle class. A pleasant, hospitable woman, with a harmless craze for the small lions of literary society; a rather dull man, doing his duty in that state of life in which a merciful Province had placed him; two nice looking, healthy children.
"lions of literary society" の "lions" は比喩的な響きがありますが、ライオンと言うとどうしても "a courageous, strong, or bellicose person" の方のイメージが先行してしまいます。 辞書の説明を見ます。
・Collins Dictionary: a person of great importance, influence, charm, etc., who is much admired as a celebrity: a literary lion
・Vocabulary.com: a celebrity who is lionized (much sought after) synonyms:social lion
後者の辞書の説明で "lionized" を以前（5/28/2021）取り上げた事を思い出しました。
They are like cells in the body, essential, but, so long as they remain healthy, engulfed in the momentous whole. The Stricklands were an avarage family in the middle class. A pleasant, hospitable woman, with a harmless craze for the small lions of literary society; a rather dull man, doing his duty in that state of life in which a merciful Province had placed him; two nice looking, healthy children.
"lions of literary society" の "lions" は比喩的な響きがありますが、ライオンと言うとどうしても "a courageous, strong, or bellicose person" の方のイメージが先行してしまいます。 辞書の説明を見ます。
・Collins Dictionary: a person of great importance, influence, charm, etc., who is much admired as a celebrity: a literary lion
・Vocabulary.com: a celebrity who is lionized (much sought after) synonyms:social lion
後者の辞書の説明で "lionized" を以前（5/28/2021）取り上げた事を思い出しました。
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