Studies in Grey
Leesa and I were at the theatre yesterday afternoon for a performance of Les Miserables. The singing was wonderful, but I found the plot risible. In the story, one group of characters are les grisettes, impoverished working women in 18th Century Paris for whom the line between gruesome factory toil and prostitution was blurred. They were called les grisettes - the greys - because of the cheap grey fabric of their dresses and cloaks; they combined regular jobs with occasionally turning tricks. Grisette has a long and rich history in English literature too, starting with Jonathan Swift in 1730, who used it to signify a young woman who possessed both intellectual curiosity and flirtation. For such a dull color, there’s much more…