Chapter Summaries and Commentaries

Chapter 5

Westminster Abbey    Gothic church (originally a Benedictine abbey) where English monarchs are crowned; it is also a burial place for English monarchs, famous statesmen and writers, etc. Here, the site of the Westminster Abbey cabaret, or nightclub.

orgy-porgy    Huxley’s term for a ritual sexual orgy, from the children’s nursery rhyme, "Georgy-Porgy."

detumescence    a decrease in swelling.

diminuendo    a decrease in volume.

plagently        loudly and with resonance.

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