The Works of Théophile Gautier

Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: IN RUSSIA THE MASKED BALL, THE THEATRES, THE MUSEUMS BY evening I was back in Moscow, ready to go to a masked ball which was to take place that evening, and for which I found tickets awaiting me at the hotel. Before the door, in spite of the intense cold, stood sleighs and carriages the lamps of which...
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Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: IN RUSSIA THE MASKED BALL, THE THEATRES, THE MUSEUMS BY evening I was back in Moscow, ready to go to a masked ball which was to take place that evening, and for which I found tickets awaiting me at the hotel. Before the door, in spite of the intense cold, stood sleighs and carriages the lamps of which shone like frozen stars. A warm blaze of light emanated from the windows of the building in which the ball was being held, and formed with the blue moonlight one of those contrasts which dioramas and stereoptical views affect. Having traversed the vestibule, I entered an immense hall in the form of a parallelogram or playing card, set around with great pillars, resting on a broad stylobate, which formed a platform around the room, and from which steps led to the floor. This arrangement struck me as excellent, and we ought to imitate it in rooms intended for entertainments; it enables those who do not take an active part in the pleasures of dancing, to THE MASKED BALL overlook the dancers without being in their way and to enjoy comfortably the spectacle presented by the animated throng. The platform divides and groups figures in a more picturesque, more splendid, more dramatic manner. Nothing is so disagreeable as a crowd on a level; this is why society entertainments are so inferior, as regards their effectiveness, to the balls at the Opera, with the triple row of boxes filled with masked guests, forming wreaths, and the company of debardeurs, titis, Pierrettes, Red-skins and babies, ascending and descending the stairs. Though the hall was decorated in the simplest manner, it was none the less bright, elegant, and rich; everything was white, walls, ceiling and pillars, relieved by a few quiet golden touches on the mouldings; the columns, covered with polished stucco, ...