Wikipedia
Celestina may refer to:
In arts and entertainment:
- La Celestina, a 15th-century Spanish novel
- Celestina (novel), an 18th-century English work by poet Charlotte Turner Smith
- La Celestina, Spanish title of The Wanton of Spain, a 1969 Spanish drama film
People:
- Celestina Aladekoba, American dancer and choreographer
- Celestina Boninsegna (1877–1947), Italian operatic soprano
- Celestina Popa (born 1970), Romanian retired artistic gymnast
Celestina is an eighteenth-century English novel and poet Charlotte Turner Smith’s third novel. Published in 1791 by Thomas Cadell, the novel tells the story of an adopted orphan who discovers the secret of her parentage and marries the man she loves. It is a courtship novel that follows the typical Cinderella plot while still commenting on contemporary political issues.
Celestina is a satire of traditional English class and gender assumptions, particularly the idea that nobility is connected to rank or wealth. The heroine's worth lies in her " enlightened human soul"; she is valuable in and of herself. As a model for young readers, Celestina was liberating—she was independent and assertive. While Celestina is a heroine of sensibility who relies on her feelings to develop sympathy for others, it is the hero, Willoughby, who is the most sentimental of all, reversing the stereotypical association of strong emotions with femininity. In this novel, it is the women who remain strong and the men who are prey to their feelings.
Throughout the novel, Smith included portraits of herself and her husband. Readers were interested in her personal story and bought her works to discover what was happening in her life, therefore she included barely disguised autobiographical details in the novel.
The novel was well received by reviewers and eventually ran to four editions during the 1790s; however, the novel was not published again until the 2000s. Jane Austen, who read Smith's novels as they were published, responded to her description of sensibility with Sense and Sensibility.
Usage examples of "celestina".
Even Celestina Morton, who kept house for him and who might well have lost patience at his defiance of domestic routine, worshipped the very soil his foot touched.
Hence it is easily seen that neither to Wilton in general nor to Celestina in particular was Willie Spence a trial.
Instead the mild little inventor, with his spools and his pulleys, his bits of wire and his measureless reaches of string, pursued his peaceful though tortuous way, and if his abode became transformed into a magnified cobweb only himself and Celestina were inconvenienced thereby.
To Celestina inconvenience was second nature since from the moment of her birth it had been her lot in life.
Very scanty this inheritance was, so scanty that it compelled Celestina to begin a rotation around the village, where in return for shelter she filled in domestic gaps of various kinds.
However that may be, the stigma, merited or unmerited, had become so firmly branded upon Celestina that it could not be effaced.
In justifying his sudden decision to Janoah Eldridge, Willie had merely explained that he had hired Celestina because she was so comfortable to have around, a recommendation at which Wilton would have jeered but which, perhaps, in the eyes of the Lord was quite as praiseworthy as that which her more hidebound but less accommodating sisters could have boasted.
For disorder and confusion never kept Celestina awake nights or prevented her from partaking of three hearty meals a day as it would have Abbie Brewster or Deborah Howland.
Nevertheless, notwithstanding his absentmindedness, he was never too much absorbed to maintain toward Celestina an old-fashioned deference very appealing to one accustomed to being ignored and slighted.
The impulse, it was quite obvious, was prompted less by conventionality than by a knightliness of heart, and Celestina, who had never before been the recipient of such courtesies, found herself inexpressibly touched by the trifling attentions.
Well Celestina remembered the day when at dinner the little old man had choked violently, turning purple in the face in his fight for breath.
But he had reckoned without his host, for as he swept them into a jagged piece of sailcloth and prepared to tie up the bundle, Celestina called to him from the window.
The mild face beamed with satisfaction, and Celestina had not the heart to cloud its brightness by annoying him further.
That night, however, Celestina was awakened from her dreams by the ring of a hammer.
The new idea, whatever it was, was evidently not one to be hastily perfected, for the next morning when Celestina went down stairs, she found the jaded inventor seated moodily in a rocking-chair before the kitchen stove, his head in his hands.