winsomeness

• “Sam — sometimes I think it has a really pernicious undercurrent: not that winsomeness is the only behavior the authors can conceive of, but that it’s the only positive one.”

  The problem of the Childlike Empress at SF Novelists

• “Ordinarily there was a suspicion of hardness in her face but there was also upon occasions a kind of winsomeness, an unexpected peeping out of a personality which was like the wraith of the child which she once had been -- a suggestion of girlish charm and spontaneity utterly unlike her usual self.”

  The Lady Doc

• “Marie - indeed, winsomeness being the only positive trait they can think of is the point I was trying to make - they want an “admirable female” character for the lead to fall for, so they need to give her “admirable qualities”, and the only one they can think of is cute/winsome/adorable pouting/etc.”

  The problem of the Childlike Empress at SF Novelists

• “A major departure for a director known for very proper British fare—including "Pride and Prejudice" and "Atonement"—"Hanna" is quite the improper little package, stylish, rich in singular images and one that carries itself with both the bravado of a spy thriller and the winsomeness of a fairy tale.”

  The Wall Street Journal: 'Arthur': He Drinks, Movie Falls Down

• “It did not disturb her faith in the winsomeness she took for granted being irresistible.”

  Simon & Schuster: O: A Presidential Novel

• “Reminding us as it does of Bruce's own performance in Glen Tetley's harder-edged Pierrot Lunaire, back in the day, Hush is archetypal old Rambert in tone and while its calculated winsomeness will not be to all tastes, there's some very artful dancing among the faux naivety.”

  The Guardian: Rambert Dance Company – review

• “I tried believe me I tried to suppress the shudder that ran along my spine as I read the ghastly winsomeness of Esther M.”

  Archive 2010-01-01

• “Her star began to fade in the 1950s, when she entered her thirties and lost some of that starlet winsomeness.”

  Death Notice: Nina Foch

• “Virginie Ledoyen is a peach (in a wet blouse no less) but I was more attracted to the older (but younger than me) Aitana Sánchez-Gijón... but I go for age and experience over winsomeness any day.”

  Whose woods these are I think I know

• “In most encounters, her métier was projecting winsomeness -- making a virtue of not knowing as much about the minutiae of state government because, for most of her adulthood, she was immersed in small-town life and raising a family.”

  The Wall Street Journal: Palin Proved to Be Formidable Foe in Alaska Debates

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