Coupé

What would people today, in modern English-speaking countries, call the sort of carriage that was called a coupé in Paris around 1875? One of the minor characters in La Dame aux camelias gives his call girl sweetheart a coupé for her birthday but can't afford to give her any horses, so she complains about it at a party. Might it be called a surrey, a brouham, or perhaps a coupe?

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EducatorPermalink Reply by stu harris on December 19, 2010 at 2:03am

Quote from wikipedia:

In the 19th century a coupé was a closed four-wheel horse-drawn carriage, cut (coupé) to eliminate the forward-mounted, rear-facing passenger seats, with a single seat inside for two persons behind the driver, who sat on a box outside. If the driver had no roof over his head then it was a coupé de-ville. Commonly, a coupé had a fixed glass window in the front of the passenger compartment, The driver was protected from road dirt by a high curving dashboard.

A brougham seems to be a very close equivalent. A surrey has a more open design.

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Permalink Reply by Thomas Arthur Copeland on December 19, 2010 at 9:26am

Merci bien! Gosh, the internet is a wonderful invention! Human nature is not based in profit but in mutual aid.