His smile was simpering but seemed to hide a sneer.

“Flooffee-Fyr! Who could’ve imagined that simpering lackey would have the guts to betray me? I respect him now, yes! But he shall taste my REVENGE!”

Asturias fills the novel with beggars, the idle rich, simpering aristocrats and political sycophants.

Geoffrey’s simpering, emotional stuntedness may make it difficult for, say, the village’s priest or barkeep to see much of themselves in him.

If the real-life Lewinsky is okay being portrayed as a simpering mess as she is here — and who wasn’t at age 22? — then all power to her.