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Mon 2 Sep, 2013 02:13 am
“Doesn’t it make you conceited, Courtenay,” she asked, “to look at all those foreign newspapers hanging there and know that most of them have got paragraphs and articles about your Persian speech?”
Youghal laughed.
“There’s always a chastening corrective in the thought that some of them may have printed your portrait. When once you’ve seen your features hurriedly reproduced in the Matin, for instance, you feel you would like to be a veiled Turkish woman for the rest of your life.”
What does "a chastening corrective" mean?
It means something which amends one's attitude or behavior (corrective) by shaming them at least a little (chastening). Youghal is saying that the pride he might feel about having his speech on Persia published in the newspapers is lessened or even taken away by the poor quality, and, one assumes, unflattering photographs of him published in those same newspapers.
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