with glistening attentiveness

Why don't you? (Have any context...)

Always hard without context, but I'd say it's something to do with eyes. (Sparkling, glistening eyes of someone who is transported.) It gives me an image of a young woman who is a little bit star-struck listening attentively to an older professor-type or famous author or celebrity or something.

I agree with Sozobe, but I'd add that I suspect the glistening listener is also an ostentatious listener, conspicuously hanging on every word.

Thanks. Another stumbling block cleared. These are, as I call them, "problems of the second order", which means that I was sure I would find the answer in a dictionary or on the Internet, only to be later proved over-confident.

Literarypoland--

I admire a man with priorities.

I mean these several recent questions. The earlier ones (this year) were problems of the first order.

Well, I haven't followed the many threads, seems like one for each phrase, so I don't understand the context of the thread questions. Within the last few threads, the word usage isn't at all usual to me, whether or not it was used in Jane Eyre or makes a kind of splendid sense. Rather free with word usage and word play myself, I'm not against that - I'm just noticing that the words together tend to stop me. Glistening attentiveness?? A clever person writing this playing with the word listening together with attentiveness, having really nothing to do with the g except making listening a possible interesting adjective - more to do with the poetic sound? as opposed to meaning the trait of someone shimmering and giving off glints of light while paying attention?


Makes me wonder about the author's background, which I presume you don't want to explain, Literarypoland.

No problem. This author is an opera reviewer

Without context it's hard to say, but it seems like the writer was trying to dress up an adjective that rarely needs extra clothing.

Twigs--

Good thought.

Welcome to A2K.

Thanks Noddy, this is my first experience on a site like this one so I'm excited about all the new things I'm going to learn here.