Princess Beatrice served as the maid of honor in her sister Princess Eugenie's wedding on Friday. In addition to walking the aisle during the royal wedding, Beatrice also had the duty of reading a passage at the ceremony, of which she chose an excerpt for F. Scott Fitzgerald classic The Great Gatsby.
Wearing a royal blue dressed designed by Ralph and Russo and a purple headband, 30-year-old Beatrice read a selection from the renowned novel in front of the 850 guests who attended the wedding.
While some people on social media were confused by Beatrice's choice passage, the book and the particular expert held significant meaning for Eugenie, 28, and her new husband Jack Brooksbank, 32.
According to royal expert Rebecca English, who serves as the royal correspondent for London's Daily Mail, Eugenie requested her sister to read a portion of the book where the novel's main character and narrator, Nick Carraway, describes Jay Gatsby's smile.
The royal wedding pamphlet revealed Eugenie read The Great Gatsby shortly after meeting Brooksbank eight years ago on a ski trip in Switzerland. The particular passage read by Beatrice reminded Eugenie of Brooksbank's smile.
"He smiled understandingly-much more than understandingly. It was one of those rare smiles with a quality of eternal reassurance in it, that you may come across four or five times in life. It faced–or seemed to face–the whole eternal world for an instant, and then concentrated on you with an irresistible prejudice in your favor," Beatrice read. "It understood you just as far as you wanted to be understood, believed in you as you would like to believe in yourself, and assured you that it had precisely the impression of you that, at your best, you hoped to convey. Precisely at that point it vanished—and I was looking at an elegant young rough-neck, a year or two over thirty, whose elaborate formality of speech just missed being absurd. Some time before he introduced himself I'd got a strong impression that he was picking his words with care."
Uncommon Knowledge
Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
About the writer
Michigan native, Janice Williams is a graduate of Oakland University where she studied journalism and communication. Upon relocating to New ... Read more
To read how Newsweek uses AI as a newsroom tool, Click here.