maudlin

Danielle SteelのMiracleは読み終わりました。'Miracle' から取り上げる最後の単語です。
He worked hard, and needed some rest, at least on Sundays, since he worked extra hours for Quinn on Saturdays.
"I think I can handle it," Jack said with an easy smile. "I feel kind of sorry for her. I was talking to the mailman the other day, he says her son died last year. Maybe she needs a break and a helping hand." Quinn nodded. He couldn't argue with that. And he made no comment, sympathetic or otherwise, about her son. He hadn't told Jack about Doug. There was no reason to, and Quinn thought it sounded maudlin. It was enough that he knew Jane had died. But he and the neighbor had something in common, not that it was something he wanted to talk about.

"maudlin" は多分初めて見る単語だと思います。辞書を引きます。

・Cambridge English Dictionary: feeling sad and sorry for yourself, especially after you have drunk a lot of alcohol: The text, a curious amalgam of the beautiful and the maudlin, the vivid and the incomprehensible, offers us some possible meanings, but only some.
・Infoplease: tearfully or weakly emotional; foolishly sentimental: a maudlin story of a little orphan and her lost dog.
次の辞書には語源の説明もありました。

・V2 Vocabulary Building Dictionary: overly emotional, sentimental, and often tearful: Some people are angry drunks, while others become sappy and maudlin. (sentimental, overemotional)
Tips: Maudlin was formed from the name of Mary Magdalene, who was often depicted crying with sorrow for her sins. Maudlin can refer to such excessive emotion that it seems insincere.

Danielle Steelの小説、気に入ったのでまた読みたいと思います。