Discussion Groups / English Usage / September 2009

Hello:

Re:
"The buffet was ennobled to the amorous and extravagant."

Does "to" here refer/lead to:
"ennobled in the direction of adding amorous and extravagant dishes"
or to:
"ennobled for the amorous and extravagant people?"

---
[Toomey visits and American university to present a lecture. There he
meets his nephew, John, now a professor, and his love interest, Laura.
Now everybody's in the "chow line" at a party in his honor.]

They seemed genuinely in love with each other. As they joined the line
together, scooping food with young hunger, the wrists of their
scooping hands kept touching, her fine full hip swung to collide with
his bony one. The buffet was ennobled to the amorous and extravagant:
the spiced beef stew smoked to heaven, the lamb was for the supper of
the lamb, the summer syllabub ("Gloria's specialty," said Professor
Bucolo) was richly fruitful. There was not reek of tomato ketchup on
the night air.

Anthony Burgess, Earthly Powers, p. 471
---

Thanks.
Marius Hancu