Contumacious

'The influences of Christmas, that contumacious festival, were spreading dismay as early as the evening of the 12th of December'.  A wonderful line from Doris Lessing's 'The Sweetest Dream' (p79).  But I then had to double-check the meaning of contumacious, one of those words that I was aware of, but wasn't entirely sure about.  It means, according to my trusty Penguin English Dictionary (p610), 'disobedient, rebellious'.  The Shorter Oxford adds, 'stubbornly perverse' (p416).  And now I am puzzled because the meaning of the sentence seems further away than before.  No, wait a moment, I think I have it.  Yes.  Got it.  Ah, the warm glow of satisfaction from making sense of the previously elusive.  Love it.  Back to my book.