Sentence:  [S]he seemed to him a revelation of a class, and a multitude of socialistic figures, of names and episodes that he had heard of, grouped themselves behind her. She looked as if she had spent her life on platforms, in audiences, in conventions, in <WSD>phalansteries</WSD>, in "séances"; in her faded face there was a kind of reflection of ugly lecture-lamps; with its habit of an upward angle, it seemed turned toward a public speaker, with an effort of respiration in the thick air in which social reforms are usually discussed. 
Meaning of the word marked with <WSD> tags:  An association or community organized on the plan of (Charles Fourier), with living space divided hierarchically and higher pay for those carrying out unpopular tasks.