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Madame Bovary.part 3_chapter 7
She was stoical the next day when Maitre Hareng, the bailiff, with two assistants, presented himself at her house to draw up the inventory for the distraint. They began with Bovary's consulting-room, and did not write down the phrenological head, which was considered an "instrument of his profession"; but in the kitc...
[ "The following day three officials arrive and inventory all the goods in the house. That evening she feels regret as she looks over all the expensive items in the house she used to temper her frustrated passion. The following day, a Sunday, she travels to Rouen to look for money but the bankers either refuse or sim...
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Madame Bovary.part 3_chapter 8
She asked herself as she walked along, "What am I going to say? How shall I begin?" And as she went on she recognised the thickets, the trees, the sea-rushes on the hill, the chateau yonder. All the sensations of her first tenderness came back to her, and her poor aching heart opened out amorously. A warm wind blew in...
[ "As Emma draws closer to La Huchette, she is reminded of the \"sensations of her first love.\" The melting snow is described as she makes her way to Rodolphe's room. He is surprised at her sudden appearance. Emma reproaches Rodolphe for deserting her and urges him to renew their relationship. Rodolphe is taken in w...
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Madame Bovary.part 3_chapter 9
There is always after the death of anyone a kind of stupefaction; so difficult is it to grasp this advent of nothingness and to resign ourselves to believe in it. But still, when he saw that she did not move, Charles threw himself upon her, crying-- "Farewell! farewell!" Homais and Canivet dragged him from the room....
[ "Charles throws himself on Emma's corpse, overcome by grief. Homais goes home, invents a story about accidental poisoning to cover up the suicide, and writes it up for the newspaper. When he returns to the Bovarys' house, he finds Charles alone and frightened, Canivet having left him. Homais, with the best of inten...
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Madame Bovary.part 3_chapter 10
He had only received the chemist's letter thirty-six hours after the event; and, from consideration for his feelings, Homais had so worded it that it was impossible to make out what it was all about. First, the old fellow had fallen as if struck by apoplexy. Next, he understood that she was not dead, but she might be...
[ "Charles dissolves into tears. Homais returns to the pharmacy, puts off the blind man and tells the gathered crowd that Madame Bovary died of accidental poisoning. Initially resistant, Charles finally agrees to order the funeral arrangements. Against the advice of Homais and his mother, he insists that Emma be buri...
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Madame Bovary.part 3_chapter 11
The next day Charles had the child brought back. She asked for her mamma. They told her she was away; that she would bring her back some playthings. Berthe spoke of her again several times, then at last thought no more of her. The child's gaiety broke Bovary's heart, and he had to bear besides the intolerable consolat...
[ "Homais' letter to Monsieur Rouault had been too vague and the poor man had made the trip not knowing whether his daughter was alive or dead. When he regains consciousness he and Charles fall weeping into each other's arms and Homais tells them to pull themselves together for the funeral. Hippolyte attends wearing ...
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The Aeneid.book i
BOOK I Arms, and the man I sing, who, forc'd by fate, And haughty Juno's unrelenting hate, Expell'd and exil'd, left the Trojan shore. Long labors, both by sea and land, he bore, And in the doubtful war, before he won The Latian realm, and built the destin'd town; His banish'd gods restor'd to rites divi...
[ "I sing of warfare and a man at war.. . .He came to Italy by destiny. Virgil opens his epic poem by declaring its subject, \"warfare and a man at war,\" and asking a muse, or goddess of inspiration, to explain the anger of Juno, queen of the gods . The man in question is Aeneas, who is fleeing the ruins of his nati...
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The Aeneid.book ii
BOOK II All were attentive to the godlike man, When from his lofty couch he thus began: "Great queen, what you command me to relate Renews the sad remembrance of our fate: An empire from its old foundations rent, And ev'ry woe the Trojans underwent; A peopled city made a desart place; All that I saw, a...
[ "Aeneas's tale of his travels takes up Books II and III of the Aeneid . Aeneas begins by sighing deeply and telling Dido and her court that his is a long and tragic story, but that he is willing to try to recall it for his host. He starts by describing the fall of Troy: The Greeks, aided by the goddess Minerva, con...
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The Aeneid.book iii
BOOK III "When Heav'n had overturn'd the Trojan state And Priam's throne, by too severe a fate; When ruin'd Troy became the Grecians' prey, And Ilium's lofty tow'rs in ashes lay; Warn'd by celestial omens, we retreat, To seek in foreign lands a happier seat. Near old Antandros, and at Ida's foot, The t...
[ "Aeneas continues his story, recounting the aftermath of the fall of Troy. After escaping from Troy, he leads the survivors to the coast of Antander, where they build a new fleet of ships. They sail first to Thrace, where Aeneas prepares to offer sacrifices. When he tears at the roots and branches of a tree, dark b...
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The Aeneid.book iv
BOOK IV But anxious cares already seiz'd the queen: She fed within her veins a flame unseen; The hero's valor, acts, and birth inspire Her soul with love, and fan the secret fire. His words, his looks, imprinted in her heart, Improve the passion, and increase the smart. Now, when the purple morn had cha...
[ "Book IV begins just after Aeneas has finished the tale of his travels. Dido sits beside him, inflamed with love. She looks to her sister, Anna, for guidance, torn between the promise she made never to love another man after her husband's death on the one hand, and on the other hand the passion that she feels for A...
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The Aeneid.book v
BOOK V Meantime the Trojan cuts his wat'ry way, Fix'd on his voyage, thro' the curling sea; Then, casting back his eyes, with dire amaze, Sees on the Punic shore the mounting blaze. The cause unknown; yet his presaging mind The fate of Dido from the fire divin'd; He knew the stormy souls of womankind, ...
[ "Massive storm clouds greet the Trojan fleet as it embarks from Carthage, hindering the approach to Italy. Aeneas redirects the ships to the Sicilian port of Eryx, where his friend and fellow Trojan Acestes rules. After landing and being welcomed by Acestes, Aeneas realizes that it is the one-year anniversary of hi...
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The Aeneid.book vi
BOOK VI He said, and wept; then spread his sails before The winds, and reach'd at length the Cumaean shore: Their anchors dropp'd, his crew the vessels moor. They turn their heads to sea, their sterns to land, And greet with greedy joy th' Italian strand. Some strike from clashing flints their fiery seed...
[ "Roman, remember by your strength to rule . . .To spare the conquered, battle down the proud. At last, the Trojan fleet arrives on the shores of Italy. The ships drop anchor off the coast of Cumae, near modern-day Naples. Following his father's instructions, Aeneas makes for the Temple of Apollo, where the Sibyl, ...
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The Aeneid.book vii
BOOK VII And thou, O matron of immortal fame, Here dying, to the shore hast left thy name; Cajeta still the place is call'd from thee, The nurse of great Aeneas' infancy. Here rest thy bones in rich Hesperia's plains; Thy name ('t is all a ghost can have) remains. Now, when the prince her fun'ral rit...
[ "Aeneas's first stop in Book VII is Caieta's harbor, named for his childhood nurse. After honoring Caieta's memory, the fleet sails past the island ruled over by Circe, a goddess who turns her many suitors into animals. Neptune takes pity on Aeneas's men and sends them a wind that carries them past the dangerous is...
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The Aeneid.book viii
BOOK VIII When Turnus had assembled all his pow'rs, His standard planted on Laurentum's tow'rs; When now the sprightly trumpet, from afar, Had giv'n the signal of approaching war, Had rous'd the neighing steeds to scour the fields, While the fierce riders clatter'd on their shields; Trembling with rag...
[ "Book VIII opens with Latin warriors pledging their support to Turnus. Aeneas is greatly troubled by this turn of events, and particularly by the fact that the dangerous Diomedes has been asked to support the Latin troops. That night, the river god Tiberinus appears to Aeneas in a dream and tells him that he will s...
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The Aeneid.book ix
BOOK IX While these affairs in distant places pass'd, The various Iris Juno sends with haste, To find bold Turnus, who, with anxious thought, The secret shade of his great grandsire sought. Retir'd alone she found the daring man, And op'd her rosy lips, and thus began: "What none of all the gods could...
[ "Never one to miss an opportunity, Juno sends her messenger, Iris, down from Olympus to inform Turnus that Aeneas is away from his camp. With their leader gone, the Trojans are particularly vulnerable to an attack, so Turnus immediately leads his army toward the enemy camp. The Trojans spot the army coming and secu...
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The Aeneid.book x
BOOK X The gates of heav'n unfold: Jove summons all The gods to council in the common hall. Sublimely seated, he surveys from far The fields, the camp, the fortune of the war, And all th' inferior world. From first to last, The sov'reign senate in degrees are plac'd. Then thus th' almighty sire began:...
[ "Book X begins with a council of the gods. Jupiter calls the gods to Mount Olympus, where he berates them for having meddled with fate. Although Venus and Juno attempt to argue the cases of, respectively, the Trojans and the Latins, Jupiter asserts that there is to be no further divine intervention in the battle: \...
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The Aeneid.book xi
BOOK XI Scarce had the rosy Morning rais'd her head Above the waves, and left her wat'ry bed; The pious chief, whom double cares attend For his unburied soldiers and his friend, Yet first to Heav'n perform'd a victor's vows: He bar'd an ancient oak of all her boughs; Then on a rising ground the trunk h...
[ "Although Aeneas is deeply distressed by the deaths of Pallas and his other comrades, he still offers a sacrifice to the gods composed of spoils taken from Mezentius. He and his men bury the bodies of their slain companions and take great care readying Pallas's corpse for return to King Evander. Aeneas weeps over P...
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The Aeneid.book xii
BOOK XII When Turnus saw the Latins leave the field, Their armies broken, and their courage quell'd, Himself become the mark of public spite, His honor question'd for the promis'd fight; The more he was with vulgar hate oppress'd, The more his fury boil'd within his breast: He rous'd his vigor for the ...
[ "Turnus, seeing that the tide of war has turned against the Latins, realizes that he now must keep his pledge and fight Aeneas in a duel. King Latinus begs Turnus to reconsider and seek peace with the Trojans, and a weeping Queen Amata pleads with him to defect. But Turnus cannot back down; his very honor, he belie...
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The Aeneid.book 1
BOOK I Arms, and the man I sing, who, forc'd by fate, And haughty Juno's unrelenting hate, Expell'd and exil'd, left the Trojan shore. Long labors, both by sea and land, he bore, And in the doubtful war, before he won The Latian realm, and built the destin'd town; His banish'd gods restor'd to rites divi...
[ "Virgil begins by announcing his theme. He is going to be telling the story of how Aeneas made his way from Troy to Italy and founded the precursor to the modern city of Rome. Virgil also reveals that Aeneas is going to have a really, really crummy time of it. This, he explains, is because the goddess Juno is mad a...
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The Aeneid.book 2
BOOK II All were attentive to the godlike man, When from his lofty couch he thus began: "Great queen, what you command me to relate Renews the sad remembrance of our fate: An empire from its old foundations rent, And ev'ry woe the Trojans underwent; A peopled city made a desart place; All that I saw, a...
[ "After some initial hesitation, Aeneas begins to tell the story of Troy's downfall. Everything that follows in this book is told by Aeneas, and so reflects his perspective. Aeneas begins by telling how the Greeks, unable to defeat the Trojans in battle, sail away from Troy. On the beach, they leave behind a giant w...
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The Aeneid.book 3
BOOK III "When Heav'n had overturn'd the Trojan state And Priam's throne, by too severe a fate; When ruin'd Troy became the Grecians' prey, And Ilium's lofty tow'rs in ashes lay; Warn'd by celestial omens, we retreat, To seek in foreign lands a happier seat. Near old Antandros, and at Ida's foot, The t...
[ "Aeneas and his followers take refuge beneath Mount Ida, in the neighborhood of Troy. There they set to work building a fleet. When the summer rolls around, they sail off. First they head for Thrace, a region once allied with Troy. Aeneas plots out a settlement on the coast. Then he prepares to make a sacrifice. Bu...
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The Aeneid.book 4
BOOK IV But anxious cares already seiz'd the queen: She fed within her veins a flame unseen; The hero's valor, acts, and birth inspire Her soul with love, and fan the secret fire. His words, his looks, imprinted in her heart, Improve the passion, and increase the smart. Now, when the purple morn had cha...
[ "If she had a bit of a crush on him before, now that Aeneas has finished his story, Dido totally has the hots for him. The next morning, she confides in her sister, Anna. She says that even though she swore she would never love anyone after her dead husband, Sychaeus, she seriously wants to get with Aeneas. But she...
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The Aeneid.book 5
BOOK V Meantime the Trojan cuts his wat'ry way, Fix'd on his voyage, thro' the curling sea; Then, casting back his eyes, with dire amaze, Sees on the Punic shore the mounting blaze. The cause unknown; yet his presaging mind The fate of Dido from the fire divin'd; He knew the stormy souls of womankind, ...
[ "As they are sailing away, the Trojans see a huge fire burning on the shore. They can guess what it is coming from. Shortly afterward - as seems to happen whenever the Trojans set out anywhere - a storm comes up, and they decide to head for shore. They land in Sicily, coincidentally, at exactly the spot where they ...
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The Aeneid.book 6
BOOK VI He said, and wept; then spread his sails before The winds, and reach'd at length the Cumaean shore: Their anchors dropp'd, his crew the vessels moor. They turn their heads to sea, their sterns to land, And greet with greedy joy th' Italian strand. Some strike from clashing flints their fiery seed...
[ "Are we there yet? Are we there yet? Are we there yet? SIMMER DOWN ALREADY. Yes. Aeneas arrives in Italy. Like many a globetrotter after him, Aeneas's first visit is to the local tourist office - meaning, of course, the cave of the Sibyl, a prophetess who owes her power to the god Apollo. When Aeneas arrives at her...
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The Aeneid.book 7
BOOK VII And thou, O matron of immortal fame, Here dying, to the shore hast left thy name; Cajeta still the place is call'd from thee, The nurse of great Aeneas' infancy. Here rest thy bones in rich Hesperia's plains; Thy name ('t is all a ghost can have) remains. Now, when the prince her fun'ral rit...
[ "The Trojans hold a funeral for Aeneas's nurse, Caieta, who died apparently. Then, when the sea is calm, they set out. The moon is bright, so they can sail easily by night. As they approach the island of the sorceress Circe , they hear the sounds of wild animals. These used to be human beings, before they were tran...
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The Aeneid.book 8
BOOK VIII When Turnus had assembled all his pow'rs, His standard planted on Laurentum's tow'rs; When now the sprightly trumpet, from afar, Had giv'n the signal of approaching war, Had rous'd the neighing steeds to scour the fields, While the fierce riders clatter'd on their shields; Trembling with rag...
[ "Turnus and his allies are having huge success rounding up local recruits against the foreign invaders. They also send out emissaries to the Greek hero Diomedes , trying to convince him to take up the fight against his old enemies, the Trojans. Aeneas has a pretty good idea of what's going on, and is deep in though...
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The Aeneid.book 9
BOOK IX While these affairs in distant places pass'd, The various Iris Juno sends with haste, To find bold Turnus, who, with anxious thought, The secret shade of his great grandsire sought. Retir'd alone she found the daring man, And op'd her rosy lips, and thus began: "What none of all the gods could...
[ "Juno sends Iris down to Turnus to tell him that it's wartime. Turnus gets his men in order and marches out. Soon enough, from their fort, the Trojans see the Italian forces coming. When Turnus arrives, he immediately rides around the fort, looking for a way in. He can't find one, so he decides to lure the Trojans ...
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The Aeneid.book 10
BOOK X The gates of heav'n unfold: Jove summons all The gods to council in the common hall. Sublimely seated, he surveys from far The fields, the camp, the fortune of the war, And all th' inferior world. From first to last, The sov'reign senate in degrees are plac'd. Then thus th' almighty sire began:...
[ "Jupiter has been watching the battle unfolding between the Italians and the Trojans. When all the other gods are assembled, he asks them, \"What's the matter? Why's this war going on? Why can't there just be peace?\" After this, Venus sees her opportunity to speak up for the Trojans. She makes a long speech, the g...
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The Aeneid.book 11
BOOK XI Scarce had the rosy Morning rais'd her head Above the waves, and left her wat'ry bed; The pious chief, whom double cares attend For his unburied soldiers and his friend, Yet first to Heav'n perform'd a victor's vows: He bar'd an ancient oak of all her boughs; Then on a rising ground the trunk h...
[ "Although he's disturbed by the death of Pallas, Aeneas makes offerings to the gods as a sign of thanks for his victory. Then he addresses his soldiers. He tells them that the lion's share of their work is over. Then he instructs them to bury the dead. He also orders that Pallas's body be sent back to his father Ev...
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The Aeneid.book 12
BOOK XII When Turnus saw the Latins leave the field, Their armies broken, and their courage quell'd, Himself become the mark of public spite, His honor question'd for the promis'd fight; The more he was with vulgar hate oppress'd, The more his fury boil'd within his breast: He rous'd his vigor for the ...
[ "In the city of the Latins, Turnus announces that the time has come for him to fight Aeneas one-on-one. Latinus tries to convince him to give it up - to take some other woman as wife and leave Lavinia to Aeneas. Turnus refuses. Then Amata pleads with Turnus, telling him that, if she dies, she'd sooner kill herself ...
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Main Street.chapter 1
CHAPTER I I ON a hill by the Mississippi where Chippewas camped two generations ago, a girl stood in relief against the cornflower blue of Northern sky. She saw no Indians now; she saw flour-mills and the blinking windows of skyscrapers in Minneapolis and St. Paul. Nor was she thinking of squaws and portages, and the...
[ "Carol Milford is a senior student of Blodgett College, at Minneapolis. She misses college for an hour and stands atop a hill near the Mississippi. Locks blown by the wind, she makes a pretty picture. She looks down the mountain at the cities of Minneapolis and St.Paul and thinks about walnut fudge and the plays of...
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Main Street.chapter 2
CHAPTER II IT was a frail and blue and lonely Carol who trotted to the flat of the Johnson Marburys for Sunday evening supper. Mrs. Marbury was a neighbor and friend of Carol's sister; Mr. Marbury a traveling representative of an insurance company. They made a specialty of sandwich-salad-coffee lap suppers, and they ...
[ "Carol is a regular invitee in the house of the Marburys who are her sister's friends. Mr. Marbury is a travelling insurance agent. They have mutual admiration for one another. On one of her visits, she meets Dr.Will Kenicott who does all the insurance examining for Mr. Marbury in the countryside. He belongs to Gop...
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Main Street.chapter 3
CHAPTER III UNDER the rolling clouds of the prairie a moving mass of steel. An irritable clank and rattle beneath a prolonged roar. The sharp scent of oranges cutting the soggy smell of unbathed people and ancient baggage. Towns as planless as a scattering of pasteboard boxes on an attic floor. The stretch of faded ...
[ "Dr.Will Kennicott marries Carol after courting her for a whole year. Train No 7 carries the bride and the groom to Gopher Prairie. Carol feels distressed by what she finds around her. Though the train has plush seats, it has neither beds nor any other provision to make the passengers comfortable. The passengers ar...
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Main Street.chapter 4
CHAPTER IV I "THE Clarks have invited some folks to their house to meet us, tonight," said Kennicott, as he unpacked his suit-case. "Oh, that is nice of them!" "You bet. I told you you'd like 'em. Squarest people on earth. Uh, Carrie----Would you mind if I sneaked down to the office for an hour, just to see how th...
[ "Will soon departs to check on his office and Carol is disappointed at the speed with which he reenters the world of men's affairs. Overcome by the dismal house, Carol goes to the bedroom window hoping for a picturesque view. Instead she sees the clapboard side of a church and a broken Ford delivery wagon. Feeling ...
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Main Street.chapter 5
CHAPTER V I "WE'LL steal the whole day, and go hunting. I want you to see the country round here," Kennicott announced at breakfast. "I'd take the car--want you to see how swell she runs since I put in a new piston. But we'll take a team, so we can get right out into the fields. Not many prairie chickens left now, ...
[ "Early the next morning Will takes Carol on a prairie chicken hunt in order to show her the countryside. Instead of his beloved car they take a horse and buggy - so they can go out in the fields. As Carol watches her husband lovingly prepare his hunting equipment she realizes with pleasure that he has a keen and cr...
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Main Street.chapter 6
CHAPTER VI I WHEN the first dubious November snow had filtered down, shading with white the bare clods in the plowed fields, when the first small fire had been started in the furnace, which is the shrine of a Gopher Prairie home, Carol began to make the house her own. She dismissed the parlor furniture--the golden o...
[ "In November, Carol has the parlor partition removed and refurnishes the large space with Oriental touches. Everyone in town takes an interest. During this time Carol makes the acquaintance of Mrs. Bogart, her backyard neighbor, who is the town's Baptist busybody and self-appointed arbiter of morality. Her fourteen...
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Main Street.chapter 7
CHAPTER VII I GOPHER PRAIRIE was digging in for the winter. Through late November and all December it snowed daily; the thermometer was at zero and might drop to twenty below, or thirty. Winter is not a season in the North Middlewest; it is an industry. Storm sheds were erected at every door. In every block the hous...
[ "Winter comes and the town digs in for the season. Miles Bjornstam, the jack-of-all-trades handyman, hires himself out to anyone who needed help. Most people in town either laugh at Miles or hate him; he is a true democrat who calls everyone by their first names. He is known as \"The Red Swede\" due to his suspecte...
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Main Street.chapter 8
CHAPTER VIII "DON'T I, in looking for things to do, show that I'm not attentive enough to Will? Am I impressed enough by his work? I will be. Oh, I will be. If I can't be one of the town, if I must be an outcast----" When Kennicott came home she bustled, "Dear, you must tell me a lot more about your cases. I want t...
[ "Carol decides to take more interest in Kennicotts work. But her attempt to get Kennicott to tell her about his work draws a blank because he does not find anything interesting enough to tell. Vida calls on her after the showdown at the Jolly Seventeen. Carol feels uneasy. Vida tells her about how the people of Gop...
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Main Street.chapter 9
CHAPTER IX I SHE had tripped into the meadow to teach the lambs a pretty educational dance and found that the lambs were wolves. There was no way out between their pressing gray shoulders. She was surrounded by fangs and sneering eyes. She could not go on enduring the hidden derision. She wanted to flee. She wante...
[ "In the days that follow Carol realizes that the town is watching her. She unconsciously alters her behavior to please them. She dresses more conservatively. The boys who linger outside the drug store, smoking cigarettes and catcalling girls, anger her more than anyone else. They play pool and shoot dice, eat too m...
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Main Street.chapter 10
CHAPTER X THE house was haunted, long before evening. Shadows slipped down the walls and waited behind every chair. Did that door move? No. She wouldn't go to the Jolly Seventeen. She hadn't energy enough to caper before them, to smile blandly at Juanita's rudeness. Not today. But she did want a party. Now! If some...
[ "Carol sits alone in her house having no clue what to do. She knows there's a meeting of the Jolly Seventeen women's club, but she can't bring herself to go and be phony around them. Instead, she wishes that someone would come see her. Carol makes tea for herself and a visitor, since she has faith someone will call...
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Main Street.chapter 11
CHAPTER XI I SHE had often been invited to the weekly meetings of the Thanatopsis, the women's study club, but she had put it off. The Thanatopsis was, Vida Sherwin promised, "such a cozy group, and yet it puts you in touch with all the intellectual thoughts that are going on everywhere." Early in March Mrs. Westla...
[ "Carol attends a meeting of the Thanatopsis Society and is disappointed to find that the women, instead of exploring English poetry as promised, do nothing more than offer opinionated summaries of the poet's lives. Carol does her best not to be patronizing and, after offering some suggestions, is elected a member. ...
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Main Street.chapter 12
CHAPTER XII ONE week of authentic spring, one rare sweet week of May, one tranquil moment between the blast of winter and the charge of summer. Daily Carol walked from town into flashing country hysteric with new life. One enchanted hour when she returned to youth and a belief in the possibility of beauty. She had ...
[ "Carol starts going for long walks in nature alone to calm her mind and to feel better about her place in the world. This is the only time she feels she gets to act like a kid. While she's walking, Carol sees Miles Bjornstam. The guy invites her to join him and a buddy named Pete for a hunk of bacon. It sounds like...
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Main Street.chapter 13
CHAPTER XIII SHE tried, more from loyalty than from desire, to call upon the Perrys on a November evening when Kennicott was away. They were not at home. Like a child who has no one to play with she loitered through the dark hall. She saw a light under an office door. She knocked. To the person who opened she murmur...
[ "Carol keeps calling on the Champ Perrys out of loyalty more than anything else. But the next time she calls on them, they aren't at home. She sees a light under one of the other doors in their building, and she knocks on it, only to find Guy Pollock, her husband's lawyer friend, on the other side. Carol sits down ...
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Main Street.chapter 14
CHAPTER XIV SHE was marching home. "No. I couldn't fall in love with him. I like him, very much. But he's too much of a recluse. Could I kiss him? No! No! Guy Pollock at twenty-six I could have kissed him then, maybe, even if I were married to some one else, and probably I'd have been glib in persuading myself that ...
[ "As she walks home from Guy Pollock's, Carol wonders if she's capable of cheating on her husband Will. All kinds of thoughts fly through her head until she reaches home, where Will asks what's kept her out so late. She tells him she's been at Guy Pollock's and has to reassure him by saying that the neighbors were o...
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Main Street.chapter 15
CHAPTER XV THAT December she was in love with her husband. She romanticized herself not as a great reformer but as the wife of a country physician. The realities of the doctor's household were colored by her pride. Late at night, a step on the wooden porch, heard through her confusion of sleep; the storm-door opene...
[ "Carol feels proud of her husband. She watches with pride as her husband is woken up in the middle of the night to attend upon a German farmers wife. Kennicott goes to do his duty unmindful of his hunger and the cold. He does not wake up Carol. Though she is awake, she is reluctant to break the spell by getting up....
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Main Street.chapter 16
CHAPTER XVI KENNICOTT was heavily pleased by her Christmas presents, and he gave her a diamond bar-pin. But she could not persuade herself that he was much interested in the rites of the morning, in the tree she had decorated, the three stockings she had hung, the ribbons and gilt seals and hidden messages. He said o...
[ "It is Christmas Day and Carol decorates the Christmas tree imaginatively. Kennicott feels happy with the presents given by Carol. He presents her with a diamond bar-pin. After giving the beautiful Christmas tree a cursory glance, he suggests that they should go to Jack Elders house to play. Carol feels nostalgic a...
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Main Street.chapter 17
CHAPTER XVII I THEY were driving down the lake to the cottages that moonlit January night, twenty of them in the bob-sled. They sang "Toy Land" and "Seeing Nelly Home"; they leaped from the low back of the sled to race over the slippery snow ruts; and when they were tired they climbed on the runners for a lift. The ...
[ "Carol rides with twenty other people in a large sled to some lakeside cottages. She tries her best to feel merry. All of the talk at the party is superficial and repetitive, but Carol does her best to enjoy herself. She tells the folks at the party that Gopher Prairie should get together a dramatic association tha...
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Main Street.chapter 18
CHAPTER XVIII I SHE hurried to the first meeting of the play-reading committee. Her jungle romance had faded, but she retained a religious fervor, a surge of half-formed thought about the creation of beauty by suggestion. A Dunsany play would be too difficult for the Gopher Prairie association. She would let them c...
[ "A meeting of the dramatic club is held to select the play to be staged. Carol is ready to suggest Bernard Shaw's Androcles and the Lion. Guy Pollock suggests The School for Scandal. Vida wants the farce Mc Ginerty's Mother-in-law while Raymie wants His Mother's Heart. Juanita chooses The Girl from Kankakee. Every ...
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Main Street.chapter 19
CHAPTER XIX I IN three years of exile from herself Carol had certain experiences chronicled as important by the Dauntless, or discussed by the Jolly Seventeen, but the event unchronicled, undiscussed, and supremely controlling, was her slow admission of longing to find her own people. II Bea and Miles Bjornstam ...
[ "After he marries Bea Sorenson and settles down, Miles Bjornstam stops talking about his radical political views and tries harder to fit in. The change is depressing for Carol, who always liked the way Miles stirred the pot. Very few people attend Miles and Bea's wedding, because they all think they're above these ...
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Main Street.chapter 20
CHAPTER XX I THE baby was coming. Each morning she was nauseated, chilly, bedraggled, and certain that she would never again be attractive; each twilight she was afraid. She did not feel exalted, but unkempt and furious. The period of daily sickness crawled into an endless time of boredom. It became difficult for he...
[ "Carol is furious about the inconveniences of pregnancy. She suffers from nausea. All the matrons of Gopher Prairie give her voluntary advice based on ignorance. Carol feels bad for disliking them. She is used to fighting them. Hence she feels sorry for herself for having to listen to them patiently. When her son i...
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Main Street.chapter 21
CHAPTER XXI I GRAY steel that seems unmoving because it spins so fast in the balanced fly-wheel, gray snow in an avenue of elms, gray dawn with the sun behind it--this was the gray of Vida Sherwin's life at thirty-six. She was small and active and sallow; her yellow hair was faded, and looked dry; her blue silk blo...
[ "Vida Sherwin was born in the hilly Wisconsin village, where her father was a preacher. She taught in an iron-range town before she came to Gopher Prairie. Hence she considers Gopher Prairie, with its trees and the wheat prairies, to be a paradise. She is thirty-six years old and looks small and thin and sallow. Bu...
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Main Street.chapter 22
CHAPTER XXII I THE greatest mystery about a human being is not his reaction to sex or praise, but the manner in which he contrives to put in twenty-four hours a day. It is this which puzzles the long-shoreman about the clerk, the Londoner about the bushman. It was this which puzzled Carol in regard to the married Vi...
[ "Carol's reading increases her world-view and she marvels at the simple contentment of the people in small towns like Gopher Prairie where dullness is made God. Vida counters that Carol's standards are too high. Vida brags that a new school building is in the works and though it took a long time and Carol didn't he...
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Main Street.chapter 23
CHAPTER XXIII I WHEN America entered the Great European War, Vida sent Raymie off to an officers' training-camp--less than a year after her wedding. Raymie was diligent and rather strong. He came out a first lieutenant of infantry, and was one of the earliest sent abroad. Carol grew definitely afraid of Vida as Vid...
[ "We're at the point where America has decided to enter World War I. Vida sends her new husband Raymie off to a training camp so he can do his part for his country. Mrs. Bogart's son Cy wants to join the army so he can kill some Germans, but Mrs. Bogart won't let him, since he's still only a teenager. Meanwhile, Car...
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Main Street.chapter 24
CHAPTER XXIV I ALL that midsummer month Carol was sensitive to Kennicott. She recalled a hundred grotesqueries: her comic dismay at his having chewed tobacco, the evening when she had tried to read poetry to him; matters which had seemed to vanish with no trace or sequence. Always she repeated that he had been heroi...
[ "After Bresnahan has left Gopher Prairie, Carol becomes especially sensitive to all the things she finds ugly about her husband. She doesn't bother to act happy when he has his gross friends over for a poker night. Once the poker guys have left, Carol has a huge fight with Will. She calls his friends disgusting and...
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Main Street.chapter 25
CHAPTER XXV "CARRIE'S all right. She's finicky, but she'll get over it. But I wish she'd hurry up about it! What she can't understand is that a fellow practising medicine in a small town like this has got to cut out the highbrow stuff, and not spend all his time going to concerts and shining his shoes. (Not but what ...
[ "Kennicott wonders about how long Carol would take to get over her highbrow attitude. He broods over the fact that Carol wants him to become a poet. He knows that some women still find him attractive and wonders why he never felt tempted to go to the girls who would accept him as he is. He feels sorry that Carol wh...
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Main Street.chapter 26
CHAPTER XXVI CAROL'S liveliest interest was in her walks with the baby. Hugh wanted to know what the box-elder tree said, and what the Ford garage said, and what the big cloud said, and she told him, with a feeling that she was not in the least making up stories, but discovering the souls of things. They had an espec...
[ "Carol and Hugh spend many happy hours at the shack of Bea, Miles and Olaf Bjornstam. Hugh is thoroughly enchanted with the large Swede. Carol notes that Olaf is a patient, noble and beautiful child. Miles has established a thriving creamery on his land but he confides to Carol that he will never overcome his bad r...
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Main Street.chapter 27
CHAPTER XXVII I A LETTER from Raymie Wutherspoon, in France, said that he had been sent to the front, been slightly wounded, been made a captain. From Vida's pride Carol sought to draw a stimulant to rouse her from depression. Miles had sold his dairy. He had several thousand dollars. To Carol he said good-by with ...
[ "Miles Bjornstam sells his dairy and leaves town to go to Alberta a broken man. The town blames him for his wife and child's death and bids him good riddance. Carol is depressed and, after talking to old Mrs. Flickerbaugh, who has always hated the town, she is afraid she will simply become a bitter old woman in Gop...
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Main Street.chapter 28
CHAPTER XXVIII IT WAS at a supper of the Jolly Seventeen in August that Carol heard of "Elizabeth," from Mrs. Dave Dyer. Carol was fond of Maud Dyer, because she had been particularly agreeable lately; had obviously repented of the nervous distaste which she had once shown. Maud patted her hand when they met, and as...
[ "Carol finds Maud to be very friendly. She feels proud of Kennicott's sympathy when he tells her that he feels sorry for Maud because Dave is very rude to her. She also learns through Maud that Nat Hicks has a new assistant who looks so feminine that he is nick named Elizabeth. He dressed up in a coat and necktie a...
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Main Street.chapter 29
CHAPTER XXIX SHE had walked up the railroad track with Hugh, this Sunday afternoon. She saw Erik Valborg coming, in an ancient highwater suit, tramping sullenly and alone, striking at the rails with a stick. For a second she unreasoningly wanted to avoid him, but she kept on, and she serenely talked about God, whose...
[ "While on a walk with Hugh by the railroad tracks Carol encounters Erik and they sit down to talk. He tells her of his unstructured but vigilant reading and is happy when she encourages him to pursue his dream to study drawing. He wants to create something beautiful and, reminded of herself, Carol tells him that sh...
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Main Street.chapter 30
CHAPTER XXX FERN Mullins rushed into the house on a Saturday morning early in September and shrieked at Carol, "School starts next Tuesday. I've got to have one more spree before I'm arrested. Let's get up a picnic down the lake for this afternoon. Won't you come, Mrs. Kennicott, and the doctor? Cy Bogart wants to go...
[ "Carol, the Dyers, Erik, Cy Bogart and Fern Mullins go to Lake Minniemashie. Dave plays the clown. Cy also becomes very playful. They go for a swim. Carol remains very quiet. She is dressed like how she used to dress when she was a college girl and feels very conscious. She admires Erik's Greek dance and feels that...
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Main Street.chapter 31
CHAPTER XXXI THEIR night came unheralded. Kennicott was on a country call. It was cool but Carol huddled on the porch, rocking, meditating, rocking. The house was lonely and repellent, and though she sighed, "I ought to go in and read--so many things to read--ought to go in," she remained. Suddenly Erik was coming, ...
[ "One night while Will is on a house-call, Erik comes to see Carol. She lets him kiss her on her eyelid and then realizes that a romance with him is not possible. He leaves and Carol notices Mrs. Westlake watching from her home across the street. The next day Kennicott tells her that Ma Westlake has been spreading c...
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Main Street.chapter 32
CHAPTER XXXII I CAROL was on the back porch, tightening a bolt on the baby's go-cart, this Sunday afternoon. Through an open window of the Bogart house she heard a screeching, heard Mrs. Bogart's haggish voice: " . . . did too, and there's no use your denying it no you don't, you march yourself right straight out o...
[ "On the Sunday after the barn dance, Carol hears Mrs. Bogarts screeching voice. She presumes that she had a row with her son. Then she sees Fern Mullins carrying a suitcase, walking up the street with her head bent low. She hears Mrs. Bogart telling her not to show her face and contaminate her house. Carol watches ...
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Main Street.chapter 33
CHAPTER XXXIII FOR a month which was one suspended moment of doubt she saw Erik only casually, at an Eastern Star dance, at the shop, where, in the presence of Nat Hicks, they conferred with immense particularity on the significance of having one or two buttons on the cuff of Kennicott's New Suit. For the benefit of ...
[ "Carol goes another month only seeing Erik Valbourg in casual situations, but he shows up on her doorstep the next time he sees Will heading into the country. He says he can't take it anymore and that he needs to see her. He wants her to come for a walk with him. Erik and Carol head deep enough into nature for no o...
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Main Street.chapter 34
CHAPTER XXXIV THEY journeyed for three and a half months. They saw the Grand Canyon, the adobe walls of Sante Fe and, in a drive from El Paso into Mexico, their first foreign land. They jogged from San Diego and La Jolla to Los Angeles, Pasadena, Riverside, through towns with bell-towered missions and orange-groves; ...
[ "Carol and Will travel for three and a half months. Carol manages to escape the Gopher Prairie malaise but eventually she longs for her son and they return. They leave Monterrey California on a beautiful sunny day and arrive in Gopher Prairie during a sleet storm. While they wait for a cab at the Haydock's, Juanita...
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Main Street.chapter 35
CHAPTER XXXV SHE tried to be content, which was a contradiction in terms. She fanatically cleaned house all April. She knitted a sweater for Hugh. She was diligent at Red Cross work. She was silent when Vida raved that though America hated war as much as ever, we must invade Germany and wipe out every man, because it...
[ "Carol tries to keep herself as busy as possible in order to avoid thinking too much about her crummy life. She's happy when Vida Sherwin's husband Raymie finally comes back from the war. Gopher Prairie is booming because the price of wheat has been crazy high during the war. Still, all the money ends up funneling ...
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Main Street.chapter 36
CHAPTER XXXVI KENNICOTT was not so inhumanly patient that he could continue to forgive Carol's heresies, to woo her as he had on the venture to California. She tried to be inconspicuous, but she was betrayed by her failure to glow over the boosting. Kennicott believed in it; demanded that she say patriotic things abo...
[ "Kennicott feels hurt that Carol does not show any interest in the town boosting campaign and that she did not appreciate Mr. Blausser. They have an argument over an organizer for the National Non Partisan League who had announced that he would address a farmer's meeting in spite of the ban on such meetings. He was...
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Main Street.chapter 37
CHAPTER XXXVII I SHE found employment in the Bureau of War Risk Insurance. Though the armistice with Germany was signed a few weeks after her coming to Washington, the work of the bureau continued. She filed correspondence all day; then she dictated answers to letters of inquiry. It was an endurance of monotonous de...
[ "In Washington she finds office work at the Bureau of War Risk Management. She discovers that business women have freedom without losing domesticity and she loves the city's element of mystery. Through it all, however, she recognizes a streak of Main Street in the transplanted people from town's like Gopher Prairie...
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Main Street.chapter 38
CHAPTER XXXVIII SHE had lived in Washington for a year. She was tired of the office. It was tolerable, far more tolerable than housework, but it was not adventurous. She was having tea and cinnamon toast, alone at a small round table on the balcony of Rauscher's Confiserie. Four debutantes clattered in. She had felt...
[ "After a year in Washington, Carol starts craving more adventure than her office work allows her. She goes for a walk and sees two people she knows from Gopher Prairie. She's surprised at how happy she is to see them. Thirteen months after her move to Washington, Will comes to see her. The visit goes pretty well, b...
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Main Street.chapter 39
CHAPTER XXXIX SHE wondered all the way home what her sensations would be. She wondered about it so much that she had every sensation she had imagined. She was excited by each familiar porch, each hearty "Well, well!" and flattered to be, for a day, the most important news of the community. She bustled about, making c...
[ "Returning to Gopher Prairie of her own volition, Carol finds that some of her old acquaintances have missed her, something that would not occur in Washington. The town has not changed, however, except for the new school building, seven new bungalows, and two garages. The men, including Dr. Westlake and Sam Clark, ...
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Oliver Twist.chapter 1
Among other public buildings in a certain town, which for many reasons it will be prudent to refrain from mentioning, and to which I will assign no fictitious name, there is one anciently common to most towns, great or small: to wit, a workhouse; and in this workhouse was born; on a day and date which I need not troub...
[ "Oliver Twist is born a sickly infant in a workhouse. The parish surgeon and a drunken nurse attend his birth. His mother kisses his forehead and dies, and the nurse announces that Oliver's mother was found lying in the streets the night before. The surgeon notices that she is not wearing a wedding ring", "It's a...
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Oliver Twist.chapter 2
For the next eight or ten months, Oliver was the victim of a systematic course of treachery and deception. He was brought up by hand. The hungry and destitute situation of the infant orphan was duly reported by the workhouse authorities to the parish authorities. The parish authorities inquired with dignity of the ...
[ "Oliver gets sent out to be \"farmed\" because there isn't a wet nurse to be found at the workhouse after his mother dies. Dickens treats us to a scathingly ironic description of the wretched conditions at the baby farm run by Mrs. Mann. Now, allow us to interrupt our scheduled program for a Historical Context Less...
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Oliver Twist.chapter 3
For a week after the commission of the impious and profane offence of asking for more, Oliver remained a close prisoner in the dark and solitary room to which he had been consigned by the wisdom and mercy of the board. It appears, at first sight not unreasonable to suppose, that, if he had entertained a becoming feel...
[ "In the parish, Oliver has been flogged and then locked in a dark room as a public example. Mr. Gamfield, a brutish chimney sweep, offers to take Oliver on as an apprentice. Because several boys have died under his supervision, the board considers five pounds too large a reward, and they settle on just over three p...
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Oliver Twist.chapter 4
In great families, when an advantageous place cannot be obtained, either in possession, reversion, remainder, or expectancy, for the young man who is growing up, it is a very general custom to send him to sea. The board, in imitation of so wise and salutary an example, took counsel together on the expediency of shipp...
[ "The workhouse board considers sending Oliver out to sea as a cabin boy, expecting that he would die quickly in such miserable conditions. However, Mr. Sowerberry, the parish undertaker, takes Oliver on as his apprentice. Mr. Bumble informs Oliver that he will suffer dire consequences if he ever complains about his...
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Oliver Twist.chapter 5
Oliver, being left to himself in the undertaker's shop, set the lamp down on a workman's bench, and gazed timidly about him with a feeling of awe and dread, which many people a good deal older than he will be at no loss to understand. An unfinished coffin on black tressels, which stood in the middle of the shop, look...
[ "Oliver is understandably depressed in his new surroundings--he's in the dark and surrounded by coffins in a strange place--but he does finally go to sleep. He's woken up by kicking at the shop door. The owner of the kicking feet promises to \"whop\" Oliver when he comes in, and introduces himself as \"Mister Noah ...
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Oliver Twist.chapter 6
The month's trial over, Oliver was formally apprenticed. It was a nice sickly season just at this time. In commercial phrase, coffins were looking up; and, in the course of a few weeks, Oliver acquired a great deal of experience. The success of Mr. Sowerberry's ingenious speculation, exceeded even his most sanguine...
[ "A measles epidemic arrives, and Oliver gains extensive experience in undertaking. His master dresses him well so that he can march in the processions. Oliver notes that the relatives of deceased, wealthy, elderly people quickly overcome their grief after the funeral. Noah becomes increasingly jealous of Oliver's s...
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Oliver Twist.chapter 7
Noah Claypole ran along the streets at his swiftest pace, and paused not once for breath, until he reached the workhouse-gate. Having rested here, for a minute or so, to collect a good burst of sobs and an imposing show of tears and terror, he knocked loudly at the wicket; and presented such a rueful face to the aged ...
[ "Noah arrives at the workhouse and dramatically complains to Mr. Bumble that Oliver has almost murdered him. When he sees the gentleman in the white waistcoat walk by, he starts wailing even louder. Noah gets the foul called: the gentleman in the white waistcoat repeats his prophecy that Oliver will grow up to be h...
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Oliver Twist.chapter 8
Oliver reached the stile at which the by-path terminated; and once more gained the high-road. It was eight o'clock now. Though he was nearly five miles away from the town, he ran, and hid behind the hedges, by turns, till noon: fearing that he might be pursued and overtaken. Then he sat down to rest by the side of t...
[ "Chapter 8: liver began his walk to London. He had very little food and had to beg for it on his way. He walked for seven days and had very little luck getting food or shelter from people in the towns he went through. He sat with bleeding feet on a doorstep one morning when a curious looking young gentleman around ...
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Oliver Twist.chapter 9
It was late next morning when Oliver awoke, from a sound, long sleep. There was no other person in the room but the old Jew, who was boiling some coffee in a saucepan for breakfast, and whistling softly to himself as he stirred it round and round, with an iron spoon. He would stop every now and then to listen when the...
[ "Oliver wakes up the next morning to find that he's alone in the room with Fagin. Fagin's making coffee for breakfast, and seems to be nervous about something--he's continually looking around to make sure that he's alone, besides the Oliver. Oliver's only half awake, so Fagin thinks he's still sleeping. After check...
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Oliver Twist.chapter 10
For many days, Oliver remained in the Jew's room, picking the marks out of the pocket-handkerchief, (of which a great number were brought home,) and sometimes taking part in the game already described: which the two boys and the Jew played, regularly, every morning. At length, he began to languish for fresh air, and t...
[ "Oliver spent more time with the Jew, and the other boys each day learning more and more of how to unmark handkerchiefs, and playing the game of picking Fagin's pockets. After a while, Oliver wanted to go out with the boys and do the work they do, and finally Fagin allowed it. On their first day out, Oliver began t...
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Oliver Twist.chapter 11
The offence had been committed within the district, and indeed in the immediate neighborhood of, a very notorious metropolitan police office. The crowd had only the satisfaction of accompanying Oliver through two or three streets, and down a place called Mutton Hill, when he was led beneath a low archway, and up a dir...
[ "The policeman searched Oliver, locked him up, and then dragged him before the local drunken magistrate. The gentlemen, Mr. Brownlow, began an argument with the magistrate and tried to explain that he was not sure if Oliver committed the crime. He also thought that Oliver's face looked familiar to him but he couldn...
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Oliver Twist.chapter 12
The coach rattled away, over nearly the same ground as that which Oliver had traversed when he first entered London in company with the Dodger; and, turning a different way when it reached the Angel at Islington, stopped at length before a neat house, in a quiet shady street near Pentonville. Here, a bed was prepared,...
[ "Oliver is taken to Mr. Brownlow's house, up in the suburb of Pentonville. The poor kid is so sick that he's unconscious for days. At least he's being taken care of for a change. He finally wakes up, and asks where he is. A motherly old lady immediately checks up on him, and tells him to be quiet, because he's been...
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Oliver Twist.chapter 13
'Where's Oliver?' said the Jew, rising with a menacing look. 'Where's the boy?' The young thieves eyed their preceptor as if they were alarmed at his violence; and looked uneasily at each other. But they made no reply. 'What's become of the boy?' said the Jew, seizing the Dodger tightly by the collar, and threateni...
[ "Now we're back with the Dodger and Charley Bates. Charley thinks that the whole incident with Oliver was hilarious, and he can't stop laughing about it, but the Dodger's worried about what Fagin will say. The Dodger was right to worry--as soon as they tell Fagin what happened, he begins to shake the Dodger violent...
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Oliver Twist.chapter 14
Oliver soon recovering from the fainting-fit into which Mr. Brownlow's abrupt exclamation had thrown him, the subject of the picture was carefully avoided, both by the old gentleman and Mrs. Bedwin, in the conversation that ensued: which indeed bore no reference to Oliver's history or prospects, but was confined to s...
[ "When Oliver next enters the housekeeper's room, he notices that the portrait of the lady whom he resembles is gone. Mrs. Bedwin says that Brownlow removed it because it seemed to worry Oliver. One day, Brownlow sends for Oliver to meet him in his study. Assuming that Brownlow means to send him away, Oliver begs to...
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Oliver Twist.chapter 15
In the obscure parlour of a low public-house, in the filthiest part of Little Saffron Hill; a dark and gloomy den, where a flaring gas-light burnt all day in the winter-time; and where no ray of sun ever shone in the summer: there sat, brooding over a little pewter measure and a small glass, strongly impregnated with...
[ "The chapter opens with a lengthy digression--Dickens starts out by describing how he's not going to talk about the kinds of people who don't help the poor, and the reasons they make up to defend themselves, and he spends so much time telling us exactly what he's not going to tell us about, that by the end, he has....
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Oliver Twist.chapter 16
The narrow streets and courts, at length, terminated in a large open space; scattered about which, were pens for beasts, and other indications of a cattle-market. Sikes slackened his pace when they reached this spot: the girl being quite unable to support any longer, the rapid rate at which they had hitherto walked....
[ "Nancy, Sikes, and Oliver arrive at a dilapidated house in a squalid neighborhood. Fagin, the Dodger, and Charley laugh hysterically at the fancy clothing Oliver is wearing. Oliver calls for help and flees, but Sikes threatens to set his vicious dog, Bull's-eye, on him. Nancy leaps to Oliver's defense, saying that ...
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Oliver Twist.chapter 17
It is the custom on the stage, in all good murderous melodramas, to present the tragic and the comic scenes, in as regular alternation, as the layers of red and white in a side of streaky bacon. The hero sinks upon his straw bed, weighed down by fetters and misfortunes; in the next scene, his faithful but unconscious...
[ "Mr. Brownlow publishes an advertisement offering a reward of five guineas for information about Oliver's whereabouts or his past. Mr. Bumble notices it in the paper while traveling to London. He quickly goes to Brownlow's home. Mr. Bumble states that, since birth, Oliver has displayed nothing but \"treachery, ingr...
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Oliver Twist.chapter 18
About noon next day, when the Dodger and Master Bates had gone out to pursue their customary avocations, Mr. Fagin took the opportunity of reading Oliver a long lecture on the crying sin of ingratitude; of which he clearly demonstrated he had been guilty, to no ordinary extent, in wilfully absenting himself from the s...
[ "Fagin leaves Oliver locked up in the house for days. During the daytime, Oliver has no human company. The Dodger and Charley ask him why he does not just give himself over to Fagin, since the money comes quickly and easily in their \"jolly life. Fagin gradually allows Oliver to spend more time in the other boys' c...
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Oliver Twist.chapter 19
It was a chill, damp, windy night, when the Jew: buttoning his great-coat tight round his shrivelled body, and pulling the collar up over his ears so as completely to obscure the lower part of his face: emerged from his den. He paused on the step as the door was locked and chained behind him; and having listened whil...
[ "Fagin left the house where the boys slept and went to visit Mr. Sikes. Upon arrival, he found Nancy along with the other thief. He was not happy she was there just because he was afraid she would go nuts on him again. Sikes and he discussed a job they had been planning, and Sikes said it was doomed to fail because...
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Oliver Twist.chapter 20
When Oliver awoke in the morning, he was a good deal surprised to find that a new pair of shoes, with strong thick soles, had been placed at his bedside; and that his old shoes had been removed. At first, he was pleased with the discovery: hoping that it might be the forerunner of his release; but such thoughts were q...
[ "Oliver awoke to find a new pair of shoes at his bedside for which he is thankful. Then he sat down to breakfast and Fagin told him he is going to go work for Mr. Sikes for a time, but will come back to them soon. Oliver is apprehensive but does not press to know why he is going to Mr. Sikes. Fagin leaves him with ...
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Oliver Twist.chapter 21
It was a cheerless morning when they got into the street; blowing and raining hard; and the clouds looking dull and stormy. The night had been very wet: large pools of water had collected in the road: and the kennels were overflowing. There was a faint glimmering of the coming day in the sky; but it rather aggravate...
[ "It's rainy at 5 a.m. when Sikes and Oliver set out, and the \"kennels\" are overflowing . London is just starting to wake up now. Farmers are coming in with their vegetables and things, and laborers are going to work. As they approach the main part of the city, everything is bustling. They cut across Smithfield , ...
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Oliver Twist.chapter 22
'Hallo!' cried a loud, hoarse voice, as soon as they set foot in the passage. 'Don't make such a row,' said Sikes, bolting the door. 'Show a glim, Toby.' 'Aha! my pal!' cried the same voice. 'A glim, Barney, a glim! Show the gentleman in, Barney; wake up first, if convenient.' The speaker appeared to throw a boot...
[ "Two of Mr. Sikes cohorts are waiting inside, Toby Crackit and Barney. They eat dinner and go to sleep for a time. At one they wake up and set out to rob the house they planned. Mr. Sikes threatens Oliver more and they explain to him his job of going through the small window and opening the door. Once Oliver realiz...
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Oliver Twist.chapter 23
The night was bitter cold. The snow lay on the ground, frozen into a hard thick crust, so that only the heaps that had drifted into byways and corners were affected by the sharp wind that howled abroad: which, as if expending increased fury on such prey as it found, caught it savagely up in clouds, and, whirling it ...
[ "Mr. Bumble stopped by to see Mrs. Corney, the matron of the workhouse where Oliver Twist was born. He brought her a bottle of wine, and accepted a cup of tea from her. As they were sitting around the round table, Mr. Bumble kept scooting his chair closer to the old woman. Finally, he grabbed and kissed her. Then c...
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Oliver Twist.chapter 24
It was no unfit messenger of death, who had disturbed the quiet of the matron's room. Her body was bent by age; her limbs trembled with palsy; her face, distorted into a mumbling leer, resembled more the grotesque shaping of some wild pencil, than the work of Nature's hand. Alas! How few of Nature's faces are left ...
[ "The old lady who came to get Mrs. Corney is withered and ugly, but Dickens launches into a long explanation of why so many people are withered and ugly--it's because they have so much to stress about, but no worries--everyone's face looks better when they're dead! When Mrs. Corney gets to the room where the sick w...
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Oliver Twist.chapter 25
While these things were passing in the country workhouse, Mr. Fagin sat in the old den--the same from which Oliver had been removed by the girl--brooding over a dull, smoky fire. He held a pair of bellows upon his knee, with which he had apparently been endeavouring to rouse it into more cheerful action; but he had f...
[ "Fagin, Charlie Bates, the Dodger, and Tom were all sitting in the hideout late one evening. The boys began teasing Tom about his affection for Betsy, and Fagin began discussing it as well. They heard that someone was at the front door, and were very careful in answering it. When they discovered that the visitor wa...
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Oliver Twist.chapter 26
The old man had gained the street corner, before he began to recover the effect of Toby Crackit's intelligence. He had relaxed nothing of his unusual speed; but was still pressing onward, in the same wild and disordered manner, when the sudden dashing past of a carriage: and a boisterous cry from the foot passengers,...
[ "Fagin wandered the streets and went to the market place where the thieves sell their wares. He asked for information on Sikes and not finding any, went to a place called The Cripples. Again he asked for information of Sikes and found none. Finally, he went to Sikes house and found it occupied by only Nancy. He exp...
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Oliver Twist.chapter 27
As it would be, by no means, seemly in a humble author to keep so mighty a personage as a beadle waiting, with his back to the fire, and the skirts of his coat gathered up under his arms, until such time as it might suit his pleasure to relieve him; and as it would still less become his station, or his gallantry to in...
[ "Mrs. Corney, flustered, returns to her room. She and Mr. Bumble drink spiked peppermint together. They flirt and kiss. Bumble mentions that the current master of the workhouse is on his deathbed. He hints that he could fill the vacancy and marry Mrs. Corney. She blushes and consents. Bumble travels to inform Sower...
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Oliver Twist.chapter 28
'Wolves tear your throats!' muttered Sikes, grinding his teeth. 'I wish I was among some of you; you'd howl the hoarser for it.' As Sikes growled forth this imprecation, with the most desperate ferocity that his desperate nature was capable of, he rested the body of the wounded boy across his bended knee; and turned ...
[ "And we're back with Oliver again, finally. Sikes is in the middle of the chase, pausing to rest while carrying the unconscious Oliver. He can hear them coming after him. He tries to get Toby to help carry the boy, but Toby's only interested in looking out for himself. Sikes reluctantly leaves Oliver in the ditch w...
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Oliver Twist.chapter 29
In a handsome room: though its furniture had rather the air of old-fashioned comfort, than of modern elegance: there sat two ladies at a well-spread breakfast-table. Mr. Giles, dressed with scrupulous care in a full suit of black, was in attendance upon them. He had taken his station some half-way between the side...
[ "The chapter begins with a description of Mrs. Maylie, the mistress of the house at which Oliver is shot. She is a kindly, old-fashioned elderly woman. Her niece, Miss Rose, is an angelic beauty of seventeen. Mr. Losberne, the eccentric local bachelor surgeon, arrives in a fluster, stating his wonderment at the fac...
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Oliver Twist.chapter 30
With many loquacious assurances that they would be agreeably surprised in the aspect of the criminal, the doctor drew the young lady's arm through one of his; and offering his disengaged hand to Mrs. Maylie, led them, with much ceremony and stateliness, upstairs. 'Now,' said the doctor, in a whisper, as he softly tur...
[ "The doctor brought them into the room, and when Rose saw Oliver she sat at his side and wept on his face lamenting that one so young and innocent looking could not be evil. She pleaded with the doctor and her aunt to not do harm to Oliver, or put him in prison. They agreed that nothing would be decided about what ...
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Oliver Twist.chapter 31
'Who's that?' inquired Brittles, opening the door a little way, with the chain up, and peeping out, shading the candle with his hand. 'Open the door,' replied a man outside; 'it's the officers from Bow Street, as was sent to to-day.' Much comforted by this assurance, Brittles opened the door to its full width, and c...
[ "Brittles answers the door, and the two Bow-street officers, named Duff and Blathers, come right on in and make themselves at home. Well--Blathers makes himself at home. Duff doesn't seem to be all that comfortable in such fancy surroundings, so he's a little more awkward. They sit down with Mrs. Maylie, Rose, and ...
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Oliver Twist.chapter 32
Oliver's ailings were neither slight nor few. In addition to the pain and delay attendant on a broken limb, his exposure to the wet and cold had brought on fever and ague: which hung about him for many weeks, and reduced him sadly. But, at length, he began, by slow degrees, to get better, and to be able to say somet...
[ "Oliver's broken arm is healing as he recovers from the illness brought on by his terrible experience. He is particularly determined to convince Rose Maylie of his gratitude and ardent desire to demonstrate his sincerity by deeds. Rose promises that he will have ample opportunity, for her aunt intends to take Olive...
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