Book Reviews VII: Cooper, Dickens

The Last of the Mohicans by James Fenimore Cooper
The Deerslayer by James Fenimore Cooper
Bleak House by Charles Dickens
A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens



The Last of the Mohicans
By James Fenimore Cooper


1. Takes place near the waters of the Hudson River and its adjacent lakes.
2. By emulating the native warriors, the colonists learned to overcome every difficulty.
3. The party meet an indian who is a runner for the army. He volunteered to guide them to the lake by a hidden route.
4. “This man could be a friend and an extra hand in case of need. And if he has music in his soul, even better. It refreshes the body and spirit to sing psalms.”
5. “They write in books what they claim to have done and seen instead of telling it aloud in their villages where their comrades could testify to the truth.”
6. “My tribe is the grandfather of nations... The blood of the sagamores is in my veins.”
7. Omitted.
8. "When Uncas follows in my footsteps there will be no more blood of our chiefs, for my son is the last of the Mohicans."
9. "Duncan rubbed his forehead. Are we not friends? he said. Why should there be bitter words between us?"
10. "You must promise two things, he said. First, be as still as these sleeping woods. And the other, keep the place where we take you forever a secret to living men."

11. "Hawkeye waded into the deeper water and withdrew a bark canoe from under the brush of an eddy and floated it back to the shallows..."
12. "He said that water leaves no trail and that even an owl would be blind in such a hole."
13. "Upstream a waterfall spilled forth from the heavens. Its whitewater gushed and tumbled down over rocks and into caverns with a sound that loaded the night air. When they drew near to the cataract the water churned and the air thundered and mist blew in sideways at their faces. Hawkeye maneuvered the canoe perpendicular to the waves and then he paddled hard and bore them forward into the falls."
14. "The next moment they glided upon the calm dark waters of a pool hidden behind the foot of the waterfall."
15. "Have you seen anything of those you call the Iroquois? I call them Iroquois because anyone who speaks a foreign tongue is liable to be an enemy."
16. "An indian is felt before seen. I trust other senses than sight when I'm on the trail of Iroquois."
17. Arrive at an area where waters flow. Then says, "But what does it all amount to? After being free to its will for a time the water gathers again just a few yards and flows to the sea..."
18. "A very good name. I admire names, though indians excel in this over white men. With an indian it's a matter of conscience and what he calls himself he generally is."
19. "The Mohicans sat listening with their eyes so fixed on the rock that they too seemed like stone."
20. "The Mohican reentered the cave and spoke to him in delaware."

21. "We must be on foot again before sunrise to reach Fort Edward while the Iroquois still sleep."
22. "Ask yourself, Duncan, can daughters forget the anxiety a father must feel not knowing where his children are in this wilderness?"
23. “We could hold them off.” “With what? Uncas’ arrows? Our tears? No. You are young and rich and have friends and I know that at your age it is hard to die.”
24. Omitted.
25. Omitted.
26. “If you are led into the woods, break the twigs of the bushes you pass. Make marks on the trail as broad as you can.”

1. "The minerals, he said. Takes some getting used to. Your fancy drinks are not better liked than a redskin relishes this water. Healing waters they are."
2. "Behind them all sat [one character] silently watching the forest."
3. "Hawkeye turned round to walk backward and pointed to the western skies. There's nature's sign for man to rest and eat, he said."
4. "[One character] is a chief of the great Mohican sagamores. Once his family could chase deer over country so wild and broad they never crossed a stream or hill not their own."
5. "Hawkeye smiled. Rest is reasonable, he said. It has been a full day. Let's get water and prepare beds for sleep."
6. "Trust the experience of men who know the ways of these warriors."
7. "During these brief pauses the travelers rested as they could."
8. In the next scene, the party is approached by a soldier. While the indians are hiding, Duncan pretends to be an officer of the king. Then he tricks the soldier into believing that he has captured the daughters of Munro and is taking them to Commander Montcalm. The soldier falls for the trick.
9. "But it's the way of the indians and I suppose it shouldn't be denied."
10. "Winding among boulders and trees they ascended a trail blazed by men long practiced in the ways of the wilderness. The climbers counted time in footsteps and horsebreaths until the sky to the east began to show the deepest shades of lapis."

11. "On the lakeshore the walls and low buildings of Fort William Henry stood like miniatures on a military map."
12. "We're a few hours too late, Hawkeye said. Montcalm's already filled the woods with his Iroquois."
13. "Somewhere in the trees a bird was twittering its anthem."
14. "Tell the boys to be watchful. At the same time, let's show them the faces of confident men."
15. "Magua is a great chief. Let him prove it by teaching his nation how to act toward our new friends."
16. Discusses the presence of the Iroquois, Delawares and Oneidas.
17. In one scene writes, "They had landed on the border of the rugged region that separates the tributaries of Lake Champlain from those of the Hudson and Mohawk and Saint Lawrence rivers."
18. "Duncan followed, looking just ahead of his feet as he stepped, seeking some clue in a language he could not read."

1. When one character gets wounded, Hawkeye says, “You’re starting the warrior’s work early, my brave boy. You’ll carry plenty of honorable scars to the grave. I know grown men who don’t have such a mark as this. Go on. Someday you’ll be a chief.”
2. Describes a scene in the wood where nothing stood or moved that seemed out of place.
3. "They’d not gone far when one of the warriors signaled that all was not as it should be."
4. In one scene writes, “The way forward became brighter and brighter until at once like breaking through a wall the trees ended at a broad field of grass.”
5. In one scene writes that the decisions rested on the people, independent of the Great Spirit.
6. They spoke of how one woman’s beauty and noble resolution compensated for any other imperfections in her character.
7. Mentions that the snows fall in winter, and the sun shines hottest in summer.
8. Then he pointed up to the sun. “I understand you,” he said. “It is the will of heaven.”
9. In one scene, when one character dies, writes, “The Great Spirit had need of such a warrior and has called him away.”
10. Writes, "My day has been too long. In the morning I saw the sons of the great turtle happy and strong. And yet before the night has come I have seen the last of the Mohicans.”




The Deerslayer
By James Fenimore Cooper

1. "The Deerslayer is the final installment to the continuous historical romance known as "The Leather-Stocking Tales."
2. The Leather-Stocking Tales includes The Pioneers, The Last of the Mohicans, and The Deerslayer.
3. Leather-Stocking, or Hawkeye, as Cooper's hero preferred to be called, was also a character in The Prairie.
4. The saga is relevant to United States literary history. It describes the historical forces responsible for the transformation of a settler colony into the United States of America. Hawkeye's character also represented "an American myth that was not wholly under Cooper's authorial control."
5. "The Leather-Stocking saga also projected an imaginary national tradition that Cooper felt compelled to continue."

6. The saga has received mixed responses from critics. "The novels have been praised for the broad-based appeal of the national mythology underpinning them, but Cooper has also been severely criticized for the inappropriateness of his prose."
6A. Cooper indicates that a goal of literature is to accurately distinguish between fact and fiction, lest the "grave error" of historical inaccuracy be committed.
7. Mark Twain was one of Cooper's critics.
8. Despite some irregularities, The Leather-Stocking tales represented life during that time in U.S. history. Many of the characters and events were compatible with collective social hopes and prejudices.
9. This would "supply readers with a vision of the nation's origins and destiny."
10. Represented "colonial origins of the young nation with the trappings of a venerable tradition."

11. In the opening paragraph of The Deerslayer, Cooper writes, "On the human imagination, events produce the effects of time. When this mind reverts to the earliest days of colonial history, the period seems remote and obscure, the thousand changes that thicken along the links of recollection, throwing back the origin of the nation to a day so distant as seemingly to reach the mists of time; and yet four lives of ordinary duration would suffice to transmit, from mouth to mouth, in the form of tradition, all that civilized man has achieved within the limits of the republic."
12. Cooper was born in 1789 in Burlington, New Jersey. Soon he moved to the township near Lake Otsego, New York, that continues to bear his family's name.
13. One theme that Cooper explored was the political and cultural differences of the social orders within England and the United States.
14. One of Cooper's early books, The Spy, took place in Westchester County in New York State, and a reference in the book's subtitle was situated in between the American and British camps during the Revolutionary War.
15. One of Cooper's early protagonists, Harvey Birch, represented himself as bound by the principles of liberty and social justice that he purported to have discerned at work in the "nature" of the neutral ground that he inhabited.

16. Cooper's The Spy was written in 1821, about forty years after the Revolutionary War ended.
17. An imaginary descendant of Harvey Birch, Natty Bumppo, one of the character's in The Pioneers, gave loyalty to a code of behavior that he described as ordained by the laws of nature prevented him from aligning with the causes of either groups, the Temples or the Effinghams in the novel.
18. "In The Last of the Mohicans, Cooper addressed the moral concerns raised by the government's "Indian Removal" policies that mandated the expropriation of indigenous peoples from the territories they occupied."
19. "Cooper's imaginary solution for these moral quandaries involved his division of the tribes of Indians into factions...Cooper thereafter replaced the questions concerning the legality of the United States's usurpation of Indian lands with an evaluation of the contrasting moral character of the disputants." In the novel, Cooper supplied a resolution of the land dispute between indigenous peoples and the United State government.
20. Overall, Cooper's novel invented a legal fiction that encouraged his readers to believe that white settlers had inherited legal title for their property from a vanished Indian tribe.


Introduction
1. Cooper acquired a sense of the opinions of the people when he “traveled through the salons and capitols of Europe from 1827 to 1833.”
2. “But the aristocratic demeanor that Cooper assumed during his European tour provoked disapproval at home that was widespread enough to compel him to return to the Leather-Stocking saga for redress."
3. “In 1833 for example, a group of Whig editors accused Cooper of having more in common with Europe’s landed gentry than American democracy.”
4. One of Cooper’s characters was affiliated with the reading public’s demand for “an affirmation of the values of the hearth, home, and romantic love.”
5. These values “appeared compatible with those of the leading men in most popular sentimental romances.”

6. The wilderness surrounding Cooper’s estate served as a model for the action in many of his novels.
7. The plot of The Deerslayer involved these characters in a ritual round of captivities and rescues and Deerslayer’s possible marriage to the “lady of the lake,” Judith Hunter.
8. Natty Bumppo demonstrated his willingness to sacrifice his values for Mabel Dunham, and this leads to a sequence of events that comprises a major portion of The Pathfinder.
9. Of Bumppo and another character, the editor explains that a trip down Lake Glimmerglass inspired Bumppo to reflect upon its moral significance and relation to God’s providence.
10. Despite this insight, however, Bumppo remained envious of “the man who owned the property upon which he had just undergone this spiritually uplifting perception.”

11. “Throughout the remainder of the novel, 'nature' will educate Bumppo in how not to envy what does not belong to him."
12. “In contradistinction to envy, Bumppo identified loyalty to his friends as the ruling motive for his actions.”
13. “Rather than continuing to covet Tom Hutter’s property, Bumppo struck up a relationship with Hutter’s daughter Judith, an heir to Hutter’s estate. Their relationship became the basis for a series of ordeals through which Hawkeye discovered how to distinguish material gifts from spiritual gifts—evident in his refusal to evaluate human beings in terms of the material goods for which they might be exchanged."
14. “Leatherstocking had earned his different names through the acts of sagacity and physical prowess that he displayed while within the tribal council or on a hunt.”
15. “The name ’Deerslayer’ referred to the animal he killed when he displayed his hunting abilities. The name ‘Hawkeye’ celebrated the keen eye and careful aim that Leatherstocking exercised when he did finally kill a man.”

16. Mentions the legends of popular frontiersmen such as Davy Crockett and Ned Buntline. These popular legends influenced Cooper and in turn, Cooper’s novels influenced American society.
17. Discusses the distinction between Hawkeye’s values and the frontiersman’s.
18. “Judith’s courtship of Hawkeye organized the plot line of The Deerslayer. She did not acknowledge defeat until the end of the narrative, when she tried a tactic that was the revers of her earlier courtship strategies.”
19. “At first, Judith reversed herself on the question of the furlough, claiming that she found his willingness to die for his principles his most gallant trait."
20. Judith found this courageous and romantic, and “proposed that Hawkeye pledge his word to her in marriage…”


1. In this restating of Judith’s entreaty to marry, Cooper added a racial component that eventuates in Hawkeye’s construction of an impermeable border separating whites from Indians.
2. Throughout the novel, Hawkeye characterized Chingachook as Rivenoak’s sworn enemy. But their enmity was based upon their geopolitical alliances with warring imperial systems rather than a difference in their philosophical orientations.
3. In one scene, when Hawkeye views the scene of the Huron slaughter, Cooper writes, “Wild beasts had disintered many of the bodies, and human bones were bleaching in the rains of summer.”
4. Chingachook uncovered the battle of this killing field to display them to his son, and this refers to a vanishing of the Indian way of life to which they now bore witness.
5. This also refers to the Mohican warrior who had divined the mysteries of the wilderness.
6. But after he evolved his character out of Chingachook’s instruction, Hawkeye also established the boundary separating white civilization from the Indian’s nature.

7. When he joined Uncas and Chingachgook in their melancholy reflections upon what remained of the Huron tribe, the position from which Hawkeye observed this scene inscribed the racial border that dissociated these two civilizations.
8. Discusses the struggle for veracity in distinguishing between history and fiction.
9. The Delawares early attracted the attention of the missionaries, and were a tribe unusually influenced by their precepts and example. In many instances, they became Christians, and cases occurred in which their subsequent lives gave proof of the efficacy of the great moral changes that had taken place within them.
10. Of Leather-Stocking writes, he “sees god in the forest; hears him in the winds; bows to him in the firmament…in a word, he is a being who finds the impress of the Deity in all the works of nature."

11. Distinguishes between the “good Indian” and the “bad Indian," and indicates that oftentimes, literature focuses on the actions of the bad Indian.
12. One man, “Heckewelder, was an ardent, benevolent missionary, bent on the good of the red man, and seeing in him one who had the soul, reason, and characteristics of a fellow being. The critic is understood to have been a very distinguished agent of the government, one very familiar with Indians..."
13. To suppose that the red man is to be represented only in the squalid misery or in the degraded moral state that certainly more or less belongs to his condition is, we apprehend, taking a very narrow view of the author’s privileges.
14. In this book the hero is represented as just arriving at manhood, with the freshness of feeling that belongs to that interesting period of life… As a consequence, he is loved..."
15. The recollections of the writer carry him back distinctly to a time when nine tenths of the shores in this lake were in the virgin forest, a peculiarity that was owing to the circumstance of the roads running through the first range of valleys removed from the water side.

The Deerslayer
16. On the human imagination, events produce the effects of time. Thus, he who has traveled far and seen much, is apt to fancy that he has lived long.
17. The incidents of this tale occurred between the years 1740 and 1745, in the settled portions of the colony of New-York. A bird’s eye view of the whole region must then have offered one vast expanse of woods, relieved by a comparatively narrow fringe of cultivation along the sea, dotted by glittering surfaces of lakes, and intersected by waving lines of rivers. In such a vast picture of solemn solitude…"
18. At this suggestion both set themselves about making the preparations necessary for their usual frugal, but hearty, meal.
19. We meet Hurry Harry. His real name was Henry March, but the frontiersmen gave him that nickname after seeing some of his actions.
20. Hurry stood six feet four, and had a gigantic frame.
21. Deerslayer, as Hurry called his companion, stood about six feet in his moccasins, and his frame was light and slender, showing muscles, that promised unusual agility if not unusual strength.

22. Their attire had the usual signs of those who passed their time between the civilized society and the boundless forests.
23. Deerslayer says, “nay—nay Hurry, there’s little manhood in killing a doe.”
24. Discuss a rock near the foot of the lake, where the tribes are given to resorting to make their treaties. “The country is claimed by both Mingos and Mohicans, and is a sort of common territory to fish and hunt through in times of peace, though what it may become in wartime, Lord only knows!”
25. Hurry indicates that rather than view the lake as common territory, he knows a man named Floating Tom Sutter, who views the lake as his own property, and who would not likely give it up without a battle for it.

26. Of old Judith Hutter writes, “there was a little steel in her temper.”
27. “If you’d know’d all that I know about Judith, you’d find a justification for a little cussing.”
28. “Judith is as full of wit, and talk, and cunning, as an old Indian orator…”
29. Suggests that you’re more likely to experience spiritual enlightenment when you’re educated than when you’re not educated.
30. “I know we are in the woods, and are supposed to be beyond human laws, but there is a law, and a law-maker, that rule across the whole continent.”

31. “I rejoice to hear it, but as the sun is beginning to turn towards the afternoon sky, we’d better not talk anymore…”

Chapter Two
32. To be continued.
33. As our two adventurers are traveling, one of them says, "Broken branches are onskilful land-marks, as the least experienced know that branches don't often break of themselves."
34. "Then Uncas, the father of Chingachgook, and the lawful chief of the Mohicans, said..."
35. "Ah! Harry March, 'twould warm the heart within you, to sit in their lodges of a winter's night, and listen to the traditions of the ancient greatness and power of the Mohicans!"
36. "If a man believed all that other people choose to say in their own favor, he might get an oversized opinion of them, and an undersized opinion of himself. These red-skins are notable boasters, and I set down more than half of their traditions, as pure talk."
37. After looking at a fallen tree in the woods, Hurry says, "every thing is as snug as if it had been left in an old woman's cupboard..."


1. “Do you talk to a black the same way you talk to a white, the same way you talk to an Indian?”
2. “‘This is grand—‘Tis solemn!—‘Tis an edication of itself to look upon!’ exclaimed Deerslayer…”
3. “Not a tree disturbed, even by red skin hand, as I can discover…”
4. Tom says, “I can’t help a little envy. ‘Tis a natural feeling, and the best of us are but natural, after all, and give way to such feelings, at times.”
5. “At this remark his companion smiled, and then he dropped his paddle into the water, as if in consideration of a lover’s haste.”

6. “He was fain to ask an explanation of this singular circumstance.”
7. “Deerslayer had some theoretical knowledge of frontier warfare, though he had never yet been called on to raise his hand, in anger, against a fellow creature.”
8. “The effect of this ingenious arrangement was to give its owner a house that could be approached only by water, the sides of which were composed of logs.”
9. “As Hurry made his companion observe, while he explained the process by which it had been made.”
10. Hurry says, “Old Tom is full of contrivances, and he set his heart on the success of his chimney…and now he has a comfortable cabin of it…”

11. “While Hurry was bustling about, Deerslayer, whose manner was altogether more rebuked and quiet, entered the building with a curiosity that was not usually exhibited by one so long trained in Indian habits.”
12. “I’ve never yet taken the life of a fellow creature. They say their traditions do not tell of another who had shed so much blood of animals, that had not shed the blood of man.”
13. “Have the governor’s, or the king’s people, given this lake a name? It’s likely they’ve not bethought to disturb nature with a name.”
14. “As for the tribes, each has its own tongue, and its own way of calling things, and they treat this part of the world just as they treat others. Among ourselves, we’ve got to calling the place ‘Glimmerglass,’ seeing that the whole basin is so often fringed with pines…”
15. “No doubt, Deerslayer, you’ve seen the Susquehanna, down in the Delaware country.”

16. “I am glad they’ve been compelled to keep the red men’s name, for it would be hard to rob them of both land and names!"
17. “It was the reign of nature, in a word, that gave so much pure delight to one of his habits and turn of mind.”
18. “He found a pleasure in studying this large, and to him unusual opening into the mysteries and forms of the woods.”
19. “A white man’s gifts are christianized, while a red skin’s are more for the wilderness.”
20. “Thus it would be a great offense for a white man to scalp the dead, whereas it’s a signal virtue for an Indian. Then again, a white cannot ambush women and children in war, while a red skin may.”

21. Deerslayer indicates that he looks at scalping as he does taking trophies of animals while hunting.
22. Still however, Deerslayer indicates that moral values vary among Indian tribes.
23. Suggests that white men follow white laws, red men follow red laws.
24. While traveling, their progress was swift.
25. “Ah, Deerslayer, rivers are like human mortals; having small beginnings, and ending with broad shoulders, and wide mouths.”

26. “If old Tom is not in ‘Rat’s Cove,’ he must have burrowed in the river.”
27. “I’m as the Lord made me, and I wish to be accounted no better, nor any worse.” Goes on to say, “I could care less how men view my physical appearance."
28. “Here, Hurry burst into a fit of loud laughter.”
29. To be continued.


1. Indicates that from habit, the frontier-men get accustomed to the motion of the canoes.
2. Suggests that because of the landscape, and the plant and animal life on it, different tribes evolved slightly different traditions.
3. Suggests that a difference between Indians and whites are that Indians are used to living on the land, while whites are more suited for urban areas and cities.
4. Hurry believed in the inferiority of all the human race who were not white.
5. Suggests that it is different to hunt deer, from muskrat, from bear.

6. “Not so with Deerslayer, he entered the ark with a slow, cautious step, examining every arrangement of the cover, with curious and scrutinizing eyes. Step by step did he look into the construction of the singular abode, investigate its fastenings and strength, ascertain its means of defense, and make every inquiry that would be likely to occur to one whose thoughts dwelt principally on such expedients.”
7. Of one of the characters writes, “the lad is not perfect, but there’s worse men in the country that he came from…should we have occasion to defend our traps and the territory, he’ll be useful in feeding us all, for he’s a dealer in venison.”
8. “'Many thanks to you,' uttered the beauty, in a full rich voice, and with an accuracy of intonation and utterance, that she shared in common with her sister…”
9. “We shall soon have a chance of seeing our enemies, if we are to feel ‘em.”
10. Suggests that in times of peace, no one’s life is in jeopardy.

11. Suggests that people, like animal species, have gifts that are unique to them, based on their geographic background and culture.
12. “Hurry Harry, that is a lesson you might learn and practice on to some advantage,” said Judy.
13. “It’s natural and easy for an Indian to fall into ambushes and surprises.”
14. “I saw the Mingos, and know that they are out on the trail of mortal men, and not for beaver or deer.”
15. “I’d as soon trust this young man as I’d trust the oldest settler in the colony; if he says paint, then paint it was.”

16. Suggests that it is a shame when creatures don’t understand their gifts.
17. “…when warfare existed, it was regarded as the means of lawfully revenging a thousand wrongs.”
18. “The easily digested food of the forests offered the fewest possible obstacles to…”
19. “Hetty began to move her body back and forth, and otherwise to express mental agitation…”
20. “The little I have troubles me, for when I think the hardest, I feel the unhappiest.”

21. His daughter “repeated her remark in such a way to show that she felt uneasiness.”


1. “…to me there’s no music so sweet as the sighing of the wind in the tree tops, and the rippling of a stream from a full, sparkling, native fountain of pure forest water…though it struck her simple mind as singular that the young man should prefer the melody of the woods, to other songs.”
2. "A dead silence immediately fell on the lake, during which the three in the canoe were using their senses differently, in order to detect the position of the canoe.”
3. Suggests that many of the Earth’s geological features have occurred during the slow progress of centuries.
4. "It would exceed all the means of human knowledge to pretend to analyze the influences that govern the acts of the lower animals.”
5. To be continued.

6. "Men aren't apt to see females in danger, and not come to their assistance. Even a Mingo knows that." This ties in by the concept stated by Alexandre Dumas, that one of the character's "Wouldn't ask for help if her life depended on it."
7. "There are people in this world, Hurry, who live on other men's thoughts..."
8. "Deerslayer had been able barely to distinguish the group, and to see it retiring, but even this dim connection, gave an animation to the scene, that was strongly in contrast to the absolute solitude that remained."
9. "Dropping his paddle into the water, he turned the head of the canoe, and proceeded slowly, as one walks who thinks intently, towards the center of the lake."
10. As Deerslayer slept, "His mind dwelt on what had passed, and his half conscious faculties kept figuring the events of the night, in a sort of waking dream."

11. "Notwithstanding all these circumstances, the most experienced veteran in forest warfare could not have behaved better."
12. "Clear, placid Leman! Thy contrasted Lake
With the wild world I dwelt in, is a thing
Which warns me, with its stillness, to forsake
Earth's troubled waters for a purer spring.
This quiet sail is as noiseless as a wing..."
Quotes Byron, Childe Harold's Pilgrimage in writing the above.
13. "This little delay, probably saved the life of the Indian, who bounded back into the cover, as swiftly as he had broken out of it."
14. "...the white man moved towards the remaining canoe, carrying his piece in the same pacific manner it is true..."
15. Suggests that certain elements of Native American history have become commonplace.

16. "...and finally and chiefly, because I can bear no ill will to a dying man, whether heathen or christian."
17. "...Deerslayer caught view of his person, before he himself was dicovered. When the latter event did occur, as was the case a moment later, the Indian made a sound, which was answered by a dozen voices from different parts of the mountain-side."
18. "The savage was one of those who did not understand a word of English, and he was indebted to the gestures of Deerslayer..."
19. "When Deerslayer drew nearer to the castle, however, objects of interest presented themselves, that at once eclipsed any..."
20. "'And how does that concern you, Deerslayer?' demanded Judith, a little anxiously.
'It concerns me, as all things that touches a friend concern a friend.'"

21. "In this manner the time passed away, and when the sun was beginning to glow behind the fringe of pines that bounded the western hill, the canoe was nearly as low as the point where Hutter and Hurry had been made prisoners."
22. "during the long succession of unknown ages, in which America, and all it contained, had existed apart, in mysterious solitude, a world by itself; equally without a familiar history, and without an origin that the annals of man can reach."
23. "In a word, the trained sagacity, and untiring caution of an Indian were all he had to rely on, amid the critical risks he unavoidably tan."
24. "Where does he wear his hawk's feather?"
"Is it fast to the war-lock, or does he carry it above the left ear?"

25. "Although Chingachgook both understood and spoke English, he was unwilling to communicate his thoughts in it, like most Indians..."
26. "It is unnecessary to enter into the details first related by Deerslayer, who gave a brief narrative of the facts that are already familiar to those who have read our pages."
27. "The freshness of his integrity, the poetry and truth of his feelings, and even the quaintness of his forms of speech, all had their influence, and aided in awakening an interest that she found as pure as it was sudden and deep."
28. "God is as much with me, here, as he would be in the canoe or in the hut."
29. "I'll tell him that he must return good for evil, for so the bible commands, else he will go into everlasting punishment."
30. "...but Judith had suddenly bethought her of a means of counteracting this wild project, by acting on the very feelings that had given it birth."

31. "...as the weary hours passed away, making it nearly morning before she lost her recollection in sleep."
32. "On one hand it was soon bounded by the acclivity of the hill, while the lake, on the other, served as a guide."
33. "She knew that wild beasts roamed through all the adjacent forest, but animals that preyed on human species were rare..."
34. "Opening her eyes, Hetty perceived a cub, of the common American brown bear. The first impulse of Hetty, who had been mistress of several of these cubs, was to run and seize the little creature as a prize, but a loud groan warned her of the danger of such a procedure."

35. "but which was so conspicuous in herself as to have pruduced for her the name of Wah-ta!-Wah; which rendered into English means Hist-oh!-Hist."
36. "God will not pardon a red-man, what he will not pardon in a white man."
37. Of the young warrior, writes, "Very handsome, and brave-looking; fit to be chief, if he good as he seem to be."
38. "In this respect, nearly all unsophisticated nations resemble each other..."
39. "The great King of Kings
Hath in the table of his law commanded..."
Quotes Richard III in writing the above.
40. "It was a small fragment of a tribe that had been hunting and fishing within the English limits, and, after passing the winter and spring by living on what was strictly the property of its enemies..."


1. “That the party to which Hist compulsorily belonged was not one regularly on the war path, was evident by the presence of females.”
2. “The presence of the women had induced the attempt at this ruse…to the effort of escaping from the pursuit of warriors.”
3. Reminds both parties of their common belief in god, in attempting to make peace between them.
4. “And then tell them that I’ve come here to convince them that they ought not harm father, and Hurry, but let them go, in peace, and to treat them as brethren, rather than as enemies.”
5. Now tell [the chiefs] all this plainly, and fear nothing for yourself, or me. God will protect us.”

6. “…the principal man of whom, had even offered to adopt her as his child, if she would consent to become a Huron. In taking this direction, the shrewd girl did so to invite inquiry.”
7. "...adoption being as regularly practiced, and as distinctly recognized among the tribes of America, as it had ever been among those nations that submit to the sway of the Civil Law.”
8. “Hutter was too stern and obdurate by nature, to shrink from the consequences of any of his acts, and he was also too familiar with the opinions of the savages not to understand that nothing was to be gained by equivocation or an unmanly dread of their anger.”
9. “But he had tact enough to discover that equivocation would be useless…”
10. “Judith was not altogether free from a little superstition…”

11. “Had we not better give up the attempt, and find some other means of releasing the prisoners?”
12. The Indians find a chest with clothes and some weapons in it.
13. Readers soon learn that the Indians do not know how to properly fire a weapon.


1. “A simple contrivance, in the shape of a raft, that lay floating at the side of the Ark…two dead and dry, and consequently buoyant, logs of pine were bound together.”
2. The Indians were astonished and delighted when they found a toy elephant.
3. “The manner in which the natives of the South Sea Islands first beheld the toys of civilized life has been often described, but the reader is not to confound it with the manner of the American Indian, under similar circumstances.”
4. The novel then goes on to discuss trade between the Indians and the settlers.
5. “The origin of the well-known sobriquet of “Yankees.” The word “English” was pronounced by the Indians as “Yengeese,” thus, the transition from “Yengeese,” or “Yangis,” to “Yankees,” is discernible.”

6. In the scene that precedes #5, through pronunciation, three of the characters familiarize themselves with their Indian names.


1. Because of all the new and positive ideas and items, the Indians believe that there are advantages to colonization.
2. Suggests that certain tribal values were incompatible with the colonial view of life. Also, the colonial view of life included outlook for the future.
3. Suggests that the process of trade was constant. Sometimes there was disappointment in the bargain, but then the bargaining process would begin again.
4. In the scene that follows, the Indians discuss a treaty.
5. Mentions that the Indian Rivenoak was polite, and spoke on low, quick tones.

6. “It was perhaps fortunate that the keen and bright eyes of Judith were as vigilant as ever.”
7. “An exclamation of pleasure, showed how much he was pleased with this unexpected termination of the affair. In point of fact, both he and Deerslayer had momentarily forgotten what had become of the subject of their discussion, in the warmth of their feelings, but such had not been the case with Rivenoak’s companion.”
8. “This man retained the piece, and had fully made up his mind, as to render its return necessary…”
9. “…I have only studied the hand of God, as it is seen in the hills and the valleys, the mountain-tops, the streams, the forests and the springs. Much learning may be got in this way, as well as out of books; and yet sometimes I think it is a white man’s gift to read!”
10. “The prospects of success were now so encouraging, as to raise the spirits of all in the castle…”

11. “Act like a Christian for once, and not like a laughing gal, in a country school, when the master’s back is turned…”
12. Quotes Bristowe Tragedie, by Chatterton.
Chapter XV
13. “The calm of the evening was again in singular contrast to, the passions of men.”
14. “You must prove where it come from, Deerslayer, or we shall suspect some design to skear them that would have lost their wits long ago, if fear could drive ‘em away.”
15. “Faith is faith, whether given to a redskin, or to a christian.”

16. “‘Hurry,’ said a gentle, soothing voice, ‘it’s wicked to be so angry, and God will not overlook it.”
17. “…and neither you nor any other man has authority to demand that much of me.”
18. “The woods had very few terrors for either of these girls, educated as they had been…”
19. “…Hurry, who had some knowledge of the Algonquin languages, had been in close conference with the Indian.”
20. “The Great Serpent of the Mohicans, must be worthy to go on the warpath with Hawkeye.”

21. “He was mortified, and a little surprised it is true, but he bore it all with dignity…”
22. “On the other hand, Hutter and Harry, could scarce control their feelings.”
23. Reminds us that there was a time when the Indians slept in huts at night.
24. To be continued.

25. “Well, it’s kind and soft hearted in you, Judith, to feel this concern for a fellow creature, and I shall always say that you are kind and of true feelings, let them that envy your good looks, tell as many idle stories of you as they may.”
26. “Is the foul tongue of Hurry Harry to blast my life.”
27. “Hot words don’t always come from the heart, but often from the stomach, than any where else.”
28. “The simplicity of the hunter had completely put her at fault…”
29. “Instead of steering in a direct line to the point, Deerslayer laid the head of his canoe diagonally towards the center of the lake, with a view to obtain a position, from which he might approach the shore, having his enemies in his front only.”
30. “A few minutes sufficed, however, to carry the canoe the necessary distance, when both the young men ceased paddling as it were by instinctive consent, and the boat became stationary.”


1. Perhaps it would be good to see an American Indian playing baseball, or even several American Indians playing baseball.
2. In one scene of the novel, the narrator writes that verses in the Bible are often read and then a year later the reader gets an idea from the verse, and draws the analogy to how God planted seeds in the earth, which in time, grew into trees.


1. “No man, brother or stranger, would stand by and see as fair a girl as yourself hunted down, without saying a word on her behalf."
2. “Deerslayer laughed, in his own manner, as he concluded, and then he intimated to the patient looking, but really impatient Chingachgook.”
3. “The adventurers now held a conference in low voices, consulting together as to the probable time.”
4. After some time in the canoe, "The canoe now seemed to move by instinct, so cautious and deliberate we’re all its motions. Still it continued to advance..."
5. “The progress of the boat was so noiseless, as to remove any apprehensions from an alarm through sound.”

6. In terms of book learning, Deerslayer was not very well versed, but when it came to steering or navigating a canoe, or other matters, Deerslayer was quite talented.
7. With the assistance of torches and dried brush, “A large fire had been made…the effect was to illuminate the arches of the forest, and to render the whole area occupied by the camp as light as if hundreds of tapers were burning.”
8. “In a word, the time was that moment of relaxation and general indolence which is apt to succeed a hearty meal, and when the labors of the day have ended…though one who knew the habits of the people might have detected that every thing was not going on in its usual train.”
9. “As a matter of course, Deerslayer looked eagerly and anxiously for the form of Hist.”
10. Suggests that the woods were not scary to those who were educated about it.

11. “The fire was still blazing…producing an effect that was more pleasing than advantageous. One advantage of the fire was that it concealed the savages, while it illuminated their foes.”
12. “The view that Deerslayer now obtained of the camp, was exactly the reverse of that he had perceived from the water.”
13. The Indians begin discussing the elephant, “and the question now under discussion, was the probable existence, the history and habits of so extraordinary an animal.”
14. Chingachgook was thought to be “as stately as ash, and as tough as the hickory.”
15. Quotes the first poem in Lalla-Rookh, Oriental Romance (1817) by Thomas Moore, entitled The Veiled Prophet of Khorassan.

16. Reminds us that in life, often times we win small victories.
17. In one scene, Cooper speaks highly of the chameleon, for its ability to blend in with its environment.


1. One of the Indian’s actions “required a little bit of philosophy to detect.”
2. “Deerslayer…as he did not choose to utter an untruth, he preferred being silent.”
3. “Their romantic sympathies were with the couple, while their pride was bound up in the success of their own tribe.”
4. “It is possible too, that the superior personal advantages of Hist, rendered her dangerous to some of the younger part of the group…”
5. “I’m afraid that’s easier said than done.”

6. Quotes Don Juan, by Byron.
7. “Every where the stillness of the night was added to the silence and the solitude of the woods.”


1. “By following the margin of the water, she soon encountered the Indian…”
2. “Such things were usual in an Indian village and camp, where sleep is as irregular as the meals.”
3. “Still, Hetty continued to speak, though the gentleness of her tones prevented the sounds from penetrating far into the woods.”
4. “Certainly I am one of the truest friends he has on earth.”
5. “Well he said he might be tormented by the savages, but he would try to bear it as becomes a Christian white-man, and that no one need be afeard…”

6. “…Henry March. He may have a face and a body, but he has no heart.”
7. “Judith was expert in the management of a bark canoe, the lightness of which demanded skill rather than strength, and she forced her own little vessel swiftly over the water…”
8. “Several times the sisters fancied they saw the canoe, but on each occasion it was found to be either an optical illusion, or some swell of the foliage on the shore.”
9. “Most young women would have felt the awkwardness of their situation, in a physical sense…Not so with Judith” and Hetty, however.”
10. “Judith stopped, for, as the last word was on her tongue, the scene was suddenly lighted, though only for a single instant, by a flash.”

11. “He betrayed neither fear nor backwardness, himself…”
12. Quotes Marino Faliero, by Byron.
13. “Long familiarity with danger too, had blunted his sensibilities.”
14. Hurry says, “That’s the way of the world, old Tom, every man must meet his own debts, and answer for his own sins.”
15. “Or did he think himself a buck, that by taking to the water could throw off the scent and swim himself out of difficulty.”

16. “In the moment of sudden surprise, a deep Indian exclamation escaped him.”
17. Of the Indian girl writes, “It is true that she had a powerful ally in his conscience, and while she spoke earnestly, it was in tones so feminine as to deprive him of any pretext for unmanly anger. The softness of her voice added to the weight of her remonstrance, by lending to the latter an air of purity and truth.”
18. “If any earthly scene could be presented to the senses of man…it was that which…as the hours advanced, changed night to morning.”


1. Of a sunrise writes, "...and these invariably accompany the advent of the day, until the appearance of the sun itself-"
"Bathes in deep joy, the land and sea."
2. "All this, however, Hutter and Hurry witnessed without experiencing any of that calm delight, which the spectacle is wont to bring, when the thoughts are just, and the aspirations pure."
3. "…all the rest being native, and fresh from the hand of God.”
4. “It is well known that the American Indians…singularly maintain their self-possession and stoicism, in the midst of the flood of marvels that present themselves in their occasional visits to the abides of civilization, and Chingachgook had imbibed enough of this impassibility to suppress any very undignified manifestation of surprise.”
5. “It is seldom that an Indian woman meddles, and when she does, there is generally a cause for it.”

6. “...and he gave his refusal to let his betrothed proceed, much in the quiet but brief manner in which an Indian husband issues his commands.”
7. “Chingachgook paddled steadily towards the palisades, keeping his eyes on the different loops of the building.”
8. “In a word, it is the moment when the senses seem to recover their powers, in the simplest and most accurate forms…”
9. “…covering in a certain degree, the parts of the scow that were not protected by the cabin.”
10. “Any silence where you are, ought to be both seen and felt, for it’s unlike any other silence.”

11. Omitted.
12. As the raft was drifting, writes, “the men it held lying at their lengths on the logs, so as to blend themselves and their slow moving machine with the water.”
13. “Now all is done that man can do,
And all is done in vain!
My love! my native land adieu
For I must cross the main.”
- Robert Burns, It Was a’ for our Rightful King
14. Questions under what circumstances would one interfere with a struggle.
15. He was an inexperienced youth, as he witnessed the "fell strife of human passions..."
16. “Hurry owed his defeat and capture to the intensity with which he had concentrated all his powers, on his fallen foe.”
17. “The appeal of Hurry, however, had no other effect, than to draw the attention of Hist to his situation.”

18. “Here we shall leave him to recover his strength, and the due circulation of his blood, while we proceed with the narrative of events…”
19. “Judith gave these directions from a mixed feeling…in that moment of apparent desertion and trial.”
20. Judith “was still fresh, and had sanguine hopes of being able to tire out her pursuers.”

21. “The canoes now flew, Judith making up for what she wanted in strength, by her great dexterity and self-command.”
22. “…and I at least may escape, until I shall be ready to go among them of my own accord.”
23. “Lightly they’ll talk of the spirit that’s gone…"
- Charles Woolfe The Burial of Sir John Moore.
24. Suggests that there are moments when the line of justice between black and white is clear, and there are moments when the line of justice is not so clear, and questions how this factors in to the law.
25. Suggests that intellectual beauties lie in the Bible, as well as “profound, and sometimes mysterious wisdom.”
26. Attempts to encourage an appreciation for the Bible. Says that reading just one chapter in the Bible will be very rewarding.
27. Indicates that the book of Job in the Bible is believed to be one of the oldest books in the world.
28. The book of Job explains that Job's wealth was measured not in gold but in livestock. He also had ten children and several grandchildren, and lived to a very old age.
29. There is a character in the novel, Hetty, who is very fond of reading the Bible.
30. "It is another peculiarity of the comprehensive wisdom of the bible, that scarce a chapter, unless it be strictly narration, can be turned to, that does not contain some searching truth that is applicable to the condition of every human heart, as well as to the temporal state of its owner."
31. At Hurry’s burial writes, “No other preparation seemed to be thought necessary, though Hetty carried her Bible beneath arm.”


1. "Don't weep, Judith, don't be overcome Hetty, for the righteousest of us all must die; and when the time comes, lamentations and tears can't bring the dead to life.
2. "Judith had scarce attended to this rude attempt of Hurry's at consolation, although she necessarily understood it's general drift, and had a tolerably accurate notion of its manner."
3. "This is uncommon, but truth is truth, and it shall come out, let what will follow. You know very well that I think very highly of you, and I've made no secret of that fact, either here on the lake, or in the settlements."
4. "It's time to think of a change, and, if you'll accept of me, all that's past shall be forgotten, and there's an end on it."
5. "Then leave it. Go, tonight; we'll never accuse you of having done any thing forgetful, or unmanly."

6. "That's easier said than done, Judith, for these officers do pretty much as they please. The Major will order, and captains, and lieutenants, and enisgns must obey."
7. Quotes Remorse, by Coleridge.
8. Her habits "induced her to wait patiently for a moment when she might manifest some soothing sympathy by means of acts, rather than of speech."
9. "...when she spoke it was firmly and without tremor."
10. "Poor child, you scarce know what you say, or what you mean."

11. "If there ever was a creature on earth without sin, it is you."
12. "Her mind was at peace, and her conscience axquitted her, of a neglect of duty."
13. Of their mother in Heaven writes, "Mother's future is eternity; ours may yet mean what will happen while we live in this world."
14. "Have the Hurons become more human?..."
"It is not likely their natures will ever undergo much improvement. They've their gifts, and we've ours..."
15. "In that respect men do differ...I've known them that wasn't to be trusted any farther than you can see them...Yes, you never said a truer word, than when you said some men might be depended on, and other some might not."

16. "You are a most unaccountable man, and I often do not know how to understand you..."
17. Judith, they knew this...just as well as they would let the wolves dig up the bones of their fathers."
18. "I ask if it can be possible that you expect to be able to put yourself again in the power of such ruthless enemies, by keeping your word."
19. "Deerslayer looked at his fair questioner for a moment, with stern displeasure. Then the expression of his honest and guileless face suddenly changed...after which he laughed in his ordinary manner."
20. "...and then she tried to ascertain the facts in order that her own conduct might be regulated by her knowledge of circumstances."

21. "The women busied themselves in preparations for the evening meal...ever attentive to the first wants of nature."


1. “For my part though, my mind is pretty much settled on the point of my own answer…”
2. “Fair words make long friendships, Deerslayer.”
3. “As you’re not me, but only a go between, sent by the savages to us Christians, you may tell your employers that they do know Harry March…”
4. “Give me a woman for real eloquence, if they’ll only make up their minds to speak what they feel…”
5. “She often speaks to the purpose; the Indians may respect her words, for they feel for people in her condition."
"That is true Judith, and quick-thoughted in you, the red skins do respect misfortunes of all kinds, and Hetty’s in particular.”

6. “Even now when directly required to speak, she seemed to hesitate, nor did she open her lips, until the profound silence told her how anxiously her words were expected. Then, indeed, she spoke, but it was doubtingly and with reluctance.”
7. “Tell me, tell us, Deerslayer, what effect will our answers have on your fate? What are likely to be the consequences to yourself?”
8. “As to wits, if honesty and fair dealing is a sign of sense, you’re worth a dozen Judith’s.”
9. “The death of that young woman, too, was uncalled for, and leaves a heavy load on our names if not on our consciences."
10. “This furlough…is a solemn bargain made between me and God.”

11. “He stood calmly on the shore…sighing heavily, he pushed the canoe from the land, and took his way back, towards the Ark and the castle.”
12. “There was a lamp burning in the Ark, for the family was allowed to indulge in this luxury on extraordinary occasions, and possessed the means…”
13. “I am old enough to remember better things than we have seen on this lake, though they are so faintly impressed on my memory, that the earlier part of my life seems like a dream.”
14. “This is idle, however, when half an hour of examination may tell us all, or even more than I want to know.”
”Deerslayer, who comprehended the girl’s impatience, now took his seat, and proceeded once more to bring to light the different articles the chest contained.”
15. One of the remaining items in the chest is a trunk. The trunk is locked, and Deerslayer opens it. When he opens it, he finds that it contains several letters. Judith is pleased, and rushes to examine and read through the letters.

16. Many of the letters, Judith learns, reveal clues to her past. Deerslayer, meanwhile, is amazed that Judith gets so emotional from mere pieces of paper. This is almost a moral allegory.
17. Deerslayer continues searching the chest.
18. After a bit, Deerslayer finishes examining all the items in the chest.
19. "A furlough is a sacred thing among warriors and men who carry their lives in their hands, as we of the forests do…”
20. Hutter, “he was not my father, thank heaven; though I may have no reason to be proud of him that was.”


1. “I do thus look at it, Deerslayer,” returned the girl with emphasis, still shrinking, with a woman’s sensitiveness, from a direct offer of her hand…”
2. “These are brave words, Judith; yes, they’re downright brave words…”
3. Judith indicates that she would choose for a husband someone who is more physical and adventurous, and suggests that this should inspire men.
4. “…and this novel difficulty gave a piquancy to the state of affairs that rather increased her interest in the young man.”
5. Deerslayer says, “Remember that you’re young, and the youthful may always hope for better times…”

6. “She scarce knew whether to lament, or to rejoice, at having failed in making herself understood.”
7. “…and when drowsiness finally shut her eyes, they closed on a scene of success and happiness…”
8. Quotes To my Mother, by Margaret Davidson.
9. “Hist and Hetty arose with the return of light…”
10. When she awoke, "she left her companion, and went herself on the platform to breathe the pure air of the morning. Here she found Chingachgook studying the shores of the lake, the mountains and the heavens, with the sagacity of a man of the woods, and the gravity of an Indian.”

11. “Neither spoke, unless it were with the eyes, though each understood the other as fully as if a vocabulary of words and protestations had been poured out.”
12. “The smallest birds sing the sweetest; it is always pleasant, to hearken to their songs.”
13. “Good! The husband and the wife will have but one heart; they will see with the same eyes, and feel with the same feelings.”
14. “The youthful pair were yet conversing when the sun appeared above the tops of the pines, and the light of a brilliant American day streamed down into the valley, bathing ‘in deep joy’ the lake, the forests and the mountain sides.”
15. “Just at this instant Deerslayer came out of the cabin of the Ark, and stepped upon the platform.”
16. “‘Well,’ said he, in his usual composed manner, and pleasant voice, ‘he that sees the sun in the west…’”

17. “Both Chingachgook and his betrothed looked up at the luminary, with an air that betokened sudden wonder, and then they gazed at each other, as if to seek the solution of the difficulty.”
18. “Familiarity deadens the sensibilities…”
19. Chingachgook says, “The pale-faces know every thing, they can tell us why the sun hides his face, when he goes back, at night.”
20. “…since they can foretell eclipses, and other prodigies, that used to fill the tribes with terror, according to your own traditions of such things.”

21. “Hist is a daughter of the Mohicans. She knows how to obey her husband. Where he goes, she will follow. Both will be with the Great Hunter of the Delawares, when the sun shall be in the pine to-morrow.”
22. “No mortal can say where he will be when the sun rises to-morrow…”
23. “It’s good eight years since the Sarpent and I began to hunt together, and the thought that we were never to meet again, would be a hard thought to me.”
24. “‘It would be cruel to kill the poor deer,’ she said, ‘in this world or in any other, when you don’t want their venison or their skins. Such things are not done before the face of God…'"
25. Suggests that sin and hypocrisy are not terms to be taken lightly.

26. Suggests that earth is paradise because we can hunt, fish, and live in it.
27. “I am too christianized to expect any thing so fanciful, as hunting and fishing after death…”
28. Omitted.
29. In the next scene, the men go duck hunting.
30. Quotes Giles Christ’s Victory in Heaven, by Fletcher.
In Fletcher’s poem, he suggests that Christ died a worthy death. He also suggests that Christ lived among an enchanted time of antiquity. That Christ met God and angels in Heaven. Fletcher reminds us of the grandiosity of nature. Reminds us that the natural world is eternal.

31. Earlier in the novel, the author points out that one of the characters was “drying her eyes.” Apparently, it is an act that scholars have focused on since biblical times.
32. Earlier in the novel, one of the characters mentions that death is eternal.
33. “It’s true, that under common circumstances, a feeble-mind is a great protection among redskins..."
34. “‘What were you about to say, Deerslayer,’ asked Judith, whose gentleness of voice and manner amounted nearly to tenderness…”
35. “The seasons come and go, and if we have winter, with storms and frosts…and leafless trees, we have summer with its sun and glorious skies, and fall with its fruits...that no beauty of the town could rummage out of all the shops in America. Earth is an eternal round, the goodness of God, bringing back the pleasant when we’ve had enough of the unpleasant.”

36. “‘I understand your meaning, Deerslayer, returned the girl with a meekness and humility that a little surprised her listener.”
37. Of the Sarpent writes, “…he will expect to be treated like a Mohican Chief.”
38. “You come of a great stock yourself, and so does Chingachgook. It’s not very likely that either will forget the circumstances, and do any thing to disgrace your forefathers. Nevertheless, liking is a tender plant, and never thrives long when watered with tears.”
39. “I suppose it’s according to the gifts of your people that the women should work, and the men hunt; but there’s such a thing as moderation in all matters.”
40. “On such occasions, the mind is active, though the body seems lazy and listless.”

41. “These things lie beyond our understanding, though they may and do lie so close to our feelings.”
42. “But, of all the doctrines, that which disturbs me, and disconcerts my mind the most, is the one that teaches us to think that a pale face goes to one heaven, and a red skin to another…”
”Do the missionaries teach their white brethren to think it is so?”
43. “Whenever I’ve done wrong, I’ve generally found it was owing to some blindness of the mind, which hid the right from view, and when sight has returned, then has come sorrow and repentance.”
44. Quotes Roderick, the Last of the Goths, by Southey.
45. Suggests that the human mind is a wonderful thing; it can keep track of time and distance, for example.


1. One scene in Chapter XXVII resembles a scene from Peter Pan where Peter meets the Indians.
2. It appears that the Chiefs of the tribe may want to free the prisoner and even adopt him to their tribe because of his bravery under pressure and captivity.
3. The Chiefs of the council consult with the wife of the slain warrior to decide what to do with the captive.
4. The Chiefs give Deerslayer the option to go and live with the wife of the slain warrior as her husband.
5. Deerslayer expresses reluctance to accept their offer, and attempts to bargain with the council.

6. We learn that Sumach, the wife of the slain warrior, was “a woman quite old enough to be our hero’s mother.”
7. Deerslayer has a fight with one of the Chief’s, Panther, whose sister is Sumach, the wife of the slain warrior, and Deerslayer kills Panther.
8. Deerslayer makes his escape through the forest. The Indians pursue him. “Several rifles were discharged at Deerslayer…but the general confusion that prevailed in the camp prevented any harm from being done.”
9. Deerslayer attempts to escape up a steep mountain, and on a tree.
10. The other Indians follow Deerslayer up the mountain, and through the way of the tree.

11. “Deerslayer suddenly threw himself over the tree, and fell on the upper side.”
12. Soon he was seen, and the chase renewed.
13. The Hurons close in. “The situation of Deerslayer was now more critical than it ever had been. He was virtually surrounded on three sides, having the lake on the fourth.”
14. “But he had pondered well on all the chances, and took his measures with coolness, even while at the top of his speed.”
15. “Some of his pursuers came panting up the hill, in direct chase…” Deerslayer gets on a canoe in the water, and because the terror inspired by his bold defeat of Panther earlier, none dared come near him seriously enough to harm him.

16. Still under pursuit, he turns the canoe over, and rolls over on his back, to escape by way of water.
17. “Suddenly all the voices ceased, and a death like stillness pervaded the spot.”
18. A couple bullets pierce the frame of the canoe.
19. Quotes Pindaric Ode, by Congreve.
20. While drifting for twenty minutes in the canoe, Deerslayer becomes impatient and begins to look for some signs of his friends.

21. Deerslayer meets Rivenoak, and is taken captive by the Hurons again.
22. Rivenoak again tries to convince Deerslayer to take as a wife, Sumach, the wife of the slain warrior.
23. After an eloquent speech, Deerslayer indicates that he chooses death over taking a wife.
24. Rivenoak indicates that he does not want to kill Deerslayer at this point.
25. Indicates that Sumach had recently been deemed handsome in her tribe.

26. Deerslayer begins a dialogue with Sumach.
27. Sumach says, “Cruel pale-face, what had my warriors done that you should slay them! They were the best hunters, and the boldest young men of their tribe; the Great Spirit intended that they should live until they withered like the branches of the hemlock, and fell of their own weight—"
28. Deerslayer replies in his typical eloquent fashion.
29. Deerslayer indicates again that he chooses death. Sumach, frustrated, flies toward him and attacks him and tries to draw out his hair.
30. She succeeds in wrenching out two or three handfuls of hair, “before the young men could tear her from her victim.”

31. Rivenoak and the council decide to kill Deerslayer.
32. To be continued.
33. Warriors from the Huron tribe display their skill with the tomahawk near Deerslayer. One of them, called Raven, just misses Deerslayer after throwing the tomahawk near him.
34. Other warriors approach, the with a knife, but still Deerslayer is unharmed. The same is true of warriors armed with a rifle.
35. Becomes clear that Deerslayer had made a pact to die.
36. Quotes The Field of Waterloo, by Walter Scott.
37. At this point, Army soldiers enter and interrupt the action.
38. Deerslayer escapes, Hawkeye enters, and the novel ends.




Bleak House
By Charles Dickens

1. Dickens’ novels became fixtures for families by the fireside.
2. This was during a time when “progress” was a major inspiration for members of society.
3. “…the case of Jarndyce and Jarndyce in Bleak House epitomizes the “trickery, evasion, procrastination, spoliation, botheration” of the court.”
4. “Relatively even to this world of ours, which has its limits too…”
5. “Sir Leicester Dedlock is only a baronet, but there is no mightier baronet than he. His family is as old as the hills, and infinitely more respectable.”

6. Sir Leicester “is ceremonious, stately, most polite on every occasion to my Lady, and holds her personal attractions in the highest estimation. His gallantry to my Lady, which has never changed, is the one little touch of kindness in him.”
7. “…for years, now, my Lady Dedlock has been at the centre of the fashionable intelligence, and at the top of the fashionable tree.”
8. “She has a fine face—originally of a character that would be rather called very pretty than handsome, but improved into classicality by the acquired expression of her fashionable state.”
9. “He is surrounded by a mysterious halo of family confidences…”
10. Suggests that it is fun to listen to the Italian Opera.

11. “Is a new dress, a new custom, a new singer, a new dancer, a new form of jewellery, a new chapel, a new anything, to be set up?”
12. The introduction indicates that Dickens displayed a great deal of wit and cleverness at how he put his words together.
13. At the school, of the classmates, “All of them were older than I, to be sure (I was the youngest there by a good deal), but there seemed to be some other separation between us besides that…”
14. In one scene, the young girl entertains her godmother by reading the Bible to her.

1. Describes “fog in the streets of London.”
2. Suggests that if books could speak, they would be very expressive.
3. “…we could hear a drawling sound in the distance…”
4. “…and then he turned to me, and said he took it for granted I knew who Mrs. Jellyby was.”
5. “She has devoted herself to an extensive variety of public subjects, at various times, and is at present, devoted to the subject of Africa…”

6. “I wish I was dead!’ she broke out. ‘I wish we were all dead. It would be a great deal better for us.’”
7. One of the character’s worked “‘til he was as old as Methuselah.”
8. “The little old lady’s hearing was remarkably quick. She answered for herself directly.”
9. One of the character’s could not understand why the birds were singing during the Court proceedings.
10. Describes a child with a “large head” and big eyes.

11. Describes a place “where there was no spring, autumn, nor winter, but perpetual summer.”
12. “Harold Skimpole loves to see the sun shine; loves to hear the wind blow; loves to watch the changing lights and shadows; loves to hear the birds, those choristers in Nature’s great cathedral.”
13. “Very odd and very curious, the mental process is, in you men of business!’ said Mr. Skimpole thoughtfully.”
14. “… I could not expect to be able to reconcile; having so little experience or practical knowledge.”
15. “The rain is ever falling, drip, drip, drip, by day and night, upon the terrace-pavement.”

16. Suggests that some animals may have vivid imaginations.
17. Of the animals in the barn, writes, “The whole seemingly monotonous and un-companionable half-dozen, stabled together, may pass the long wet hours, when the door is shut, in livelier communication than is held in the servants’ hall…”
18. Questions what animals would say if they could speak with voices.
19. Questions how it would look if animals were behind the wheel of a vehicle.
20. “‘I hear the rain-drip on the stones,’ replies the young man.”

21. “The Lawyers have twisted it into such a state of bedevilment that the original merits of the case have long disappeared from the face of the earth.”
22. To be continued.
23. “…I may take the opportunity of remarking that her spectacles were made the less engaging by her eyes being what Ada called…”
24. “…then my young family enroll their contributions, according to their ages and their means…”
25. “That I was inexperienced in the art of adapting my mind to minds very differently situated, and addressing them from suitable points of view.”

1. One of the character’s entertained herself by watching the rain storm outside her window.
2. “…the family took no notice of us whatever, except when the young man made the dog bark: which he usually did when Mrs. Pardiggle was most emphatic.”
3. “No effort had been made to clean the room—it seemed in its nature almost hopeless of being clean…”
4. Illustrates instances when the same dollar that you had gets returned to you, in exactly the same way.
5. “By my soul, Jarndyce,’ returned his guest, who seemed to refer to his watch, ‘if you had been married, I would have turned back at the garden-gate, and gone away to the remotest summits of the Himalaya Mountains, sooner than I would have presented myself at this unseasonable hour.’”

6. “…and he had small occasion to tell us that he was passionately fond of music, for his face showed it…”
7. Chapter Nine - Signs and Tokens
8. "‘I will never mention it,’ said I, ‘unless you should give me future occasion to do so.’"
9. “…the possession, and the only possession, except fifty shillings per annum and a very small box indifferently filled with clothing…”
10. The paintings, “…are in her eyes as the achievements of Raphael...”

11. “once ran right down the middle of Holborn, when Turnstile really was a turnstile…”
12. “Here he is to-day, quiet at his table. An Oyster of the old school, whom nobody can open.”
13. “Mr. Tulkinghorn goes, as the crow came…”
Here, Dickens refers to the idiom “As the crow flies.”
14. “Mr. Snagsby appears: greasy, warm, herbaceous, and chewing.”
15. “‘Nemo!’ repeats Mr. Tulkinghorn. ‘Nemo is Latin for no one.”

16. “He has shown neither patience nor impatience, nor attention nor abstraction.”
17. “…of consideration behind his hand, ‘and she considered Nemo equally the same as Nimrod.”
18. Suggests that an education gives you knowledge of life.
19. To be continued.
20. “Next day the court is all alive…”
Samuel Taylor Coleridge, in one of his poems, describes the day as synonymous with life.
21. “With his tippy tol li doll, tippy tol lo doll, tippy tol li doll, Dee!”
22. Discusses “the angels in Jacob’s dream,” or Jacob’s ladder.
23. “It is habitually hard upon Sir Leicester…in whose aristocratic system it affects a dismal revolution. It is the Radical of Nature to him.”
24. Briefly discusses Prayer-Books.
25. “Sir Leicester and Lady Dedlock, my dear, are not fit subjects for joking.’
’Sir Leicester is no joke by any means,’ says Watt; ‘and I humbly ask his pardon.”

26. Briefly discusses a Frenchwoman “from somewhere in the southern country about Avignon and Marseilles…”
27. Describes a woman who looks like a She-Wolf.
28. “As to this point, and as to some minor topics, there are differences of opinion; but it is perfectly clear to the brilliant and distinguished circle, that…”
29. “ He had been eight years at a public school, and had learnt, I understood, to make Latin Verses…”
30. Suggests that when you are educated in the classics, you “will, no doubt, apply the habits, if not the principles and practice, of versification in that tongue in which a poet was said to be born, not made, to the more eminently practical field of action on which he enters.’”
Here, Dickens suggests that an education in the classics causes you to adopt the ways of the ancients.

31. “…put such a constraint upon me that I did not like to laugh at the play, or to cry at it, or to move or to speak.”
32. “…but Mrs. Badger herself. She was surrounded in the drawing-room by various objects, indicative of her painting a little, playing the piano a little, playing the guitar a little, playing the harp a little, singing a little, working a little, reading a little, writing poetry a little, and botanising a little.”
33. “I am not so weak—no, really,’ said Mr. Badger to us generally, ‘so unreasonable—as to put my reputation on the same footing with such first-rate men as Captain Swosser and Professor Dingo.”
34. “…we have no constitutional objection to being rich. [It] is our right.”
35. “…if I fully accepted the confidence she was so willing to place in me,…”

36. “…we smartened Peepy up a little, with the assistance of a few pins, some soap and water, and a hair-brush; and went out.”
37. “I curtseyed to a little blue-eyed fair man of youthful appearance…”
38. Chapter 14 - Deportment
39. “I almost believe I saw creases come into the whites of his eyes.”
40. “In spite of the man’s absorbing selfishness, his wife had, to the last, believed in him,…”

41. “O!’ said the old lady, apostrophising him with infinite vehemence, ‘I could bite you!’
I could not help being amused, though I heard the old lady out with feelings of real concern."
42. “We do our best to polish—polish—polish!’”
43. “But we are not—if I may say so, to one formed to be graceful both by Nature and Art.”
44. “…I have been called, for some years now, Gentleman Turveydrop; or that His Royal Highness the Prince Regent did me the honour to inquire…”
45. “England—alas, my country!—has degenerated very much, and is degenerating every day. She has not many gentlemen left. We are few.”

46. “One might hope that the race of gentlemen would be perpetuated here,’ said I.”
47. “Shillings. I assure you! Always the same number in the paper. Always one for every day in the week.”
48. Suggests that there are some things that you can only learn from others.
49. “…which she certainly was, strictly speaking; though Mr. Quale meant in intellectual beauty—and…”
50. “It’s a part of the pleasant unconscious poetry of the man’s nature, that he always calls it a “little” bill—to make the payment appear easy to both of us.”

51. “What connexion can there have been between many people in the innumerable histories of this world, who, from opposite sides of great gulfs, have, nevertheless, been very curiously brought together!”
This is a popular quote by Dickens.
52. “And if he did, what would it be to see a woman going by? There are women enough in the world…”
53. “I still felt more and more, how much it was to be regretted that he had been educated in no habits of application and concentration.”
54. “I write down these opinions…because I did think so, and I want to be quite candid about all I thought and did.”
55. “Why, Mr. Carstone,’ said Mrs. Badger, ‘is very well, and is, I assure you, a great acquisition to our society…”

56. “I tried to look at my pet in the wisest manner, but of course I couldn’t.”
57. “Then,’ pursued Richard, ‘it’s monotonous, and to-day is too like yesterday, and to-morrow is too like to-day’.”
58. Causes me to learn more about “yellow fever.”
59. “As the bell was yet ringing and the great people were not yet come, I had leisure to glance over the church, which smelt as earthy as a grave, and to think what a shady, ancient, solemn little church it was.”
60. “This is a sensible fellow. I find him in accord with my digestion and my bilious system…”
61. Causes me to learn more about Milton's cloud, or the expression, “every cloud has a silver lining.”

1. “Sir, we remember your existence when you are not here to remind us of it by your presence. We bestow a fragment of our minds upon you, sir, you see."
2. One character taught his pet parrot not to fear people.
3. The character of some people may be caused by the circumstances surrounding them.
4. "I thought it much to be regretted that Richard’s education had not counteracted those influences."
5. “He had learnt to make Latin Verses of several sorts, in the most admirable manner.”
6. “The more he thought of it, the more he felt that his destiny was clear.”
7. There is a scene in a gentleman's room which is lit only by candle. This scene reminds us that there was a time, before electricity, when candles were the only lights at night.
8. One character "was generally found lying on his back in bed, reading the newspapers, or making fancy sketches in pencil." This is inspiration to draw!

1. There is a character who “always conscientiously moved most efficiently through every step and every part of the house.”
2. One character led a busy life, he had found it “necessary to frequent all public places of fashionable and lounging resort, to be seen almost everywhere at fashionable times, to lead an idle life in the very best clothes.” He admired material things.
3. He was asked whether he felt he conferred an honor on London by residing in it.
4. The man has a son who he spoiled and a friend who pays homage to him. He is also pleased to receive compliments from other characters.
5. “To polish - polish - polish!” was a quote that he often repeated.
6. Suggests that this is related to debutante balls and other social events.

1. "What connections can there have been between many people in the innumerable histories of this world, who, from opposite sides of great gulfs, have, nevertheless, been very curiously brought together!"
2. “He lives - that is to say, he has not yet died - in a ruinous place, known to the likes of him by the name of Hertfordshire.”
3. Of one character’s pet dog writes, “He and Jo listen to the music, probably with much the same amount of satisfaction.”
4. One character speaks, “without the least idea of saying anything offensive.”
5. Of one character writes, “I still felt how much it was to be regretted that he had been educated in no habits of application and concentration.”
1. In one scene, Dickens writes, “He spoke in a regretful tone so new to me.”
2. Mentions a figure named Crumlinwallinwer and a poem, Mewlinnwillinwodd.
3. “For he is, by Heaven! the most self-satisfied and the shallowest, and the most absurd and completely brainless person I’ve ever met!”
4. Suggests that the concept of singing airs, involves singing them in the open air.
5. Discusses a hall, “where nightingales might sing.”

1. “My friends, why do I wish for peace? What is peace? Is it war? No. Is it strife? No. Is it lovely, and gentle, and beautiful, and pleasant, and serene, and joyful? O yes! Therefore, my friends, I wish for peace, upon you and upon yours.”
2. Suggests that an addition to Tolstoy’s quote, “…and then there was the sky,” can be, “and God created the sky, heaven and earth.”
3. Omitted.
4. ”You are to us a pearl, you are to us a diamond, you are to us a gem, you are to us a jewel.” And why, my young friend?” ”I don’t know," replies Jo. “I don’t nothink.”
5. Suggests that everything moves to some purpose and to some end.
6. “What Mr. Weevle prizes most, of all his few possessions, is a choice collection of copper plates from that truly national work, The Divinities of Albion.”
7. “The name of this pagan’s God was Compound Interest. He broke something — it couldn’t have been his heart..."
8. "Don’t you read, or get read to?”
9. “Tune!” replies the old man. “No. We never have tunes here.”

1. Omitted.
2. One character says, “I had a fancy, that what this lady was to me, I was to her.”
3. Of one character, the narrator writes, “He proved this to himself by all the weary arguments on that side he had read, and every one of them sunk him deeper in the infatuation.”
4. Through the dialogues in this novel Dickens may be suggesting that it is okay to use your own voice in communication.
5. Suggests that sometimes it is difficult to resist another’s prayer.
6. Suggests that religion comprises large measures on a vast scale.

1. “Byegones shall be byegones, and a new page turned for you to write your lives in.”
2. "…leave all else to time, truth, and steadfastness.”
3. "'I don't know,' he said, as he looked at me, 'what it is that sets me off again - but - bosh, what's my head running against.'"
4. "'He is very weak,' said the gentleman, in a low voice. 'Is he?' returned Bucket, anxiously. 'I only want to rouse him. I don't like to see an old acquaintance giving in like this.'"
1. "“My esteemed Boythorn”—to make you the personification of our imaginary friend…”
2. “I take it that my business in the social system is to be agreeable; I take it that everybody’s business in the social system is to be agreeable. It’s a system of harmony, in short. Therefore if you object, I object.”
3. Mr. Skimpole, “then betook himself to beginning some sketch in the park which he never finished, or to playing fragments of airs on the piano, or to singing scraps of songs, or to lying down on his back under a tree…”
4. “'Enterprise and effort,’ he would say to us (on his back), ‘are delightful to me.’”
5. In one scene writes, “the two weathered the storm.”

6. While watching the storm, “It was grand to see how the wind awoke, and bent the trees, and drove the rain before it like a cloud of smoke; and to hear the solemn thunder, and to see the lightning; and while thinking with awe of the tremendous powers by which our little lives are encompassed, to consider how beneficent they are, and how upon the smallest flower and leaf there was already a freshness poured from all this seeming rage, which seemed to make creation new again.”
7. “There was something very winning in her manner; and it became more familiar—as she spoke to him over her shoulder.
8. “Ages have passed since we were in the habit of meeting, Mr. Jarndyce.’
’A long time. At least I thought it was a long time, until I saw you last Sunday,’ he returned.”
9. “Still, very steadfastly and quietly walking towards it, a peaceful figure too in the landscape, went Mademoiselle Hortense, shoeless, through the wet grass.”
10. “How England can get on through four long summer months without its bar...is beside the question, assuredly that shield and buckler of Britannia are not in present wear."

11. “The learned gentleman who does the withering business, and who blights all opponents with his gloomy sarcasm, is as merry as a grig at a French watering-place.”
12. “The learned gentleman…has not shed a tear these six weeks,” he has kept his cool.
13. “Other dispersed fragments… are to be found on the canals of Venice, at the second cataract of the Nile, in the baths of Germany, and sprinkled on the sea-sand all over the English coast.”
14. Suggests that a pleasant shop or restaurant can be a sanctuary to a distant traveler.
15. “The expected guests are rather select than numerous…”

16. “…the best tea-service is set forth, and there is excellent provision made of dainty new bread, crusty twists, cool fresh butter, thin slices of ham, German sausage, and delicate little rows of anchovies nestling in parsley…”
17. “What’s time,’ says Mrs. Snagsby, ‘to eternity?’”
18. “My friends,’ says Mr. Chadband, ‘Peace be on this house! On the master thereof, on the mistress thereof, on the young maidens, and on the young men! My friends, why do I wish for peace? What is peace? Is it war? No. Is it strife? No. Is it lovely and gentle, and beautiful, and pleasant, and serene, and joyful? O yes! Therefore, my friends, I wish for peace, upon you and upon yours.’”
19. “Do we need refreshment then, my friends? We do. And why do we need refreshment, my friends? Because we are but mortal, because we are but sinful, because we are but of the earth, because we are not of the air.”
20. “May this house live upon the fatness of the land; may food be plentiful therein; may it grow, may it thrive, may it prosper, may it advance, may it proceed, may it press forward! But, my friends, have we partaken of anything else? We have. My friends, of what else have we partaken? Of spiritual profit? Yes. From whence have we derived that spiritual profit? My young friend, stand forth!’”

21. “If he be ever asked how, why, when, or wherefore, he shuts up one eye and shakes his head.”
22. “On the strength of these profound views, he in the most ingenious manner takes infinite pains to counterplot, when there is no plot; and plays the deepest games of chess without any adversary.”
23. Suggests that people sometimes look like animals: cats, birds, rodents, etc.
24. Reminds us that we are mortal, and have human needs.
25. "He is honoured with Mr. Guppy’s particular confidence, and occasionally advises him, from the deep wells of his experience, on difficult points in private life.”

26. “…Smallweed; of whom it may be remarked that he is a weird changeling, to whom years are nothing. He stands precociously possessed of centuries of owlish wisdom.”
27. “And don’t you forget the stuffing, Polly,’ (with an unearthly cock of his venerable eye)…”
28. “Quickly the waitress returns, bearing what is apparently a model of the tower of Babel, but what is really pile of plates and flat tin dish-covers.”
29. Mr. Smallweed, approving of what is set before him, conveys intelligent benignity into his ancient eye, and winks upon her
30. “Will you take any other vegetables? Grass? Peas? Summer cabbage?”
31. “That very popular trust in flat things coming round! Not in their being beaten round, or worked round, but in their ‘coming’ round! As though a lunatic should trust in the world’s ‘coming’ triangular!”
32. There is a passage where one of the characters asks of another, "How did he die? Was it by deliberate methods, or was it by accident, unintentional?"
33. “After the rain, she walked shoeless in the grass.”

1. Suggests that there is a “stupor” between wake and sleep.
2. “If this is his regular sleep,’ returns Jobling, rather alarmed, ‘it’ll last a long time one of these days, I am thinking.’
'It’s always more like a fit than a nap,' says Mr. Guppy..."
3. "...he seems to all intents and purposes as insensible as before."
4. Refers to the Hobgoblin. "The Hobgoblin plays the same role as the bears in “Goldilocks and the Three Bears.”"
5. “You’re a nobleman, sir,’ returns Krook, with another taste—and his hot breath seems to come towards them like a flame.”

6. Suggests that it is more noble to be educated.
7. There is one character, who despite being an “old dog,” can still “represent."
8. Of another character, writes, "...Smallweed, christened Bartholomew, and known on the domestic hearth as Bart…”
9. “Little old men and women there have been, but no child, until Mr. Smallweed’s grandmother…Mr. Smallweed’s grandmother has undoubtedly brightened the family."
10. “The name of this old pagan’s God was Compound Interest. He lived for it, married it, died of it…he broke something—something necessary to his existence; therefore it couldn’t have been his heart—and made an end of his career.”

11. “…he had been bred at a Charity School, in a complete course, according to question and answer, of those ancient people the Amorites and Hittites…”
12. "...does not present a very animated appearance, until he has undergone the two operations at the hands of his grand-daughter..."
13. "She is so indubitably sister to Mr. Smallweed the younger, that the two kneaded into one would hardly make a young person of average proportions..."
14. "He knows no more of Jack the Giant Killer, or of Sinbad the Sailor, than he knows of the people in the stars. He could as soon play at leap-frog, or at cricket, as change into a cricket or a frog himself.”
15. “Some time elapses, in the present instance, before the old gentleman is sufficiently cool to resume his discourse; and [then he]…”

16. “You are an old pig. You are a brimstone pig. You’re a head of swine!”
17. “When I am gone, Judy will go back to the flower business, and you’ll still stick to the law.”
18. “Charley…sits down to her basin and a ruin of bread-and-butter.”
19. “Her systematic manner of flying at her and pouncing on her, with or without pretence, whether or no, is wonderful…”
20. “Don’t say yes,’ returns Miss Smallweed, ‘for I know what you girls are. Do it without saying it, and then I may begin to believe you.’”

21. “…but for a knock at the door. ‘See who it is, and don’t chew when you open it!’ cries Judy.”
22. “Ho! It’s you!’ cries the old gentleman. ‘How de do? How de do?’
’Middling,’ replies Mr. George”
23. “He is like his sister. He is very like his sister. He is devilish like his sister,’ says Mr. George, laying a great and not altogether complimentary stress on his last adjective.”
24. “…his sounding voice, and their sharp spare tones; are in the strongest and the strangest opposition.”
25. “‘Do you rub your legs to rub life into ’em?‘ he asks of Grandfather Smallweed, after looking round the room.
’Why, it’s partly a habit, Mr. George, and—yes—it partly helps the circulation,’ he replies.
’The cir-cu-la-tion!’ repeats Mr. George, folding his arms upon his chest..."

26. “Truly I’m old, Mr. George,’ says Grandfather Smallweed. ‘But I can carry my years.’”
27. “‘Unlucky old soul!’ says Mr. George.”
28. “‘However,’ Mr. George resumes, ‘the less said about it, the better now.’”
29. “As the old man inspects, through his glasses, every up-stroke and down-stroke of both documents, before he releases them from their leathern prison; and as he counts the money three times over, and requires Judy to say every word she utters at least twice, and is as tremulously slow of speech and action as it is possible to be; this business is a long time in progress.
30. "When it is quite concluded, and not before, he disengages his ravenous eyes and fingers from it, and answers Mr. George’s last remark by saying, ‘Afraid to order the pipe? We are not so mercenary as that, sir…'”

31. “The sportive twins, who have been looking straight before them all this time, except when they have been engrossed by the black leathern cases, retire together…”
32. "There’s not much to choose between your two states,’ says the visitor, in a key too low for the old man’s dull hearing, as he looks from him to the old woman and back again. ‘I say!’ in a louder voice."
33. “Never, my dear friend! But my friend in the city that I got to lend you the money—he might!’”
34. “You give the house almost a wholesome look. It wants a bit of youth as much as it wants fresh air.’ Then he dismisses her, lights his pipe, and drinks to Mr. Smallweed’s friend in the city…”
35. “That Houri appearing, shakes him up in the usual manner…”

36. “Suggests that the novel’s title is due to the fact that the house of the protagonists in the novel had been dreary, depressed and “bleak” for quite some time.
37. "That’s the Dead March in Saul. They bury soldiers to it; so it’s the natural end of the subject.”
38. “He stops by Waterloo Bridge, and reads a playbill; decides to go to Astley’s Theatre.”
39. Briefly discusses “skillful and unskillful swordsmanship.”
40. Briefly discusses “the Union Jack."
🇺🇸 Reminds us that nicknames the for the U.S. flag include "the Stars and Stripes", "Old Glory", and "the Star-Spangled Banner".
41. Briefly discusses “the British art of boxing.”

42. Chapter 22 - Mr. Bucket
43. “You’re a man of the world, you know, and a man of business, and a man of sense. That’s what you are.’”
44. "Now, it an’t necessary to say to a man like you, engaged in your business, which is a business of trust and requires a person to be wide awake and have his senses about him, and his head screwed on tight -- it an’t necessary to say to a man like you, that it’s the best and wisest way to keep little matters like this quiet. Don’t you see? Quiet"
Here, Dickens is suggesting that it is best to be free of drugs and be wide awake and have your senses about you.
45. “Now, what you want,’ pursues Bucket,…‘is, that every person should have their rights according to justice. That’s what you want.’”
46. “Look at the boy you’re waiting for, who’s gone out to do me a good turn…you train him respectable, and he’ll be a comfort to you, and look after you in your old age, you know."
47. To be continued.

1. “…Mr. Bucket for a little private confabulation, tells his tale satisfactorily, though out of breath.”
2. “But, however, here’s five shillings for you. Take care how you spend it, and don’t get yourself into trouble.”
3. “A word from Mr. Tulkinghorn is so powerful.’—‘It shall not be wanting, Mademoiselle.’”
4. “…and if I can be of no further use, Mr. Tulkinghorn, I think, as my little woman will be getting anxious—“
5. "But, as the little woman feelingly says, many thanks she gets for it!"

6. “There was company at Chesney Wold; and although several beautiful faces surrounded her, her face retained the same influence on me as at first.”
7. “I think I admired her with a kind of fear; and I know that in her presence my thoughts always wandered back, as they had done at first, to that old time of my life.”
8. “Indeed, I felt the whole state of my mind in reference to her to be weak and unreasonable; and I remonstrated with myself about it as much as I could.”
9. “Mademoiselle, I wish with all my heart to serve you. Do not speak of money at present. Take me as I am. For nothing!”
10. “He told us how he saw Miss Flite there daily; how they talked together, and how he did her little kindnesses; and how, while he laughed at her, he pitied her from his heart.”

11. “You are kinder to me than I often am to myself,’ he returned.”
12. “…before I quite knew the difference between a suit at law and a suit of clothes…”
13. “…but it only makes me joyful, for you are the first friend I ever had, and the best friend I ever can have, and nobody can respect …”
14. “My dear son,’ said Mr. Turveydrop, ‘you have four schools this afternoon. I would recommend a hasty sandwich.’”
15. “O dear me, Caddy,’ cried Mrs. Jellyby, who had relapsed into that distant contemplation, ‘have you begun again? Bring whom?’”

16. “I did not wish them to be any wiser, and indeed was half ashamed of not entirely believing in him myself.”
17. “They were so glad to see me when I got home, as they always were, that I could have sat down and cried for joy, if that had not been a method of making myself disagreeable.”
18. “Everybody in the house, from the lowest to the highest, showed me such a bright face of welcome, and spoke so cheerily, and was so happy to do anything for me, that I suppose there never was such a fortunate little creature in the world.”
19. “We got into such a chatty state that night, through Ada and my guardian drawing me out to tell them all about Caddy, that I went on prose, prose, prosing, for a length of time."
20. “‘Don’t cry, if you please, miss!’
’I can’t help it, Charley.’

21. Of one character writes, “I knew him when he was sick, and well; I knew him when he was poor, and rich.”
22. "I never could have been set right without you, sir.”
23. “It is not likely that either Richard or I can ever forget your kindness, that day, cousin John.”
24. "But what I have of certainty, sir,’ said Richard, ‘is not all I have.’”
25. "Come, come, my young cousins, begin afresh! Bygones shall be bygones, and a new page turned for you to write your lives in.”

26. “Leave all else to time, truth, and steadfastness.”
27. "He passed one of his heavy hands over his crisp dark hair, as if to sweep the broken thoughts out of his mind; and sat a little forward, with one arm akimbo and the other resting on his leg, looking in a brown study at the ground.”
28. “…some of those who were present, dozed; some read the newspapers; some walked about, or whispered in groups: all seemed perfectly at their ease, by no means in a hurry, very unconcerned, and extremely comfortable.”
29. “When we had been there half an hour or so, the case in progress—if I may use a phrase so ridiculous in such a connexion—seemed to die out of its own vapidity, without coming, or being by anybody expected to come, to any result.”
30. “Shall I tell her?’ said I.
’Would you be so good?’ he returned,…”

1. “He says they can feel for one another, and she has been almost as good as a friend to him here.”
This statement perhaps is about karma, or the power that two entertainers who get along well with each other possess.
2. “He is in there, you know,’pointing; ‘that’s where he is—on a sofy.”
3. “…but you know me, and you know I don’t want to take any uncomfortable measures.”
4. Briefly discusses the legend of William Tell.
5. “A table and some shelves were covered with manuscript papers, and with worn pens, and a medley of such tokens.”

6. “It may seem strange to you, sir,’ returned Gridley; ‘I should not have liked to see you, if this had been the first time of our meeting. But you know I made a fight for it, you know I stood up with my single hand against them all, you know I told them the truth to the last, and…”
7. “…until I died of some bodily disorder. But I am worn out. How long I have been wearing out, I don’t know; I seemed to break down in an hour…”
8. “After dodging me for all these weeks, and forcing me to climb the roof here like a Tom Cat, and to come to see you as a Doctor?”
9. “Now I tell you what you want. You want excitement, you know, to keep you up; that’s what you want. You’re used to it, and you can’t do without it.”
10. “But, to me, the shadow of that pair, one living and one dead, fell heavier on Richard’s departure, than the darkness of the darkest night.”

11. "Of all my old associations, of all my old pursuits and hopes, of all the living and the dead world, this one poor soul alone comes natural to me, and I am fit for."
12. CHAPTER 25 - Mrs. Snagsby sees it all
13. “For which reason, whenever a man unknown comes into the shop (as many men unknown do), and says, ‘Is Mr. Snagsby in?’ or words to that innocent effect, Mr. Snagsby’s heart knocks hard at his guilty breast.”
14. “Mrs. Snagsby is so perpetually on the alert, that the house becomes ghostly with creaking boards and rustling garments. The ‘prentices think somebody may have been murdered there, in bygone times.”
15. “Why else should that look pass between them, why else should Mr. Snagsby be confused, and cough a signal cough behind his hand? It is as clear as crystal that Mr. Snagsby is that boy’s father.”

16. “Peace be with us! My friends, why with us? Because,’ with his fat smile, ‘it cannot be against us, because it must be for us; because it is not hardening, because it is softening; because it does not make war like the hawk, but comes home untoe us like the dove. Therefore, my friends, peace be with us!”
17. “…occasional grunt, groan, gasp, or other audible expression of inward working…”
18. "It is,’ says Chadband, ‘the ray of rays, the sun of suns, the moon of moons, the star of stars. It is the light of Terewth.’"
19. "Mr. Chadband ’Improving’ a Tough Subject yet more disconcerted; and is in a very advanced state of low spirits and false position, when Mr. Chadband accidentally finishes him.”
20. "...if I am told by the doctor that calomel or castor-oil is good for me, I may naturally ask what is calomel, and what is castor-oil. I may wish to be informed of that, before I dose myself with either or with both.”

21. “…if the master of this house was to go forth into the city and there see an eel, and was to come back, and was to call untoe him the mistress of this house, and was to say, “Sarah, rejoice with me, for I have seen an elephant!” would that be Terewth?’”
22. “But down-stairs is the charitable Guster, holding by the handrail of the kitchen stairs, and warding…”
23. “She has her own supper of bread and cheese to hand to Jo; with whom she ventures to interchange a word or so, for the first time.”
24. CHAPTER 26 - Sharpshooters
25. “He smokes gravely, and marches in slow time.”

26. “Governor and Commander are interchangeable terms with Phil, expressive of the same respect and deference, and applicable to nobody but Mr. George.”
27. Suggests that you can scarcely recognize any day of the year without the aid of a calendar.
28. “Mr. George, who has put aside his pipe and sits with an arm on his chair-back, beats a tattoo on the ground with his right foot, as if he were not particularly pleased with the turn the conversation has taken.”
29. “…as if he had an acceptable commission to carry the old gentleman to the nearest volcano.”

1. CHAPTER 27 - More Old Soldiers than One
2. “Mr.George has not far to ride with folded arms upon the box, for their destination is Lincoln’s Inn Fields.”
Suggests that Lincoln was a common last name in England.
3. “He is borne into Mr. Tulkinghorn’s great room, and deposited on the Turkey rug before the fire.”
4. “He looks up at the painted ceiling, looks round at the old law-books, contemplates the portraits of the great clients, reads aloud the names on the boxes.”
5. “Therefore you may happen to have in your possession something—anything, no matter what…”

6. “I wish to compare his writing with some that I have. If you can give me the opportunity, you shall be rewarded for your trouble. Three, four, five, guineas, you would consider handsome, I dare say”
7. “Mr. George looks distrustfully from the painted ceiling to the ground, from the ground to Mr. Smallweed, from Mr. Smallweed to Mr. Tulkinghorn, and from Mr. Tulkinghorn to the painted ceiling again; often in his perplexity changing the leg on which he rests.”
8. “I have no head for papers, sir. I can stand any fire better than a fire of cross questions…by a friend of mine, who has a better head for business than I have…”
9. Mr. George indicates that he was smothered (with work) at work.
10. “In a moment, my dear friend, in a moment. Will you first let me speak half a word with this gentleman, in private?”

11. “Mr. Tulkinghorn, with some shadowy sign of amusement manifesting itself through his self-possession, stands on the hearth-rug with his back to the fire, watching the disappearance of Mr. Smallweed, and acknowledging the trooper’s parting salute with one slight nod.”
12. “‘The nature of the animal, I suppose,’ returns the trooper good-humouredly.”
13. “…without first partaking of boiled pork and greens.”
14. “It was the old girl that brought out my musical abilities.”
15. “Proceeding to converse on indifferent matters they walk up and down the little street, keeping step and time…”

16. “Mrs. Bagnet develops an exact system; sitting with every dish before her; allotting to every portion of pork its own portion of pot-liquor, greens, potatoes, and even mustard! and serving it out complete.”
17. “Mrs. Bagnet proceeds to satisfy her own hunger, which is in a healthy state.”
18. “That old girl reappearing by-and-by, quite fresh, and sitting down to her needlework, then and only then—the…”
19. “…the plain rule, is to do nothing in the dark, to be a party to nothing underhanded or mysterious, and never to put his foot where he cannot see the ground.”
20. “…on that exceptional occasion, and to have a talk over old times with the whole Bagnet family, according to their various ranges of experience.”

21. “…but the trooper not knowing much about outer doors, and the staircase being dark besides, he is yet fumbling and groping about, hoping to discover a bell-handle or to open the door for himself…”
23. “A pretty character to bear,’ the trooper growls with a hasty oath, as he strides down-stairs. ‘A threatening, murderous, dangerous fellow!’”
24. “But he whistles that off, like the rest of it; and marches home to the Shooting Gallery.”
25. To be continued.

1. CHAPTER 28 - The Ironmaster
2. In this chapter, we are introduced to Volumnia Dedlock. “Of these, foremost in the front rank stands Volumnia Dedlock, a young lady (of sixty) who is doubly highly related; having the honour to be a poor relation, by the mother’s side, to another great family.”
3. “…this was the first clear indication Sir Leicester Dedlock had conveyed to him, that the country was going to pieces.”
4. “The rest of the cousins are ladies and gentlemen of various ages and capacities; the major part, amiable and sensible, and likely to have done well enough in life if they could have overcome their cousinship…and seem to be quite as much at a loss how to dispose of themselves, as anybody else can be how to dispose of them."
5. “In this society, and where not, my Lady Dedlock reigns supreme. Beautiful, elegant, accomplished, and powerful in her little world (for the world of fashion does not stretch all the way from pole to pole), her influence in Sir Leicester’s house, however haughty and indifferent her manner, is greatly to improve it and refine it.”

6. “The cousins, even those older cousins who were paralysed when Sir Leicester married her, do her feudal homage…”
7. “Bedroom candlesticksle bristle on the distant table by the door, and cousins yawn on ottomans. Cousins at the piano, cousins at the soda-water tray, cousins rising from the card-table, cousins gathered round the fire. Standing on one side of his own peculiar fire (for there are two), Sir Leicester.”
8. “‘I occasionally meet on my staircase here,’ drawls Volumnia, whose thoughts perhaps are already hopping up it to bed…”
9. “I thought so. I felt sure that some uncommon eye must have picked that girl out. She really is a marvel. A dolly sort of beauty, perhaps,’ says Miss Volumnia…”
10. “Sir Leicester is content enough that the ironmaster should feel that there is no hurry there; there, in that ancient house, rooted in that quiet park, where the ivy and the moss have had time to mature, and the gnarled and warted elms, and the umbrageous oaks, stand deep in the fern and leaves of a hundred years…”

11. “You like to have her about you, as you would like to have a flower, or a bird, or a picture, or a poodle--no, not a poodle, though—or anything else that was equally pretty?”
12. “All Sir Leicester’s old misgivings relative to Wat Tyler, and the people in the iron districts who do nothing but turn out by torchlight, come in a shower upon his head: the fine grey hair of which, as well as of his whiskers, actually stirs with indignation.”
13. “She is one of those examples—perhaps as good a one as there is—of love, and attachment, and fidelity in such a station, which England may well be proud of…”
14. “‘I have been,’ proceeds the visitor, in a modest clear way, ‘an apprentice, and a workman. I have lived on workman’s wages, years and years, and beyond a certain point have had to educate myself.”
15. “All this is so frequent, Lady Dedlock, where I live, and among the class to which I belong, that what would be generally called unequal marriages are not of such rare occurrence with us as elsewhere.”

16. “I know of several cases such as I describe, my Lady, and I think they indicate to me my own course now.”
17. “‘Mr. Rouncewell,’ says Sir Leicester…do you draw a parallel between Chesney Wold, and a———’ here he resists a disposition to choke ‘a factory?’”
18. “From the village school of Chesney Wold, intact as it is this minute, to the whole framework of society: from the whole framework of society, to the aforesaid framework receiving tremendous cracks in consequence of people (ironmasters, lead-mistresses, and what not) not minding their catechism, and getting out of the station unto which they are called—necessarily and for ever, according to Sir Leicester’s rapid logic, the first station in which they happen to find themselves…”
19. “Beyond this, we can make no terms; and here we beg—if you will be so good—to leave the subject.”
20. “As to Volumnia, she is handed down the great staircase by Sir Leicester, as eloquent upon the theme…”

21. “…so that the ticking of the clocks and the crisp burning of the fires alone disturb the stillness in the rooms…”
22. “And Sir Leicester is glad to repose in dignified contentment before the great fire in the library, condescendingly perusing the backs of his books, or honouring the fine arts with a glance of approbation. For he has his pictures, ancient and modern.”
23. “I am, as I told your ladyship in my first letter, in the law. Being in the law, I have learnt the habit of not committing myself in writing, and therefore I did not mention to your ladyship the name of the firm with which I am connected, and in which my standing—and I may add income—is tolerably good.”
24. “Mr. Guppy going to the window, tumbles into a pair of love-birds, to whom he says in his confusion, ‘I beg your pardon, I am sure.’”
25. “Young man of the name of Guppy! There have been times, when ladies lived in strongholds, and had unscrupulous attendants within call, when that poor life of yours would not have been worth a minute’s purchase…”

26. “Now, as I have already mentioned to your ladyship, Miss Summerson’s image is imprinted on my art.”
27. “Your ladyship must know—if your ladyship don’t happen, by any chance, to know already—that there was found dead at the house of a person named Krook, near Chancery Lane, some time ago, a law-writer in great distress...But, your ladyship, I have discovered very lately, that that law-writer’s name was Hawdon."
28. “It was supposed, your ladyship, that he left no rag or scrap behind him by which he could be possibly identified.”
29. “If you think there’s enough, in this chain of circumstances put together—in the undoubted strong likeness of this young lady to your ladyship…”
30. “No. Words, sobs, and cries, are but air; and air is so shut in and shut out throughout the house in town, that sounds need be uttered…to carry any faint vibration to Sir Leicester’s ears.”
31. CHAPTER 30 - Esther’s Narrative
32. Mrs. Woodcourt visits Bleak House. “She stayed with us nearly three weeks.”
33. “Nor can it have been the general expression of her face, which was very sparkling and pretty for an old lady.”
34. “Sometimes she recited a few verses from Crumlinwallinwer and the Mewlinwillinwodd (if those are the right names, which I dare say they are not), and would become quite fiery with the sentiments they expressed. Though I never knew what they were (being in Welsh), further than that they were highly eulogistic of the lineage of Morgan ap Kerrig.”
35. “‘So, Miss Summerson,’ she would say to me with stately triumph, ‘this, you see, is’ the fortune inherited by my son. Wherever my son goes, he can claim kindred with Ap Kerrig. He may not have money, but he always has what is much better—family, my dear.’”

36. “I had my doubts of their caring so very much for Morgan ap Kerrig, in India and China; but of course I never expressed them.”
37. “It was in vain for me to try to change the subject, as I used to try—only for the sake of novelty—or perhaps because—but I need not be so particular. Mrs. Woodcourt never would let me change it.”
38. “'My dear,’ she said one night, ‘you have so much sense, and you look at the world in a quiet manner so superior to your time of life, that it is a comfort to me to talk to you about these family matters of mine.'"
39. Briefly discusses the qualities of a good friend.
40. “…without succeeding in understanding them; and had given up everything he possessed (which was not worth much, I should think, to judge from the state of the furniture)…”

41. “Caddy had brought about a meeting between him and old Mr. Turveydrop; and poor Mr. Jellyby, being very humble and meek, had deferred to Mr. Turveydrop’s Deportment so submissively, that they had become excellent friends…”
42. “My poor girl, you have not been very well taught how to make a home for your husband; but unless you mean with all your heart to strive to do it, you had better murder him than marry him—if you really love him.”
43. “‘Yes,’ said Caddy, ‘Wild Indians. And Pa said,’—(here she began to sob, poor girl, not at all like the happiest girl in the world)…”
44. “Now, Mercy upon us! the idea of her learning housekeeping of a person of my vast experience was such a joke, that I laughed, and coloured up, and fell into a comical confusion when she proposed it.”
45. “But such wonderful things came tumbling out of the closets when they were opened—bits of mouldy pie, sour bottles, Mrs. Jellyby’s caps, letters, tea, forks, odd boots and shoes of children, firewood, wafers, saucepanlids, damp sugar in odds and ends of paper bags, footstools, blacklead brushes, bread, Mrs. Jellyby’s bonnets, books with butter sticking to the binding, guttered candle-ends put out by being turned upside down in broken candlesticks, nutshells, heads and tails of shrimps, dinner-mats, gloves, coffee-grounds, umbrellas—that he looked frightened, and left off again.”

46. “…until we brought Prince up to fetch her away—when, I am sorry to say, Peepy bit him.”
47. "...Miss Wisk informed us, with great indignation, before we sat down to breakfast, that the idea of woman’s mission lying chiefly in the narrow sphere of Home was an outrageous slander on the part of her Tyrant, Man."
48. "Her father released her, took out his pocket-handerchief, and sat down on the stairs with his head against the wall.”
49. “My dear son,’ said Mr. Turveydrop, ‘and dear daughter, I have done my duty. If the spirit of a sainted Wooman hovers above us, and looks down on the occasion, that, and your constant affection, will be my recompense.”
50. CHAPTER 31 - Nurse and Patient

51. "Did you know another poor person of the name of Liz, miss?”
52. “'I know no more, ma’am, than the dead,‘ she replied, glancing compassionately at him. ’Perhaps the dead know better, if they could only tell us.'"
53. To be continued.
54. "And my head’s all sleepy, and all a-going mad-like—and I’m so dry—and my bones isn’t half so much bones as pain."
55. "The other woman came hurriedly in as she spoke, and the boy got up with a half-obscured sense that he was expected to be going."

56. "...until it appeared to me as if both must have been appointed for their skill in evading their duties, instead of performing them."
57. "They put a few halfpence together, and hurried them into his hand, and so, in an oblivious, half-thankful, half-insensible way, he shuffled out of the house."
58. "You’ll say it’s childish,’ observed Mr. Skimpole, looking gaily at us."
59. "Well, I dare say it may be; but I am a child, and I never pretend to be anything else."
60. "In the meantime,’ I ventured to observe, ‘he is getting worse.’"

61. Reminds us that lemonade is a mixture of water, sugar, and lemons.
According to one recipe I that I found on Google, "For 1 gallon of water, use 8 to 12 lemons and 2 cups of sugar."
62. "...he had accepted himself with all his failings, and had thought it sound philosophy to make the best of the bargain; and he hoped we would do the same."
63. "...the two women were particularly questioned, but they knew nothing of him, and nobody could doubt that their wonder was genuine."
64. "Hedge and ditch, and wall, and rick and stack, were examined by our men for a long distance round, lest the boy should be lying in such a place insensible or dead..."
65. "...as I sat opposite to her at work, I felt the table tremble. Looking up, I saw my little maid shivering from head to foot.
'Charley,’ said I, ‘are you so cold?’
‘I think I am, miss,’ she replied."

66. “I turned the two rooms into one, now that Ada had vacated that part of the house, and kept them always fresh and airy.”
67. “Through her means, I got out to take the air with my guardian, when there was no fear of meeting Ada…”
68. “And Charley did not die. She flutteringly and slowly turned the dangerous point, after long lingering there, and then began to mend.”
69. "I have a very indistinct remembrance of that night melting into day, and of day melting into night again; but I was just able, on the first morning, to get to the window, and speak to my darling."
70. CHAPTER 32 - The Appointed Time

71. "Even now, coming round by the Sol’s Arms with the intention of passing down the court, and out at the Chancery Lane end, and so terminating his unpremeditated after-supper stroll of ten minutes long from his own door and back again, Mr. Snagsby approaches."
72. "‘Airing yourself, as I am doing, before you go to bed?’ the stationer inquires.
‘Why, there’s not much air to be got here; and what there is is not very freshening,’ Weevle answers, glancing up and down the court."
73. "'Seems a Fate in it, don’t there?’ suggests the stationer.
'Just so,’ observes the stationer, with his confirmatory cough. ‘Quite a Fate in it. Quite a Fate."
74. "Selling matches; thus, gaining hardly more than a pauper’s living."
75. "‘I wish it was,’ growls Tony, without changing his position. ‘I should have some fashionable conversation here, then.’"

76. "At twelve....he can’t read yet, can he?"
77. "He never spelt it out. You know what a curious power of eye he has, and how he has been used to employ himself in copying things by eye alone."
78. "Comes back, and says it’s all right, and all quiet; and quotes the remark he lately made to Mr. Snagsby, about their cooking chops at the Sol’s Arms."
79. "It’s far from a pleasant thing to be plotting about a dead man in the room where he died, especially when you happen to live in it."
Suggests that it is simply a fact of life that sometimes men die at home. He also suggests that perhaps a hospital is only two steps up from a house.
80. “Now do they note down, in the watches of the night, how the neighbourhood of Chancery Lane was yesterday, at about midnight, thrown into a state of the most intense agitation and excitement by the following alarming and horrible discovery. Now do they set forth how it will doubtless be remembered…”

81. "...a case of mysterious death from opium occurring in the first floor of the house occupied as a rag, bottle, and general marine store shop, by an eccentric individual of intemperate habits...a well-conducted tavern, immediately adjoining the premises in question, on the west side, and licensed to a highly respectable landlord..."
82. "...has himself stated to our reporter that he mentioned to Miss M. Melvilleson, a lady of some pretensions to musical ability..."
83. "...found his voice seriously affected by the impure state of the atmosphere..."
84. "Thus entreated, the two gentlemen (Mr. Weevle especially) put names to so many things that in course of time they find it difficult to put a name to anything quite distinctly."
85. Reminds us of a time when rogues sold matchsticks by the singles to earn a few shillings.

86. "You know it is professionally arranged beforehand, in all cases that are tried, what facts the witnesses are to prove. Is it, or is it not, desirable that we should know what facts we are to prove, on the inquiry into the death of this unfortunate old Mo———gentleman?"
87. "'No,’ returns his friend; ‘if it’s nothing worse than this, I withdraw the observation.’"
88. "Then the possibility, or probability—for such it must be considered—of your never being disturbed in possession of those effects, lately belonging to a lone old man who seemed to have no relation in the world..."
89. "‘My dear friends,’ whines Grandfather Smallweed, putting out both his hands, ‘I owe you a thousand thanks for discharging the melancholy office of discovering the ashes of Mrs. Smallweed’s brother.’"
90. "...and up-stairs into Miss Flite’s deserted room, where he looks like a hideous bird of prey newly added to her aviary."

91. "...reprinted in the sixth volume of the Philosophical Transactions; and also of a book not quite unknown, on English Medical Jurisprudence..."
92. CHAPTER 34 - A Turn of the Screw
93. "An open letter is the subject of the trooper’s speculations, and it seems to perplex him mightily. He looks at it at arm’s length, brings it close to him, holds it in his right hand, holds it in his left hand, reads it with his head on this side, with his head on that side, contracts his eyebrows, elevates them; still, cannot satisfy himself He smooths it out upon the table with his heavy palm, and thoughtfully walking up and down the gallery, makes a halt before it every now and then, to come upon it with a fresh eye. Even that won’t do. ’Is it,’ Mr. George still muses, ’blank cartridge or ball?’"
94. "...and would not so much as injure a hair of the head of any member of that worthy family, when steps are audible in the long passage without..."
95. "The latter faithful appendage is also invariably a part of the old girl’s presence out of doors. It is of no colour known in this life, and has a corrugated wooden crook for a handle..."
Here, perhaps Dickens is reminding us of the limited number of colors in the world.

96. "I couldn’t have believed you would have done it! I always knew you to be a rolling stone that gathered no moss..."
97. "Old girl,’ murmurs Mr. Bagnet, ‘give him another bit of my mind.’
‘George,’ says the old girl, ‘you are not so much to be blamed, on full consideration, except for ever taking this business without the means.’"
98. "Upon which Mrs. Bagnet, with her cloak, basket, and umbrella, goes home, bright-eyed again, to the rest of her family, and the comrades sally forth on the hopeful errand of mollifying Mr. Smallweed."
99. "He vociferates this so loudly, that Mr. Bagnet, laying his hands on the shoulders of his comrade, before the latter can recover from his amazement, gets him on the outside of the street door; which is instantly slammed by the triumphant Judy."
100. "Utterly confounded, Mr. George awhile stands looking at the knocker. Mr. Bagnet, in a perfect abyss of gravity, walks up and down before the little parlour window, like a sentry, and looks in every time he passes; apparently revolving something in his mind.
‘Come, Mat!’ says Mr. George, when he has recovered himself, ‘we must try the lawyer. Now, what do you think of this rascal?’"

101. "They do wait, however, with the perseverance of military tactics; and at last the bell rings again, and the client in possession comes out of Mr. Tulkinghorn’s room."
102. To be continued.

1. “Mr. Bagnet, in a perfect abyss of gravity, walks up and down before the little parlour window, like a sentry, and looks in every time he passes…”
2. “The client is a handsome old lady; no other than Mrs. Rouncewell, housekeeper at Chesney Wold…”
3. "She comes out of the sanctuary with a fair old-fashioned curtsey, and softly shuts the door."
4. "‘If you get into debt, you must pay your debts, or take the consequences." 5. "Serjeant,’ the lawyer proceeds in his dry, passionless manner,...'make up your mind while I speak to you, for this is final.'"

6. "Boiled beef and greens constitute the day’s variety on the former repast of boiled pork and greens..."
7. CHAPTER 35 - Esther’s Narrative
8. "I suppose that few who have not been in such a condition can quite understand what I mean, or what painful unrest arose from this source."
9. "For the same reason I am almost afraid to hint at that time in my disorder—it seemed one long night, but I believe there were both nights and days in it—when I laboured up colossal staircases, ever striving to reach the top, and ever turned, as I have seen a worm in a garden path, by some obstruction, and labouring again."
10. "'O more of these never-ending stairs, Charley,—more and more—piled up to the sky, I think!’ and labouring on again."

11. "I was in this state when I first shrunk from the light as it twinkled on me once more, and knew with a boundless joy for which no words are rapturous enough, that I should see again."
12. "I had heard my Ada crying at the door, day and night...Charley had been true to me in that time of need, and with her little hand and her great heart had kept the door fast."
Reminds us that children have little hands.
13. "But now, my sight strengthening, and the glorious light coming every day more fully and brightly on me..."
Perhaps here he is making an allusion to the entrance of summer.
14. "I could understand the stillness in the house, and the thoughtfulness it expressed on the part of all those who had always been so good to me."
Dickens' reference to the stillness of the house is also a theme explored by James Joyce in "Dubliners."
15. "So Charley became as quiet as a mouse, and took her bright face here and there, across and across the two rooms, out of the shade into the divine sunshine, and out of the sunshine into the shade..."

16. Reminds us that a looking glass is an English term for a mirror.
17. "For a little while he sat with his hand over his face, but when he removed it, fell into his usual manner."
18. Suggests that some things come natural to some people.
19. "Well, dearest little woman, we must look forbearingly on it. He is not to blame. Jarndyce and Jarndyce has warped him out of himself, and distorted me in his eyes."
20. "In any case we must not be hard on him. There are not many grown and matured men living while we speak..."

21. "Yes, yes, you are tired,’ said he. ‘Rest a little.’"
22. "...and if I had a week there, in which to grow stronger and to be revived by the sweet air, and to look forward to the happiness of having Ada with me again, I think it would be better for us."
23. "I am so much fonder of you, my love, than of the Chancellor."
24. “He had been so different, Fitz-Jarndyce. He was drawn to a debtors’ prison. There he died. Then our brother was drawn—swiftly—to drunkenness. And rags. And death.”
25. “I expect a Judgment. Shortly. Then I shall release my birds, you know and confer estates.”

26. “True! My dear, for the moment—true. I blame myself.”
27. CHAPTER 36 - Chesney Wold
28. “…so he accompanied us, and we were two days upon the road. I found every breath of air, and every scent, and every flower and leaf and blade of grass, and every passing cloud, and everything in nature, more beautiful and wonderful to me than I had ever found it yet…How little I had lost, when the wide world was so full of delight for me.
29. “If a good fairy had built the house for me with a wave of her wand, and I had been a princess and her favoured godchild, I could not have been more considered in it.”
30. “At first, my face was so strange to me, that I think I should have put my hands before it and started back, but for the encouragement I have mentioned.”

31. “We were to be out before breakfast, and were to dine early, and were to be out again before and after dinner, and were to walk in the garden after tea, and were to go to rest betimes, and were to climb every hill and explore every road, lane, and field in the neighbourhood.”
32. “…while Charley would stand still and laugh with such enjoyment, that her laughter was like music.”
33. “Now, I had known the bride when I was last there, not only as the prettiest girl in the place, but as having quite distinguished herself in the school; and I could not help looking at her with some surprise.”
34. “Why, what had I to fear, I thought, when there was this nobility in the soul of a labouring man’s daughter!”
35. “The air blew as freshly and revivingly upon me as it had ever blown, and the healthy colour came into my new face as it had come into my old one…and we both enjoyed the whole day...”

36. “There was a favourite spot in the park-woods of Chesney Wold,” where the narrator frequented.
37. “…as by a something in her face that I had pined for and dreamed of when I was a little child; something I had never seen in any face; something I had never seen in hers before.”
38. “…and among the still woods in the silence of the summer day, there seemed to be nothing but our two troubled minds that was not at peace.”
39. “I have long outbidden folly with folly, pride with pride, scorn with scorn, insolence with insolence, and have outlived many vanities with many more. I will outlive this danger, and outdie it, if I can.”
40. “‘My child, my child!’ she said. ‘For the last time! These kisses for the last time! These arms upon my neck for the last time! We shall meet no more. To hope to do what I seek to do, I must be what I have been so long. Such is my reward and doom.’…We held one another for a little space yet.”

41. “That I felt as if I knew it would have been better and happier for many people, if indeed I had never breathed.”
42. “The time will come—and soon enough—when you will understand this better, and will feel it too, as no one save a woman can.”
Suggests that there are some things that only a woman can understand.
43. “I went out alone, and, after walking a little in the park, watching the dark shades falling on the trees, and the fitful flight of the bats, which sometimes almost touched me, was attracted to the house for the first time.”
44. “How to help myself through the intermediate time better than by taking a long walk along the road by which she was to come…made a long expedition along that road, and back”
45. “And I considered whether, if it should signify any one of these meanings, which was so very likely, could I quite answer for myself?”

46. CHAPTER 37 - Jarndyce and Jarndyce
47. “Well, well, my dear,’ said Richard, ‘we won’t go into that now. I want to appear quietly in your country house here…”
48. “‘As you say, it’s not a pleasant subject.’ Richard spoke with the same shade crossing his face as before.”
49. “‘And he is worth—not to say his sordid expenses—but thrice his weight in gold,’ said Richard.”

1. “The birds sang delightfully; the sparkles in the fern, the grass, and trees, were exquisite to see; the richness of the woods seemed to have increased twenty-fold since yesterday, as if, in the still night when they had looked so massively hushed in sleep, Nature, through all the minute details of every wonderful leaf, had been more wakeful than usual for the glory of that day.”
2. “My dear Richard,’ said I, ‘this is a bad beginning of our conversation.’”
3. "I don’t say that he is not an honourable man, out of all this complication and uncertainty; I am sure he is."

1. “‘Indeed?’ replied Richard, softening. ‘I am glad I said he was an honourable man, out of all this wretched affair.’”
2. “‘It can’t last for ever,’ returned Richard, with a fierceness kindling in him which again presented to me that last sad reminder…Others have only half thrown themselves into it. I devote myself to it. I make it the object of my life.’”
3. “‘Richard,’ said I, ‘you place great confidence in me, but I fear you will not take advice from me?’”
4. “Our out-of-door life easily threw one in my way.”
Suggests that Ada and Richard had a home life, and an out-of-door life.
5. "They tell me I owe more than that. I dare say I do. I dare say I owe as much as good-natured people will let me owe."

6. "I felt it a relief when Richard, with an exclamation of surprise, hurried away to meet a stranger, whom he first descried coming slowly towards us."
7. Suggests that making homemade iced tea is as simple as making homemade lemonade. According to Google, making homemade iced tea is easy!
8. "My health is not good (my digestion being much impaired), and if I had only myself to consider, I should take refuge in rural habits..."

1. “‘You will excuse my having mentioned my daughters,’ he said. ‘They are my weak point. I wish to leave the poor girls some little independence, as well as a good name.’”
2. “I was perfectly restored to health and strength…”
3. "'And your papa, Caddy?’
‘He comes here every evening,’ returned Caddy, ‘and is so fond of sitting in the corner there, that it’s a treat to see him.’
4. "Prince’s health is not strong, and I want to be able to assist him. What with schools, and classes here, and private pupils, and the apprentices, he really has too much to do, poor fellow!"
5. "You see, my dear, to save expense, I ought to know something of the Piano, and I ought to know something of the Kit too, and consequently I have to practise those two instruments as well as the details of our profession."
6. "If Ma had been like anybody else, I might have had some little musical knowledge to begin upon."

7. Suggests that it is good to have knowledge of dance, or ballet.
8. "The apprentices were the queerest little people. Besides the melancholy boy, who, I hoped, had not been made so by waltzing alone in the empty kitchen..."
9. "Such mean little boys, when they were not dancing, with string, and marbles..."
10. "I asked Caddy what had made their parents choose this profession for them? Caddy said she didn’t know; perhaps they were designed for teachers; perhaps for the stage."

11. "We danced for an hour with great gravity. Caddy...had acquired a grace and self-possession of her own, which, was uncommonly agreeable."
12. One of the boys, "always played the tune."
13. "I sat in the ball-room in the interval, contemplating the apprentices."
14. "Returning with their jackets buttoned, and their pumps stuck in them, they then produced packets of cold bread and meat, and bivouacked under a painted lyre on the wall."
15. "He talks to Pa, of an evening, about the Prince Regent, and I never saw Pa so interested."

16. "Not only was the portrait there, but we found the original there too."
17. "Perhaps—er—it may not be worth the form, but it might be a satisfaction to your mind—perhaps you wouldn’t object to admit that, miss?"
18. "Now, the beginning and the end of what I have come to beg of you..."
19. "I speak the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, so..."
20. "Mr. Guppy’s mother returned with Caddy (now making me the recipient of her silent laughter and her nudges), and we took our leave."

21. "Very full,—er—excuse me—lady’s name, Christian and surname both?"
"I gave them."
22. "I really and truly am very sorry that my arrangements in life, combined with circumstances over which I have no control..."
23. "Mr. Vholes’s chambers are on so small a scale, that one clerk can open the door without getting off his stool, while the other who elbows him at the same desk has equal facilities for poking the fire."
24. "Now you cannot afford—I will say, the social system cannot afford—to lose an order of men like Mr. Vholes. Diligent, persevering, steady, acute in business."
25. "Question. If I understand you, these forms of practice indisputably occasion delay? Answer. Yes, some delay. Question. And great expense? Answer. Most assuredly they cannot be gone through for nothing. Question. And unspeakable vexation? Answer. I am not prepared to say that. They have never given me any vexation; quite the contrary. Question. But you think that their abolition would damage a class of practitioners? Answer. I have no doubt of it. Question. Can you instance any type of that class? Answer. Yes. I would unhesitatingly mention Mr. Vholes. He would be ruined."

26. "As though, Mr. Vholes and his relations being minor cannibal chiefs, and it being proposed to abolish cannibalism, indignant champions were to put the case thus: Make man-eating un-lawful, and you starve the Vholeses!"
27. "That may not be the whole question,’ returns Vholes. ‘The question may branch off into what is doing, what is doing?’"
28. "I ought to imitate you, in fact, Mr. Vholes?’ says Richard, sitting down again with an impatient laugh, and beating the Devil’s Tattoon with his boot on the patternless carpet."
To beat the Devil's tattoo is to tap impatiently.
28. Suggests that you cancel impatience with patience, stupidity with knowledge.
29. "Mr. Vholes, after glancing at the official cat who is patiently watching a mouse’s hole, fixes his charmed gaze again on his young client..."
30. "'I am perfectly aware, Mr. Vholes,’ says Richard, more familiarly and good-humouredly, ‘that you are the most reliable fellow in the world; and that to have to do with you, is to have to do with a man of business who is not to be hood-winked.'"

31. "‘Mr. C..’ returns Vholes, ‘I wish to say no more of any third party than is necessary. I wish to leave my good name unsullied..."
32. "...of bringing us together in this room, I mentioned to you that I could offer no opinion or advice as to your interests..."
33. "When we first entered on our present relations, I stated to you openly—it is a principle of mine that there never can be too much openness between solicitor and client—that I was not a man of capital; and that if capital was your object, you had better leave your papers in Kenge’s office."
34. "All the while, Vholes’s official cat watches the mouse’s hole."
35. Briefly discusses “a citation from the recording Angel,” an angel who records the histories of all people for the Day of Judgment.

36. Briefly discusses “the Monument,” or, “The Monument to the Great Fire of London.”
37. "...'At this rate they’ll be at it these seven years.’
‘And Small is helping?’
‘Small left us at a week’s notice. Told Kenge, his grandfather’s business was too much for the old gentleman, and he could better himself by undertaking it."
38. "...it is necessary that I should impress upon your mind once more, that circumstances over which I have no control, have made a melancholy alteration in my most cherished plans, and in that unrequited image which I formerly mentioned to you as a friend. That image is shattered, and that idol is laid low."
39. "'Tony,’ says Mr. Guppy, as they walk towards the court, ‘once again understand me, as a friend. Without entering into further explanations, I may repeat that the idol is down."
The two friends go for a walk, and talk. A great scene.
40. "Many times the two gentlemen who write with the ravenous little pens on the tissue paper are seen prowling in the neighbourhood—shy of each other, their late partnership being dissolved."

41. "Even Miss M. Melvilleson, in the revived Caledonian melody of’We’re a nodding,‘ 10 points the sentiment that ’the dogs love broo’ (whatever the nature of that refreshment may be)..."
42. "...and Mrs. Smallweed on the level ground in the vicinity, snowed up in a heap of paper fragments, print and manuscript, which would appear to be the accumulated compliments that have been sent flying at her in the course of the day."
43. "Mr. Weevle, thanking him, casts an eye about. Mr. Guppy’s eye follows Mr. Weevle’s eye. Mr. Weevle’s eye comes back without any new intelligence in it. Mr. Guppy’s eye comes back, and meets Mr. Smallweed’s eye."
44. "We are endeavoring to make an inventory of what’s worth anything to sell."
45. "As they go up-stairs...they find the old room very dull and dismal...They have a great disinclination to touch any object, and carefully blow the dust from it first."

46. Of the pet cat writes, "She went leaping and bounding and tearing about, that night, like a Dragon, and got out on the house-top..."
47. "'Sir,’ he returns, reddening, ‘I wish to act with courtesy towards every member of the profession, and especially, I am sure, towards a member of it so well known as yourself..."
48. "'Why, Mr. Guppy, there are people in London who would give their ears to be you.’
Mr. Guppy, looking as if he would give his own reddening and still reddening ears to be one of those people at present instead of himself, replies..."
49. "CHAPTER 40 - National and Domestic
50. "Still England has been some weeks in the dismal strait of having no pilot (as was well observed by Sir Leicester Dedlock) to weather the storm..."

51. "At last Sir Thomas Doodle has not only condescended to come in, but has done it handsomely, bringing in with him all his nephews, all his male cousins, and all his brothers-in-law. So there is hope for the old ship yet."
52. Briefly discusses Britannia, "the national personification of Britain...and in swearing herself black in the face that she does neither—plainly to the advancement of her glory and morality—the London season comes to a sudden end, through all the Doodleites and Coodleites dispersing to assist Britannia in those religious exercises."
53. Illustration - Sunset in the long Drawing-room at Chesney Wold
54. "One ancestress of Volumnia, in high-heeled shoes, very like her..."
55. "Chesney Wold, Thomas,’ rejoins the housekeeper, with proud complacency, ‘will set my Lady up! There is no finer air, and no healthier soil, in the world!’"

56. Briefly discusses hustings, or platforms from which politicians gave speeches.
57. "...and there are many who appreciate her sprightly conversation, her French conundrums so old as to have become in the cycles of time almost new again, the honour of taking the fair Dedlock in to dinner..."
58. "'I suppose,’ observes Volumnia, having taken a little time to recover her spirits after her late castigation, ‘I suppose Mr. Tulkinghorn has been worked to death.’"
Several books that I’ve read discuss instances when animals die of being worked too hard.
59. "Everybody starts.
For a gun is fired close by. ‘Good gracious, what’s that?’ cries Volumnia with her little withered scream.
‘A rat,’ says my Lady. ‘And they have shot him.’"
60. "It is a part of Mr. Tulkinghorn’s policy and mastery to have no political opinions; indeed, no opinions. Therefore he says ‘you’ are beaten, and not ’we.’"
61. "O dear yes, against you. He is a very good speaker. Plain and emphatic. He made a damaging effect, and has great influence."

1. “‘I beg,’ says Sir Leicester, in a breathless condition, ‘that we may not comment further on this circumstance…My Lady, let me suggest in reference to that young woman——’”
2. "'The lady was wealthy and beautiful, and had a liking for the girl, and treated her with great kindness, and kept her always near her. Now this lady preserved a secret under all her greatness, which she had preserved for many years. In fact, she had in early life been engaged to marry a young rake—he was a captain in the army—nothing connected with whom came to any good. She never did marry him, but she gave birth to a child of which he was the father.’"
3. "Then the stream of moonlight has swelled into a lake, and then Lady Dedlock for the first time moves, and rises, and comes forward to a table for a glass of water. Winking cousins, bat-like in the candle glare, crowd round to give it; Volumnia (always ready for something better if procurable) takes another..."
4. "Perhaps there is a rather increased sense of power upon him, as he loosely grasps one of his veinous wrists with his other hand, and holding it behind his back walks noiselessly up and down."
5. "But he happens not to be in a business mind."

6. A long time passes, "the blood has not flushed into his face so suddenly and redly for many a long year, as when he recognises Lady Dedlock.
7. "He steps into the room, and she comes in too, closing both the doors behind her. There is a wild disturbance—is it fear or anger?—in her eyes."
8. "‘You know what you related. Is it true? Do her friends know my story also? Is it the town-talk yet? Is it chalked upon the walls and cried in the streets?’"
9. "'Therefore,’ says Mr. Tulkinghorn, pursuing his case in his jog-trot style, ‘I have much to consider. This is to be hushed up, if it can be.'"
Suggests that it's better not to talk too fast or too slow, but rather, at a medium pace.
10. "Mr. Tulkinghorn opens both the doors exactly as he would have done yesterday, or as he would have done ten years ago, and makes his old-fashioned bow as she passes out."

11. CHAPTER 42 - In Mr. Tulkinghorn’s Chambers
12. "'Well, sir,’ says Mr. Snagsby, holding his hat at the side of his head, in his deference towards his best customer, ‘I was wishful to say a word to you, sir.’"
13. "'Indeed, sir?’ Mr. Snagsby coughs his cough of submission behind his hat. ‘I am not acquainted myself with the names of foreigners in general, but I have no doubt it would be that.’"
14. "Now Guster, our young woman, is timid and has fits, and she, taking fright at the foreigner’s looks—which are fierce—and at a grinding manner that she has of speaking—which is calculated to alarm a weak mind—gave way to it..."
15. "At times, there is a suddenness in the manner of Mademoiselle Hortense so like a bodily spring upon the subject of it, that such subject involuntarily starts and falls back."

16. "...I ask what you think of the prison.’
‘Nothing. What does it matter to me?’"
17. "...the law is so despotic here, that it interferes to prevent any of our good English citizens from being troubled, even by a lady’s visits, against his desire."
18. CHAPTER 43 - Esther’s Narrative
19. "...I tried not to hear—I mentally counted, repeated something that I knew, or went out of the room."
20. "Well well! we have all been mistaken over and over again. We must trust to you and time to set him right."

21. "We knew afterwards what we suspected then; that he did not trust to time until he had often tried to open Richard’s eyes. That he had written to him, gone to him, talked with him, tried every gentle and persuasive art his kindness could devise."
22. "Suspicion and misunderstanding were the fault of the suit?"
23. "'No,’ he replied. ‘Such an unworldly, uncalculating, gossamer creature, is a relief to him, and an amusement.'"
24. "I suppose the people who admired him for them in his youth, attached too much importance to them, and too little to any training that would have balanced and adjusted them; and so he became what he is."
25. "'So it is, so it is,’ returned my guardian, hurriedly."

26. "In pursuance of this plan, we went into London on an early day, and presented ourselves at Mr. Skimpole’s door."
27. "...a little plate of hothouse nectarines on the table, and there was another of grapes, and another of sponge-cakes, and..."
28. "Mr. Skimpole himself reclined upon the sofa, in a dressing-gown, drinking some fragrant coffee from an old china cup..."
29. "He was not in the least disconcerted by our appearance, but rose and received us in his usual airy manner. ‘Here I am, you see!’ he said, when we were seated: not without some little difficulty, the greater part of the chairs being broken.
‘Here I am! This is my frugal breakfast. Some men want legs of beef and mutton for breakfast; I don’t. Give me my peach, my cup of coffee, and my claret.'"
30. "‘This is our friend’s consulting room (or would be, if he ever prescribed), his sanctum, his studio,’ said my guardian to us."

31. "‘Yes,’ said Mr. Skimpole, turning his bright face about, ‘this is the bird’s cage. This is where the bird lives and sings. They pluck his feathers now and then, and clip his wings; but he sings, he sings!’
He handed us the grapes, repeating in his radiant way, ‘He sings! Not an ambitious note, but still he sings.’"
32. "'This is a day,’ said Mr. Skimpole, gaily taking a little claret in a tumbler, ‘that will ever be remembered here. We shall call it Saint Clare and Saint Summerson day.'"
33. "'You must see my daughters. I have a blue-eyed daughter who is my Beauty daughter, I have a Sentiment daughter, and I have a Comedy daughter. You must see them all. They’ll be enchanted.’"

1. CHAPTER 43 - Esther’s Narrative
2. “‘This,’ said Mr. Skimpole, ‘is my Beauty daughter, Arethusa—plays and sings odds and ends like her father. This is my Sentiment daughter, Laura—plays a little but don’t sing. This is my Comedy daughter, Kitty—sings a little but don’t play. We all draw a little, and compose a little, and none of us have any idea of time or money.’”
3. Arethusa - In Greek mythology, a lovely nymph who was transformed into a fountain.
Laura - The beloved lady in the works of the Italian Renaissance poet Petrarch (1304-1374).
Kitty - Kitty Clive (1711-1785), a British comic actress
4. "'It is pleasant,’ said Mr. Skimpole, turning his sprightly eyes from one to the other of us, ‘and it is whimsically interesting, to trace peculiarities in families."
5. One of the characters says that he would “give his ear” for something, which is an idiom that is similar to the expression “lend an ear.”

6. "...like the dogs in the hymn, ‘it is our nature to’:" Skimpole refers to “Against Quarrelling and Fighting,” a hymn by Isaac Watts: “Let dogs delight to bark and bite, / For God hath made them so” (Divine Songs for Children, Isaac Watts).
7. "A needle and thread we don’t know how to use. We admire the people who possess the practical wisdom we want; but we don’t quarrel with them. Then why should they quarrel with us? Live, and let live, we say to them. Live upon your practical wisdom, and let us live upon you!"
8. "I reasoned with him, and pointed out his mistake."
9. "Now, my good man, however our business capacities may vary, we are all children of one great mother, Nature. On this blooming summer morning here you see me” (I was on the sofa) “with flowers before me, fruit upon the table, the cloudless sky above me, the air full of fragrance, contemplating Nature."
10. "...and I heard him at the piano while I was yet looking after my housekeeping, singing refrains of barcarolles and drinking songs, Italian and German, by the score."

11. "'sketches of the ruined old Verulam wall': St. Albans was built on the site of the Roman city of Verulam (or Verulamium) , founded in A.D. 50. The ruins were a picturesque subject for sketching."
12. "I merely beg to observe, sir, that the fact is the reverse."
13. "'You know my old opinion of him,’ said Mr. Skimpole, lightly appealing to us. ‘An amiable bull, who is determined to make every colour scarlet!’"
14. "Nothing is the matter. I thought I would like to take this quiet time of saying a word to you about myself."
15. "'Why, Esther,’ said he, breaking into a smile, ‘our visitor and you are the two last persons on earth I should have thought of connecting together!’"

1. CHAPTER 44 - The Letter and the Answer
2. “…the old protecting manner which had made that house my home in a moment—said, ‘You have wrought changes in me, little woman, since the winter day in the stage-coach. First and last you have done me a world of good, since that time.’”
3. “‘It never can be forgotten.’ ‘Yes, Esther,’ said he, with a gentle seriousness, ‘it is to be forgotten now; to be forgotten for a while.’”
4. “And as to his bright Dame Durden and little housekeeper, she would ever be the same, he knew.”
5. “But he did not hint to me, that when I had been better-looking, he had had this same proceeding in his thoughts, and had refrained from it.”

6. "'When you are mistress of Bleak House, you are to be as cheerful as a bird. In fact, you are always to be cheerful; so let us begin for once and for all.’"
7. "There being not the least constraint in his manner, there was none (or I think there was none) in mine."
8. One character sits down, and then , over and over again tries to write a letter, until she finally gets it right.
9. The character mentioned above expects a response, a word from Mr Skimpole about the letter. The first day, there is no response, for the next seven days, there is no word, then, on the eighth day, Mr Skimpole gives his response.
10. "I put my two arms round his neck and kissed him..."

11. CHAPTER 45 - In Trust
12. "One morning when I had done jingling about with my basket of keys... I happened to turn my eyes towards the house, and saw a long thin shadow going in which looked like Mr. Vholes."
13. "It was one of Charley’s peculiarities, that whenever she was charged with a message she always began to deliver it as soon as she beheld, at any distance, the person for whom it was intended...And when I did hear her, she had said it so often that she was out of breath."
14. Makes a reference to the Polygon, in Somers Town, where there were at that time a number of poor Spanish refugees: The Polygon, a fifteen-sided building consisting of thirty-two houses, was situated in an area of London inhabited by the shabby-genteel as well as by foreigners. In the 1820s, exiles seeking to overthrow the Spanish government lived there. No. 17 in the Polygon was home to the Dickens family in 1827.
15. "Charley was curious, too, about the voyage, and about the heat in India, and the serpents and the tigers; and as she picked up such information much faster than grammar, I told her what I knew on those points."

16. "He was writing at a table, with a great confusion of clothes, tin cases, books, boots, brushes, and portmanteaus, strewn all about the floor. He was only half-dressed—in plain clothes, I observed, not in uniform—and his hair was unbrushed, and he looked as wild as his room."
17. "trusting in a rotten reed: “Lo, thou trustest in the staff of this broken reed, on Egypt; whereon if a man lean, it will go into his hand and pierce it” (Isaiah 36:6)."
18. "As I told him yes, he laid it on the table, and, resting his head upon his hand, began. He had not read far, when he rested his head upon his two hands—to hide his face from me. In a little while he rose as if the light were bad, and went to the window. He finished reading it there, with his back towards me; and, after he had finished and had folded it up, stood there for some minutes with the letter in his hand. When he came back to his chair, I saw tears in his eyes." Then, he spoke.
19. "I saw too, and had experienced in this very interview, the sense of my guardian’s remark that it was even more mischievous to use persuasion with him than to leave him as he was."
20. "I heard them speaking on the staircase. I was sure it was the same gentlemen because I knew their voices again—I mean I knew Mr. Woodcourt’s."

21. "‘I was very ill.’
‘But you have quite recovered?’
‘I have quite recovered my health and my cheerfulness,’ said I."
22. "I felt the blood rush into my face for the first time, but it was only an instantaneous emotion."
23. CHAPTER 46 Stop him!
24. "Darkness rests upon Tom-all-Alone’s. Dilating and dilating since the sun went down last night, it has gradually swelled until it fills every void in the place. For a time there were some dungeon lights burning, as the lamp of Life burns in Tom-all-Alone‘s, heavily, heavily, in the nauseous air, and winking—as that lamp, too, winks in Tom-all-Alone’s—at many horrible things...The blackest nightmare in the infernal stables grazes on Tom-all-Alone‘s, and Tom is fast asleep."
25. "But he has his revenge. Even the winds are his messengers, and they serve him in these hours of darkness."

26. "The day begins to break now; and in truth it might be better for the national glory even that the sun should sometimes set upon the British dominions, than that it should ever rise upon so vile a wonder as Tom."
27. "On the banks of the stagnant channel of mud which is the main street of Tom-all-Alone‘s, nothing is to be seen but the crazy houses, shut up and silent. No waking creature save himself appears, except in one direction, where he sees the solitary figure of a woman sitting on a door-step. He walks that way. Approaching, he observes that she has journeyed a long distance, and is footsore and travel-stained."
28. One of the characters says, "God bless the sun, for shining upon you."

1. “A habit in him of speaking to the poor, and of avoiding patronage or condescension, or childishness (which is the favourite device, many people deeming it quite a subtlety to talk to them like little spelling books), has put him on good terms with the woman easily.”
Suggests that your proficiency in grammar appears in your speech, and this can affect your profession later in life.
2. "'Let me look at your forehead,’ he says, bending down. ‘I am a doctor. Don’t be afraid. I wouldn’t hurt you for the world.’"
3. "'Where is he now?’ asks the surgeon.
'He got into trouble last night, sir; but he’ll look for me at the lodging-house.’"
4. "'But he was along with me, sir,’ says the woman,—‘O you Jo!—he was along with me, sir, down at Saint Albans, ill, and a young lady—Lord bless her for a good friend to me—took pity on him when I durstn’t, and took him home—’"
5. "‘Very well. I take your word. Half the town is getting up by this time, and the whole town will be broad awake in another hour. Come along. Good day again, my good woman.’"

6. "In this order, the two come up out of Tom-all-Alone’s into the broad rays of the sunlight and the purer air."
7. CHAPTER 47 - Jo’s Will
8. "'It surely is a strange fact,’ he considers, ‘that in the heart of a civilised world this creature in human form should be more difficult to dispose of than an unowned dog."
9. "Now you have a fund of knowledge and good sense, and can advise me."
10. "It is hopeless to ask for any information about General George, and would be, though Miss Flite had not already run up-stairs to put on her pinched bonnet and her poor little shawl, and to arm herself with her reticule of documents."

11. "I am convinced that he would not remain in either place, because he is possessed by an extraordinary terror of this person who ordered him to keep out of the way..."
12. "‘Well, sir,’ says Mr. George, ‘I can assure you that I would willingly be knocked on the head at any time, if it would be at all agreeable to Miss Summerson..."
13. "'Wishermaydie if I don’t, sir,‘ says Jo, reverting to his favourite declaration."
14. "'Now I was thinking, sir,’ says Mr. George, in a martial sort of confidence, as if he were giving his opinion in a council of war at a drum-head, ok ‘that if this man was to take him to a bath, and was to lay out a few shillings in getting him one or two coarse articles—’"
15. "The trooper looks sideways at Allan’s sunburnt cheek and bright dark eye, rapidly measures his height and build, and seems to approve of him."

16. "He chafes and goads me, till—Bah! nonsense—I am forgetting myself."
17. "Even while he whistles his impetuosity away with the National Anthem, some involuntary shakings of his head and heavings of his chest still linger behind..."
18. Dickens suggests that one of the characters has frequent run-ins with the law.
19. "Wot I wos a-thinkin on then, Mr. Snagsby, wos, that If the writin could be made to say it wery large, he might."
20. After watching him closely a little while, Allan puts his mouth very near his ear, and says to him in a low, distinct voice:
‘Jo! Did you ever know a prayer?’

21. "After a short relapse into sleep or stupor, he makes, of a sudden, a strong effort to get out of bed."
22. " Jo, can you say what I say?"
23. CHAPTER 48 - Closing in
24. "...and the solar system works respectfully at its appointed distances."
25. "Rosa is with her, and has been writing for her and reading to her. Rosa is now at work upon embroidery, or some such pretty thing..."

26. Reminds us that some people like puzzles, and some people like music.
27. "I don’t know, my Lady; I can scarcely hope so. But, with all my heart, I wish it was so."
28. "The weeping girl covers her hand with kisses, and says what shall she do, what shall she do, when they are separated! Her mistress kisses her on the cheek, and makes no other answer."
29. "Ah, my Lady, I have sometimes thought—forgive my being so free—that you are not happy."
30. "It is a dull street under the best conditions; where the two long rows of houses stare at each other with that severity, that half-a-dozen of its greatest mansions seem to have been slowly stared into stone, rather than originally built in that material."

31. "As he turns towards her, he finds that the impression she makes upon him is less agreeable than on the former occasion."
32. "...has attracted the notice of Mr. Rouncewell’s son? Now, has she deserved this punishment? Is this just towards her? Is this our previous understanding?"
33. "He might have been sure that my Lady had the best grounds and reasons in support of her view. He entirely agrees with my Lady."
34. "Sir Leicester has magnificently disengaged himself from the subject, and retired into the sanctuary of his blue coat."
35. "'Why, Lady Dedlock,’ says the lawyer, taking a chair at a little distance from her, and slowly rubbing his rusty legs up and down, up and down, up and down; ‘I am rather surprised by the course you have taken.’"

36. "'If, sir,’ she begins, ‘in my knowledge of my secret—’ But he interrupts her."
37. "One might have supposed that the course was straight on—over everything, neither to the right nor to the left, regardless of all considerations in the way, sparing nothing, treading everything under foot."
38. "She has been looking at the table. She lifts up her eyes, and looks at him. There is a stern expression on her face, and a part of her lower lip is compressed under her teeth."
39. "Clear of the room he looks at his watch, but is inclined to doubt it by a minute or thereabouts. There is a splendid clock upon the staircase, famous, as splendid clocks not often are, for its accuracy."
40. "...the noises that arise from the streets are fewer and are softened, and the footsteps on the pavements pass more tranquilly away."

41. "What’s that? Who fired a gun or pistol? Where was it?
The few foot-passengers start, stop, and stare about them. Some windows and doors are opened, and people come out to look.
42. "When it has ceased, the fine night, the bright large moon, and multitudes of stars, are left at peace again."
43. "Has Mr. Tulkinghorn been disturbed? His windows are dark and quiet, and his door is shut. It must be something unusual indeed, to bring him out of his shell.
44. CHAPTER 49 - Dutiful Friendship
45. "Perhaps his exalted appreciation of the merits of the old girl, causes him usually to make the noun-substantive, Goodness, of the feminine gender."

46. "...accomplishing with extreme accuracy the questions number one and two, What is your name? and Who gave you that name? but there failing in the exact precision of his memory, and substituting for number three, the question And how do you like that name?"
47. “He has bought two specimens of poultry, which, if there be any truth in adages, were certainly not caught with chaff, to be prepared for the spit… he is himself directing the roasting of the poultry…”
48. "The stopped fowls going round again, Mrs. Bagnet closes her eyes, in the intensity of her relief."
49. "...a little endangered by the dry humour of the fowls in not yielding any gravy, and also by the made-gravy acquiring no flavour, and turning out of a flaxen complexion. With a similar perverseness, the potatoes crumble off forks in the process of peeling, upheaving from their centres in every direction, as if they were subject to earthquakes. The legs of the fowls, too, are longer than could be desired, and extremely scaly."
50. "It is well for the old girl that she has but one birthday in a year, for two such indulgences in poultry might be injurious."

51. "Here was this poor lad. ’Twas dull work to see him dying as he did, and not be able to help him.'"
52. "'Yes,’ says the man, coming in and closing the door. ‘I was going down the street here, when I happened to stop and look in at the musical instruments in the shop-window—a friend of mine is in want of a second-hand wiolinceller, of a good tone—and I saw a party enjoying themselves..."
53. "These blandishments have entirely won the family heart."
54. "...for George has not been in his usual spirits."
55."Worldly goods are divided unequally, and man must not repine."

56. "Does he show any turn for any musical instrument?‘ Mr. Bagnet suddenly interposes,
‘Plays the Fife. Beautiful.’
57. "'British Grenadiers—there’s a tune to warm an Englishman up!'; This rousing regimental song dates from the seventeenth century."
58. "...during which performance Mr. Bucket, much enlivened, beats time, and never fails to come in sharp with the burden, ‘Brit Ish Gra-a-anadeers!’ In short, he shows so much musical taste, that Mr. Bagnet actually takes his pipe from his lips to express his conviction that he is a singer."
59. "As he says himself, what is public life without private ties? He is in his humble way a public man, but it is not in that sphere that he finds happiness. No, it must be sought within the confines of domestic bliss."
60. "You’ve been seen hanging about the place, and you’ve been heard more than once in a wrangle with him, and it’s possible—I don’t say it’s certainly so, mind you, but it’s possible—that he may have been heard to call you a threatening, murdering, dangerous fellow."

61. "I tell you plainly there’s a reward out, of a hundred guineas, offered by Sir Leicester Dedlock, Baronet."
62. CHAPTER 50 - Esther’s Narrative
63. "It was a note of a few lines, written from the couch on which she lay, and enclosed to me in another from her husband, in which he seconded her entreaty with much solicitude. Caddy was now the mother, and I the godmother, of such a poor little baby—such a tiny old-faced mite..."
64. "Now, although this was such a fancy of the affectionate girl’s that I am almost ashamed to mention it, still it might have all the force of a fact when she was really ill."
65. "Constant dropping will wear away a stone, and constant coaching will wear out a Dame Durden."

66. "...but now that it was gone, I felt as if I understood its nature better.”
67. "She would come occasionally with her usual distraught manner, and sit calmly looking miles beyond her grandchild, as if her attention were absorbed by a young Borrioboolan on its native shores."
68. "...and would take the child out walking with great pomp—always, on those occasions, sending him home before he went to dinner himself, and occasionally with a halfpenny in his pocket."
69. "I was not grieved for myself: I was quite contented and quite happy."
70. "‘Aye! We would make him as rich as a Jew, if we knew how. Would we not, little woman?’"

71. "'You surely don’t forget, my beauty,’ said I, smiling, ‘what quiet, old-fashioned people we are, and how I have settled down to be the discreetest of dames?"
72. "And I noticed as I kissed my dear, that she lay with one hand under her pillow so that it was hidden."
73. CHAPTER 51 - Enlightened
74. To be continued.
75. “‘Just so, sir,’ said Mr. Vholes. ‘Mr. C.’s address is not a hundred miles from here, sir, Mr. C.’s address is not a hundred miles from here. Would you take a seat, sir?’”

76. “‘Sir,’ rejoined Mr. Vholes, self-contained, as usual, voice and all, ‘it is a part of my professional duty to know best. It is a part of my professional duty to study and to understand a gentleman who confides his interests to me.”
77. “‘Give me leave, sir,’ said Mr. Vholes. ‘Bear with me for a moment.’”
78. "'Sir,’ said Mr. Vholes, ‘to be honest with you (honesty being my golden rule, whether I gain by it or lose, and I find that I generally lose), money is the word.'"
79. "'Now, sir, upon the chances of Mr. C.’s game I express to you no opinion, no opinion...'
'You are interested in anything, and in everything, that relates to your friend. I know human nature much better, sir, than to admit for an instant that a gentleman of your appearance is not interested in whatever concerns his friend.’"
80. "As to myself, sir, the labourer is worthy of his hire. If I undertake to put my shoulder to the wheel, I do it, and I earn what I get. I am here for that purpose. My name is painted on the door outside with that object."

81. "He found him in a dull room, fadedly furnished; much as I had found him in his barrack-room but a little while before, except that he was not writing, but was sitting with a book before him, from which his eyes and thoughts were far astray."
82. "Woodcourt, I should be sorry to be misunderstood by you, even if I gained by it in your estimation. You must know that I have done no good this long time."
83. "To make short of a long story, I am afraid I have wanted an object; but I have an object now—or it has me—and it is too late to discuss it. Take me as I am, and make the best of me.'
‘A bargain,’ said Mr. Woodcourt: ‘Do as much by me in return.’"
84. "Thus we came to Richard, poring over a table covered with dusty bundles of papers which seemed to me like dusty mirrors reflecting his own mind."
85. "‘...you would have found Woodcourt here. There never was such a good fellow as Woodcourt is. He finds time to look in between whiles, when anybody else with half his work to do would be thinking about not being able to come."

86. "We shall rouse up that nest of sleepers, mark my words!"
87. "His hopefulness had long been more painful to me than his despondency; it was so unlike hopefulness, had something so fierce in its determination to be it, was so hungry and eager, and yet so conscious of being forced and unsustainable, that it had long touched me to the heart."
88. "He was leaning on his arm, saying these words in a meditative voice, and looking at the ground, when my darling rose, put off her bonnet, kneeled down beside him with her golden hair falling like sunlight on his head, clasped her two arms round his neck, and turned her face to me. O, what a loving and devoted face I saw!"
89. "I dried my sobbing darling’s eyes, and sat beside her on the sofa, and Richard sat on my other side; and while I was reminded of that so different night when they had first taken me into their confidence, and had gone on in their own wild happy way, they told me between them how it was."
90. "'All I had was Richard’s,‘ Ada said; ’and Richard would not take it, Esther, and what could I do but be his wife2 when I loved him dearly!’"

91. "And besides, it was not a long-considered step. We went out one morning and were married."
92. "I don’t know what I said now. I was so sorry, and yet I was so fond of them, and so glad that they were fond of me; I pitied them so much, and yet I felt a kind of pride in their loving one another."
93. "I left Charley below, and went up with a light foot, not distressed by any glare from the feeble oil lanterns on the way."
94. "...and came quietly down again, thinking that one of these days I would confess to the visit."
95. "He turned his old bright fatherly look upon me, laid his hand on my hand in his old way, and said again, ‘She will succeed, my dear. Nevertheless, Bleak House is thinning fast, O little woman!’"

96. "I was sorry presently that this was all we said about that. I was rather disappointed. I feared I might not quite have been all I had meant to be, since the letter and the answer."
97. CHAPTER 52 - Obstinacy
98. "...I did not in my first consternation understand why; but a few more words explained to me that the murdered person was Sir Leicester’s lawyer, and immediately my mother’s dread of him rushed into my remembrance."
99. "...and saw how shocked my guardian was; and found that they were earnestly speaking of the suspected man, and recalling every favourable impression we had formed of him, out of the good we had known of him; my interest and my fears were so strongly aroused in his behalf that I was quite set up again."
100. "This man whom we have seen so open-hearted and compassionate; who, with the might of a giant, has the gentleness of a child; who looks as brave a fellow as ever lived, and is so simple and quiet with it; this man justly accused of such a crime? I can’t believe it. It’s not that I don’t or I won’t. I can’t!"

101. "He admits that he was alone, on the scene of the murder, within a few minutes of its commission. I sincerely believe him to be as innocent of any participation in it, as I am; but these are all reasons for suspicion falling upon him."
102. "'True,’ said my guardian; and he added, turning to me, ‘it would be doing him a very bad service, my dear, to shut our eyes to the truth in any of these respects.’"
103. "It was a large prison, with many courts and passages so like one another, and so uniformly paved, that I seemed to gain a new comprehension, as I passed along, of the fondness that solitary prisoners, shut up among the same staring walls from year to year, have had—as I have read—for a weed, or a stray blade of grass."
104. "In an arched room by himself, like a cellar upstairs: with walls so glaringly white, that they made the massive iron window-bars and iron-bound door even more profoundly black than they were: we found the trooper standing in a corner. He had been sitting on a bench there, and had risen when he heard the locks and bolts turn."
105. "‘Why, George,’ exclaimed Mrs. Bagnet, who had been unpacking her basket, in which there was a piece of cold pickled pork, a little tea and sugar, and a brown loaf, ‘you ought to know it don’t."

106. "And then such a number of circumstances have happened bad for him, and such a number of people will be brought forward to speak against him, and Bucket is so deep."
107. "...you could as soon move Dover Castle as move George on this point, unless you had got a new power to move him with."
108. "You are a jewel of a woman,’ said my guardian."
109. "‘Lignum,’ said Mrs. Bagnet, ‘you take care of the children, old man, and give me the umbrella! I’m away to Lincolnshire, to bring that old lady here.'"
110. "You could as soon take up and shoulder an eight-and-forty pounder by your own strength, as turn that man, when he has got a thing into his head, and fixed it there.
Eight-and-forty pounder - a cannon that fires a 48-pound missile.

111. CHAPTER 53 - The Track
112. "The Augurs of the Detective Temple invariably predict, that when Mr. Bucket and that finger are in much conference, a terrible avenger will be heard of before long."
Refers to religious officials of ancient Rome whose duty was to read omens and predict events.
113. "Time and place cannot bind Mr. Bucket. Like man in the abstract, he is here to-day and gone to-morrow—but, very unlike man indeed, he is here again the next day."
114. "...there are only three other human followers, that is to say, Lord Doodle, William Buffy, and the debilitated cousin (thrown in as a make-weight) , but the amount of inconsolable carriagespd is immense."
115. Briefly discusses the Herald's College.

116. "No knocking or ringing for Mr. Bucket. He has caused himself to be provided with a key, and can pass in at his pleasure."
117. "He is no great scribe; rather handling his pen like the pocket-staff he carries about with him always convenient to his grasp; and discourages correspondence with himself in others, as being too artless and direct a way of doing delicate business."
118. "You can incur none, in pursuit of the object you have undertaken, that I shall hesitate for a moment to bear."
119. "If I cannot, with my means and influence, and my position, bring all the perpetrators of such a crime to light, I fail in the assertion of my respect for that gentleman’s memory, and of my fidelity towards one who was ever faithful to me."
120. "...her nerves are unstrung for ever; and that she has not the least expectation of ever smiling again."

121. "‘...it ain’t easy to answer those questions at the present moment. Not at the present moment."
122. To be continued.

1. “Sir Leicester Dedlock, Baronet, I have no objections to telling this lady, with your leave and among ourselves, that I look upon the case as pretty well complete. It is a beautiful case—a beautiful case—and what little is wanting to complete it, I expect to be able to supply in a few hours.”
2. "Very strange things comes to our knowledge in families, miss; bless your heart, what you would think to be phenomenons, quite."
3. Discusses the Blue Chamber - the fabled secret chamber that contains the bones of Blue Beard’s murdered wives.
4. Discusses the Royal Academy - the Royal Academy of Arts, the prestigious organization founded in 1768 and dedicated to the fine arts.
5. In one scene, Dickens writes, “The girl occupied herself with 'girly' things.”

6. "My father was first a page, then a footman, then a butler, then a steward, then an inn-keeper. Lived universally respected, and died lamented. Said with his last breath that he considered service the most honourable part of his career, and so it was. I’ve a brother in service, and a brother-in-law."
7. "Come the roll of wheels and a violent ringing at the bell. ‘Talk of the angels,’ says Mr. Bucket. ‘Here she is!’"
8. "Still very pale, she is dressed in slight mourning, and wears two beautiful bracelets. Either their beauty, or the beauty of her arms, is particularly attractive to Mr. Bucket."
9. "Suffers much from headaches."
"Really? That’s a pity! Walking, Mr. Bucket would recommend for that. Well, she tries walking, Mercury rejoins. Walks sometimes for two hours, when she has them bad. By night, too."
10. Briefly discusses the old original Bun House: The popular bakery, known for its sweet Chelsea buns, was demolished in 1839.

11. CHAPTER 54 - Springing a Mine
12. Refers to The Modern Science of Thief-Taking.
13. "Mr. Bucket draws a little nearer, standing with one of his large hands on the library-table."
"‘I am not aware, officer,’ Sir Leicester observes, raising his eyes to his face, ‘whether you wish us to be alone; but that is entirely as you please. If you do, well and good. If not, Miss Dedlock would be interested———’"
14. "But, Sir Leicester Dedlock, Baronet, you are a gentleman; and I know what a gentleman is, and what a gentleman is capable of."
15. "You ask yourself, how would all them ancestors of yours, away to Julius Caesar-not to go beyond him at present—have borne that blow; you remember scores of them that would have borne it well; and you bear it well on their accounts, and to maintain the family credit."

16. "'Now, Sir Leicester Dedlock,’ proceeds Mr. Bucket, ‘thus preparing you, let me beg of you not to trouble your mind, for a moment, as to anything having come to my knowledge."
17. "I don’t suppose there’s a move on the board that would surprise me; and as to this or that move having taken place, why my knowing it is no odds at all; any possible move whatever (provided it’s in a wrong direction) being a probable move according to my experience."
18. "Be so good as to go on."
19. "Sir Leicester Dedlock, Baronet, it’s altogether impossible. What I have got to say, is about her Ladyship. She is the pivot it all turns on."
20. "'Officer,’ retorts Sir Leicester, with a fiery eye, and a quivering lip, ‘you know your duty. Do your duty; but be careful not to overstep it."

21. "...the existence, in great poverty, of a certain person, who had been her lover before you courted her, and who ought to have been her husband;’ Mr. Bucket stops, and deliberately repeats, ‘ought to have been her husband; not a doubt about it."
22. "It’s my belief that the deceased Mr. Tulkinghorn followed up these inquiries to the hour of his death; and that he and Lady Dedlock even had bad blood between them upon the matter, that very night."
23. "...and knows that she passed the soldier as you called him (though he’s not in the army now) , and knows that she knows she passed him, on the staircase."
24. "...and Mr. Bucket soon detects an unusual slowness in his speech, with now and then a curious trouble in beginning..."
25. "True. Sir Leicester, avoiding, with some trouble, those obtrusive sounds, says ‘True.’"
Suggests that saying "true," requires further explanation.

26. "As though of an ancient and exalted line of descent dating as far back as the Roman conquest of parts of Britain in the first century B.C."
27. "You ain’t in the habit of conversing with a deaf person, are you?’
‘Yes,’ snarls Mr. Smallweed, ‘my wife’s deaf.’
'That accounts for your pitching your voice so high. But as she ain’t here, just pitch it an octave or two lower, will you...'"
28. "‘Husband a law-stationer, and a friend of my own,’ says Mr. Bucket. ‘Love him like a brother!—Now, what’s up?’"
29. "Mr. Chadband, expressing a considerable amount of oil from the pores of his forehead and the palms of his hands, says aloud, ‘Yes. You first!’ and retires to his former place."
30. "Here Mr. Smallweed, seized with a fit of coughing in the midst of his triumph, breaks off to say, ‘O dear me! O Lord! I’m shaken all to pieces!’"

31. "And I tell you what we want—what we all here want, Mr. Bucket. We want more painstaking and search-making into this murder. We know where the interest and the motive was, and you have not done enough."
32. "Do you see this hand, and do you think that I don’t know the right time to stretch it out, and put it on the arm that fired that shot?"
33. "The advice I give you, is, don’t you trouble your head about the murder. That’s my affair. You keep half an eye on the newspapers; and I shouldn’t wonder if you was to read something about it before long, if you look sharp. I know my business, and that’s all I’ve got to say to you on that subject."
34. "Mr. Smallweed looks, with greedy eyes, at the little bundle Mr. Bucket produces from a mysterious part of his coat, and identifies it as the same."
35. "...but who suddenly shut up as close as midnight, under the influence—no doubt—of Mr Snagsby’s suborning and tampering."

36. "...and in this way she has pursued her object of detecting and confounding her false husband, night and day."
37. "The one occupation of her life has been, for some time back, to follow Mr. Snagsby to and fro, and up and down, and to piece suspicious circumstances together—and every circumstance that has happened has been most suspicious; and in this way she has pursued her object of detecting and confounding her false husband, night and day."
38. "'Why, of course, you wanted to get in,’ Mr. Bucket asserts with cheerfulness; ‘but for a old gentleman at your time of life—what I call truly venerable, mind you."
39. "...that if he don’t keep such a business as the present as close as possible it can’t be worth a mag to him, is so curious!"
A mag is a halfpenny.
40. "'You see your temper got the better of you; that’s where you lost ground,’ says Mr. Bucket in an argumentative and friendly way."

41. "So it is, and such is life."
42. "...and endeavor to meet your wishes respecting this unfortunate family matter, and the nobbiest way of keeping it quiet."
Nobbiest - "Of the nobility; here meaning “the best,” “classiest.”"
43. "'You are very mysterieuse. Are you drunk?' 'Tolerable sober, my angel,’ returns Mr. Bucket.'"
44. "Now, Mademoiselle,’ says Mr. Bucket, in a cool determined way, ‘you go and sit down upon that sofy.’"
45. "Now, I want to be polite to one of your sex and a foreigner, if I can."

46. "Now, you see,’ Mr. Bucket proceeds approvingly, ‘you’re comfortable, and conducting yourself as I should expect a foreign young woman of your sense to do. So I’ll give you a piece of advice, and it’s this, Don’t you talk too much."
47. "'Lie!’ cries Mademoiselle. ‘I ref-use his money alltogezzer.’"
48. "Mademoiselle Hortense fixes her black eyes upon him with a dark frown, and sets her dry lips closely and firmly together."
49. "Mademoiselle is hardly audible, in straining through her teeth and lips the words ‘You are a devil.’"
50. "Vainly endeavouring to moisten those dry lips, with a painful sound, she struggles with herself and complies."

51. "I knew I had an artful customer to deal with, and that proof would be very difficult; and I laid a trap for her—such a trap as I never laid yet, and such a ventur as I never made yet."
52. "When I went up-stairs to bed, our house being small and this young woman’s ears sharp..."
53. "‘Don’t you think any more,’ returns Mr. Bucket, with admonitory finger, ‘of throwing yourself out of window. That’s what’s the matter with me.'"
54. "Open the one directed to yourself, which I stopped this very morning, and read the three words, LADY DEDLOCK, MURDERESS, in it. These letters have been falling about like a shower of ladybirds."
55. Mentions wadding. Wadding - Cotton or paper stuffed into a gun barrel to keep a bullet and powder charge in place.

56. "...and when Mrs. Bucket puts the pieces together and finds the wadding wanting, it begins to look like Queer Street."
Queer Street - An awkward situation.
57. "...the last point in the case which I am now going to mention, shows the necessity of patience in our business, and never doing a thing in a hurry."
58. "'Listen then, my angel,’ says she, after several sarcastic nods.
‘You are very spiritual. But can you restore him back to life?’ Mr. Bucket answers ‘Not exactly’"
59. "Then he stops; and, with more of those inarticulate sounds, lifts up his eyes and seems to stare at something."
Heaven knows what he sees. The green, green woods of Chesney Wold, the noble house, the pictures of his forefathers."
60. CHAPTER 55 - Flight

61. "Bridges are begun, and their not yet united piers desolately look at one another over roads and streams, like brick and mortar couples with an obstacle to their union; fragments of embankments are thrown up, and left as precipices with torrents of rusty carts and barrows tumbling over them; tripods of tall poles appear on hilltops, where there are rumours of tunnels; everything looks chaotic, and abandoned in full hopelessness. Along the freezing roads, and through the night, the post-chaise makes its way without a railroad on its mind...as being exposed to the weather, and a primitive sort of perch more in accordance with her usual course of travelling."
62. "Then George tells me that he has seen by chance, at the lawyer’s office, a fine old lady that has brought his mother plain before him; and he runs on about that old lady till he quite forgets himself, and paints her picture to me as she used to be, years upon years back."
63. "'the Cape of Good Hope, the Island of Ascension, Hong Kong, or any other military station:' The Cape of Good Hope, South Africa, came under British control in 1814. Ascension Island, located in the South Atlantic, became a British territory in 1815. Hong Kong was ceded to the British in 1842."
64. "A wonderfully grave, precise, and handsome piece of old china she looks; though her heart beats fast, and her stomacher is ruffled, more..."
65. "Approaching the cell, they find the door opening and a warder in the act of coming out."

66. "Not a rustle of the housekeeper’s dress, not a gesture, not a word betrays her. She stands looking at him as he writes on, all unconscious, and only her fluttering hands give utterance to her emotions."
67. "Forgive him! She does it with all her heart and soul. She always has done it. She tells him how she has had it written in her will, these many years, that he was her beloved son George. She has never believed any ill of him, never."
68. "When I left home I didn’t care much, mother—I am afraid not a great deal—for leaving; and went away and ’listed, harum-scarum, making believe to think that I cared for nobody, no not I, and that nobody cared for me.'"
69. "The old girl relieves her feelings, and testifies her interest in the conversation, by giving the trooper a great poke between the shoulders with her umbrella; this action she afterwards repeats, at intervals, in a species of affectionate lunacy: never failing, after the administration of each of these remonstrances, to resort to the whitened wall and the grey cloak again."
70. "'But I thank her for it. I thank you for it, Mrs. Bagnet, with all my heart and might.’"

71. "...and every fond name she can think of, that he must be governed by the best advice obtainable by money and influence; that he must yield up his case to the greatest lawyers that can be got; that he must act, in this serious plight, as he shall be advised to act..."
72. "Mrs. Bagnet, you’ll take care of my mother, I know?"
73. "He is a sensible sound man as they tell me—out in the world beyond Chesney Wold, my dear, though I don’t know much of it myself—and will be of great service."
74. "Mother,’ returns the trooper, ‘is it too soon to ask a favour?’
'Surely not, my dear.’
'Then grant me this one great favour. Don’t let my brother know.’
'Not know what, my dear?’"
75. "...for instance, as Miss Barbary’s old servant, or as a person without the use of his lower extremities, carried up-stairs similarly to a Guy?"

76. CHAPTER 56 - Pursuit
77. "His voice was rich and mellow; and he had so long been thoroughly persuaded of the weight and import to mankind of any word he said, that his words really had come to sound as if there were something in them. But now he can only whisper; and what he whispers sounds like what it is—mere jumble and jargon."
78. "After making a survey of the room, and looking with particular attention all round the bed where the doctors stand, he writes, ‘My Lady.’ ‘My Lady went out...'"
79. "So I will. Count ’em? That’s soon done. Twenty and thirty’s fifty, and twenty’s seventy, and fifty’s one twenty, and forty’s one sixty. Take ‘em for expenses? That I’ll do, and render an account of course. Don’t spare money? No, I won’t.’
The velocity and certainty of Mr. Bucket’s interpretation on all these heads is little short of miraculous."
80. "Your son’s all right. Now, don’t you begin a-crying; because what you’ve got to do is to take care of Sir Leicester Dedlock, Baronet, and you won’t do that by crying."

81. "He conducted himself in a game way, too, on that occasion; and he’s a fine-made man, and you’re a fine-made old lady, and you’re a mother and son, the pair of you, as might be showed for models in a caravan."
82. "And I wish you better, and these family affairs smoothed over—as, Lord! many other family affairs equally has been, and equally will be, to the end of time."
83. "‘A spicy boudoir this,’ says Mr. Bucket, who feels in a manner furbished up in his French by the blow of the morning."
84. "With a glance upward at the dimly lighted windows of Sir Leicester’s room, he sets off, full-swing, to the nearest coach-stand, picks out the horse for his money, and directs to be driven to the Shooting Gallery. Mr. Bucket does not claim to be a scientific judge of horses; but he lays out a little money on the principal events in that line, and generally sums up his knowledge of the subject in the remark, that when he sees a horse as can go, he knows him."
85. "Clattering over the stones at a dangerous pace, yet thoughtfully bringing his keen eyes to bear on every slinking creature whom he passes in the midnight streets, and even on the lights in upper windows where people are going or gone to bed, and on all the turnings that he rattles by, and alike on the heavy sky, and on the earth where the snow lies thin—for something may present itself to assist him, anywhere—he dashes to his destination at such a speed, that when he stops, the horse half smothers him in a cloud of steam."

86. "...and the mill in which the gaunt blind horse goes round all day, looks like an instrument of human torture..."
87. "...in spite of every effort I could make to subdue my agitation, I did not seem, to myself, fully to recover my right mind until hours had passed."
88. "He was really very kind and gentle; and as he stood before the fire warming his boots, and rubbing his face with his forefinger, I felt a confidence in his sagacity which reassured me."
89. "It was very cold indeed; and the open country was white with snow, though none was falling then."
90."...I had reason for remembering, with my little servant and poor Jo: whom he called Toughey."

91. "'No idea of money,’ observed Mr. Bucket.—‘He takes it though!’"
92. "...its being a thing to be regretted that charitable young ladies should harbour vagrants..."
93. "Whenever a person proclaims to you “In worldly matters I’m a child,” you consider that that person is only a-crying off from being held accountable, and that you have got that person’s number, and it’s Number One."
94. "I hope you will not object to my asking your wife,’ said I, ‘how the lady looked?’
‘Did she speak much?’
‘Not much, but her voice was hoarse.’"
95. "They are up to keeping a close eye upon her, and any fool knows that a poor creetur like her, beaten and kicked and scarred and bruised from head to foot, will stand by the husband that ill uses her, through thick and thin."

96. "It had set in snowing at daybreak, and it now snowed hard. The air was so thick with the darkness of the day, and the density of the fall, that we could see but a very little way in any direction."
97. "I have never seen her, from that hour, but I think of her to this hour as my friend."
98. "The crystallised snow was in his eyelashes, in his hair, lying in ridges on his dress. He had to shake it from his face, and get his breath before he spoke to me."
99. "We were again upon the melancholy road by which we had come; tearing up the miry sleet and thawing snow, as if they were torn up by a waterwheel."
100. CHAPTER 58 - A Wintry Day and Night

101. "One of the peachy-cheeked charmers with the skeleton throats, is already apprised of all the principal circumstances that will come out before the Lords, on Sir Leicester’s application for a bill of divorce."
102. "'Our people, Mr. Jones,’ said Blaze and Sparkle to the hand in question on engaging him, ‘our people, sir, are sheep—mere sheep. Where two or three marked ones go, all the rest follow. Keep those two or three in your eye, Mr. Jones, and you have the flock.’"
103. "By half-past five, post meridian, Horse Guards’ time..."
According to the illuminated clock that was situated on a turret on the Horse Guards building and was renowned for its accuracy.
104. "What is it? Who is it? When was it? Where was it? How was it?"
105. "But it’s breaking up, my dear; the great old Dedlock family is breaking up."

106. "...though pearl necklaces and rouge pots, however calculated to embellish Bath, are but indifferent comforts to the invalid under present circumstances."
107. "Volumnia... consequently has supplied their place with distracting smoothings of the bed-linen, elaborate locomotion on tiptoe, vigilant peeping at her kinsman’s eyes, and one exasperating whisper to herself of ‘He is asleep.'"
108. "...to attend a summoned Dedlock to another world, the silence is fraught with echoes of her own words, ‘Who will tell him!’"
Suggests that teaching someone is easy.
109. "He is propped with pillows, his grey hair is brushed in its usual manner..."
110. "Where is your son George, Mrs. Rouncewell?’ asks Sir Leicester.
Mrs. Rouncewell, not a little alarmed by his disregard of the doctor’s injunctions, replies, in London.
'Where in London?’

111. One character suggests that he is busy enough shopping, cooking, cleaning, and reading, in his life.
112. "That involves explanations not very hard to be guessed at, not very well timed here, and not very creditable to myself. However opinions may differ on a variety of subjects..."
113. "Nothing less worthy can be seen through the lustre of such qualities in the commonest mechanic, nothing less worthy can be seen in the best-born gentleman."
114. "Dear Sir Leicester, my honoured master,’ she softly whispers,...Let me draw the curtains and light the candles, and make things more comfortable about you."
115. (9:40pm) She knows that this is not a period for bringing the rough light upon him; she thinks his tears too sacred to be seen, even by her. Therefore, she sits in the darkness for a while, without a word; then gently begins to move about; now stirring the fire, now standing at the dark window looking out.

116. "The periodical visits of the trooper to these rooms, however, in the course of his patrolling, is an assurance of protection and company, both to mistress and maid, which renders them very acceptable in the small hours of the night."
117. "But when it comes to four o‘clock, and still the same blank, Volumnia’s constancy begins to fail her, or rather it begins to strengthen; for she now considers that it is her duty to be ready for the morrow, when much may be expected of her."
118. CHAPTER 59 - Esther’s Narrative
119. "I will not dwell on the suspense and anxiety with which I reflected all this time, that we were leaving my mother farther and farther behind every minute."
120. Reminds us that when we’re home, we should have fun!

121. Mentions that Shakespeare’s play Othello concerns jealousy and its consequences.

1. Please refer to my essay Why I Don't Believe The Story About The Slave Trade…, which contains an addition from the present reading.
2. CHAPTER 59 - Esther’s Narrative
3. "About half a year hence or so, there is a medical attendant for the poor to be appointed at a certain place in Yorkshire."
4. "As to beauty, I am not a judge of that myself, and I never did give much attention to it from a boy; but I dare say the young lady is equally eligible, in that point of view."
5. "I look forward a long while, through years and years, and think that then, when I am growing old, or when I am dead perhaps, a beautiful woman, his daughter, happily married, may be proud of him and a blessing to him. Or that a generous brave man, as handsome as he used to be, as hopeful, and far more happy, may walk in the sunshine with him, honouring his grey head, and saying to himself, “I thank God this is my father! ruined by a fatal inheritance, and restored through me!”

6. "O, my sweet girl, what a heart was that which beat so fast against me!"
7. CHAPTER 61 - A Discovery
8. "The days when I frequented that miserable corner which my dear girl brightened, can never fade in my remembrance."
9. "I replied, half defeated already, that I wished to speak to himself only, if he would give me leave."
10. "When I go anywhere, I go for pleasure. I don’t go anywhere for pain, because I was made for pleasure."

11. "According to Jeremy Bentham, Nature itself has placed mankind under the governance of two sovereign masters, namely Pain and Pleasure. So, he said that it is the duty of the State or the State is necessary to the individual to maximize his pleasure and minimize his pain."
12. "Our young friends, losing the youthful poetry which was once so captivating in them, begin to think, “this is a man who wants pounds.”
13. "'Besides,’ he said, pursuing his argument, in his tone of lighthearted conviction, ‘if I don’t go anywhere for pain—which would be a perversion of the intention of my being, and a monstrous thing to do—why should I go anywhere to be the cause of pain?"
14. "'...as I understand the way in which my dear Miss Summerson (always remarkable for her practical good sense and clearness) puts this case, I should imagine it was chiefly a question of money, do you know?’"
15. "'My dear Miss Summerson,’ he returned, with a candid hilarity that was all his own. ‘I can’t be bribed.’
'Not by Mr. Bucket?’ said I.
‘No,’ said he. ‘Not by anybody. I don’t attach any value to money. I don’t care about it, I don’t know about it, I don’t want it, I don’t keep it—it goes away from me directly. How can I be bribed?’"

16. "I showed that I was of a different opinion, though I had not the capacity for arguing the question."
17. "I am above the rest of mankind, in such a case as that. I can act with philosophy, in such a case as that. I am not warped by prejudices...I am as free as the air. I feel myself as far above suspicion as Caesar’s life."
18. "What are they? Skimpole reasons with himself, this is a tamed lynx, an active police-officer, an intelligent man, a person of a peculiarly directed energy and great subtlety both of conception and execution, who discovers our friends and enemies for us when they run away, recovers our property for us when we are robbed, avenges us comfortably when we are murdered."
19. "Shall I shake that faith in Bucket, because I want it myself; shall I deliberately blunt one of Bucket’s weapons; shall I positively paralyse Bucket in his next detective operation?"
20. "left a diary behind him, with letters and other materials towards...which showed him to have been the victim of a combination on the part of mankind against an amiable child."
Is referring to The Autobiography of Leigh Hunt, published in 1850.

21. "Whatever little lingerings may have now and then revived in my mind, associated with my poor old face, had only revived as belonging to a part of my life that was gone—gone like my infancy or my childhood."
22. "I have no doubt that his desire to retrieve what he had lost, was rendered the more intense by his grief for his young wife, and became like the madness of a gamester."
23. "The first, until we meet to-morrow; the second, as a farewell to this theme between us for ever?"
24. CHAPTER 62 - Another Discovery
25. "Charley (who was not in the least improved in the old defective article of grammar) came through it with great applause..."

26. "Now, Moral, you know!’ said Mr. Bucket, improving the accident. ‘Don’t you contradict when there ain’t no occasion, and you won’t be took in that way."
27. "And as you’ve heard a good deal mentioned regarding a celebrated Chancery Will case, of the same name; and as you know what a card Krook was for buying all manner of old pieces of furniter, and books, and papers, and what not..."
28. "'Lord! there ain’t one of the family that wouldn’t sell the other for a pound or two, except the old lady—and she’s only out of it because she’s too weak in her mind to drive a bargain.’"
29. "You may observe, Mr. Bucket, that I abstain from examining this paper myself..."
30. "He unbolted the door, called in the bearers, wished us good morning, and with a look full of meaning, and a crook of his finger at parting, went his way."

31. "O really, Mr. Jarndyce! Prejudice, prejudice. My dear sir, this is a very great country, a very great country."
32. "Of course we shall at once proceed to do what is necessary with this document, and to collect the necessary evidence concerning it; and of course you will receive our usual notification of the Cause being in the paper."
33. CHAPTER 63 - Steel and Iron
34. We see several factories, then we meet Rouncewell, the owner of one of the factories.
35. "He comes to a gateway in the brick wall, looks in, and sees a great perplexity of iron lying about, in every stage, and in a vast variety of shapes; in bars, in wedges, in sheets; in tanks, in boilers, in axles, in wheels, in cogs, in cranks, in rails; twisted and wrenched into eccentric and perverse forms, as separate parts of machinery; mountains of it broken up, and rusty in its age; distant furnaces of it glowing and bubbling in its youth; bright fireworks of it showering about, under the blows of the steam hammer; red-hot iron, white-hot iron, cold-black iron; an iron taste, an iron smell, and a Babel of iron sounds."

36. To be continued.
37. Suggests that some people can get into your brain.
38. (6:00am) "This is very like me before I was set up. This ought to be my nephew, if likenesses run in families."
39. "Tumbled together on the table are some pieces of iron, purposely broken to be tested, at various periods of their service, in various capacities."
40. "This is a great day at home, and you could not have arrived, you bronzed old soldier, on a better."

41. "...to think of all these things, and to see the images of his nieces (awful all the evening in their floating muslins), waltzing, after the German manner, over his counterpane."
42. "You wouldn’t object to say, perhaps, that although an undoubted vagabond, I am a vagabond of the harum-scarum order, and not of the mean sort?"
43. "I don’t say much about my garrison manners, because I found myself pretty well at my ease last night, and they wouldn’t be noticed here, I dare say, once and away."
44. "Herewith he hands a letter, closely written in somewhat pale ink but in a neat round hand, to the ironmaster, who reads as follows..."
45. "His brother, however, unwilling to part with him so soon, proposes to ride with him in a light open carriage to the place where he will bait for the night, and there remain with him until morning..."
46. "Early in the afternoon, the subdued sound of his heavy military trot is heard on the turf in the avenue, as he rides on with imaginary clank and jingle of accoutrements under the old elm trees."

47. CHAPTER 64 - Esther’s Narrative
48. "The only exception I made was Mrs. Woodcourt...She could never do enough for me; and was remarkably softened now, in comparison with what she had been when we first knew her."
49. "'Well, Guardian,’ said I, ‘without thinking myself a Fatima, or you a Blue Beard,I am a little curious about it.’
Blue Beard: the fairy-tale ogre who murders his first six wives; Fatima: his curious wife who discovers the fate of her predecessors.

50. "When I went to bed, I cried. I am bound to confess that I cried; but I hope it was with pleasure, though I am not quite sure it was with pleasure."
51. "...the shadows of the apple-trees were sporting on the grass, to the house itself,—a cottage, quite a rustic cottage of dolls’ rooms; but such a lovely place, so tranquil and so beautiful, with such a rich and smiling country spread around it..."
52. "...I saw, in the papering on the walls, in the colours of the furniture, in the arrangement of all the pretty objects, my little tastes and fancies, my little methods and inventions which they used to laugh at while they praised them, my odd ways everywhere."
53. "I was cold, and I trembled violently; but not a word he uttered was lost. As I sat looking fixedly at him, and the sun’s rays descended, softly shining through the leaves, upon his bare head, I felt as if the brightness on him must be like the brightness of the Angels."
54. "I had no doubt of your being contented and happy with me, being so dutiful and so devoted; but I saw with whom you would be happier."

55. "A few words more, Dame Trot, and I have said my say."
56. "One more last word. When Allan Woodcourt spoke to you, my dear, he spoke with my knowledge and consent—but I gave him no encouragement, not I, for these surprises were my great reward, and I was too miserly to part with a scrap of it."
57. "This day I give this house its little mistress; and before God, it is the brightest day in all my life!"
58. "'Allan,’ said my guardian, ‘take from me a willing gift, the best wife that ever man had.'"
59. "Let no one thank me any more; for I am going to revert to my bachelor habits, and if anybody disregards this warning, I’ll run away, and never come back!"

60. "Late as it was, I meant to go to her for a few minutes before lying down to sleep: but I went home with my guardian first, to make his tea for him, and to occupy the old chair by his side; for I did not like to think of its being empty so soon."
61. "...and as I always associated something ludicrous with the visitor, it fell out that in laughing about Mr. Guppy I told my guardian of his old proposal, and his subsequent retractation."
62. "Will you allow me to introduce my mother, Mrs. Guppy of the Old Street Road, and my particular friend, Mr. Weevle? That is to say, my friend has gone by the name of Weevle, but his name is really and truly Jobling."
63. "My guardian begged them to be seated, and they all sat down."
64. "I had an idea that I should see Miss Summerson by herself, and was not quite prepared for your esteemed presence."

65. "Well, Mr. Jarndyce, sir,...I have come out of my articles at Kenge and Carboy’s, and I believe with satisfaction to all parties."
66. "‘I have some connexion,’ pursued Mr. Guppy, ‘and it lays in the direction of Walcot Square, Lambeth.a"
a. "Walcot Square, Lambeth: Guppy has moved to an area known for its public amusements, as well as its miscellany of trades."
67. "At which time Miss Summerson’s conduct was highly genteel; I may even add, magnanimous."
68. "I have got into that state of mind myself, that I wish for a reciprocity of magnanimous behaviour."
69. "However, Mr. Guppy and Mr. Jobling together closed on Mr. Guppy’s mother (who began to be quite abusive), and took her, very much against her will, down-stairs; her voice rising a stair higher every time her figure got a stair lower, and insisting that we should immediately go and find somebody who was good enough for us, and above all things that we should get out."
70. To be continued.
71. CHAPTER 65 - Beginning the World
72. "Allan and I agreed to go down to the Court that morning. Richard was extremely agitated, and was so weak and low, though his illness was still of the mind, that my dear girl indeed had sore occasion to be supported."
73. "It seemed too good to be true. Alas, it was!"
74. "'Is this Will considered a genuine document, sir?’ said Allan; ‘will you tell us that?’"
75. "'You are further to reflect, Mr. Woodcourt,’ becoming dignified almost to severity, ‘that on the numerous difficulties, contingencies, masterly fictions, and forms of procedure in this great cause, there has been expended study, ability, eloquence, knowledge, intellect, Mr. Woodcourt, high intellect."

76. (6:15pm) "'My dearest life,’ whispered Allan, ‘this will break Richard’s heart!’"
77. "'Little woman,’ said he, quite unmoved for himself, ‘to have done with the suit on any terms is a greater blessing than I had looked for. But my poor young cousins!’"
78. "He was lying on a sofa with his eyes closed, when I went in. There were restoratives on the table; the room was made as airy as possible, and was darkened, and was very orderly and quiet."
Maybe a fruit and veggie vitamin would be healthy.
79. "Opening his eyes by-and-by, he said, in a weak voice, but with his old smile, ‘Dame Durden, kiss me, my dear!"

80. "He was happier, he said, in our intended marriage, than he could find words to tell me. My husband had been a guardian angel to him and Ada, and he blessed us both, and wished us all the joy that life could yield us."
81. "My guardian, the picture of a good man, sat down in my place, keeping his hand on Richard’s."
82. CHAPTER 66 - Down in Lincolnshire
83. "...like charmers reduced to flirting with grim Death,a after losing all their other beaux—did once occasionally say..."
a. "like Death and the Lady fused together: The allusion may be to a frequently illustrated ballad entitled ”Death and the Lady,“ in which a lady pleads with Death to spare her. It may also be to an adaptation by Sir Walter Scott (”William and Helen,“ 1796), in which the Lady’s ghostly lover, who ultimately takes the form of a skeleton, takes her on a journey that ends in an open grave."
84. "Long-winded treatises on the Buffy and Boodle question, showing how Buffy is immaculate and Boodle villainous, and how the country is lost by being all Boodle and no Buffy, or saved by being all Buffy and no Boodle (it must be one of the two, and cannot be anything else), are the staple of her reading."

85. "...which, during three hundred and sixty-four days and nights of every ordinary year, is a kind of Antipodean lumber-room, full of old chairs and tables, upside down."
86. "Then, indeed, does she captivate all hearts by her condescension, by her girlish vivacity, and by her skipping about as in the days when the hideous old general..."
87. "Then do the swains appear with tea, with lemonade, with sandwiches, with homage. Then is she kind and cruel, stately and unassuming, various, beautifully wilful."
88. "Then there is a singular kind of parallel between her and the little glass chandeliers of another age, embellishing that assembly-room; which, with their meagre stems, their spare little drops, their disappointing knobs where no drops are, their bare little stalks from which knobs and drops have both departed, and their little feeble prismatic twinkling, all seem Volumnias."
89. CHAPTER 67 - The Close of Esther’s Narrative
90. Full seven happy years (a) I have been the mistress of Bleak House.
a. Full seven happy years: Although Dickens specifies the lapse of time between the events Esther records and her writing of her narrative, the time during which the action of Bleak House takes place is much less precise."

90. "It is difficult to believe that Charley (round-eyed still, and not at all grammatical) is married to a miller in our neighbourhood; yet so it is; and even now, looking up from my desk as I write, early in the morning at my summer window, I see the very mill beginning to go round."
91. "...but she has taken up with the rights of women to sit in Parliament, (a) and Caddy tells me it is a mission involving more correspondence than the old one."
a. "she has taken up with the rights of women to sit in Parliament: Mrs. Jellyby is ahead of the times. It was only in the 1890s that women could vote in and be elected to various local government bodies. While John Stuart Mill argued in Parliament for the enfranchisement of women in the 1860s, it was not until after World War I that women gained full voting rights."

Here are some notes from Bleak House, by Charles Dickens:
1. “I never lie down at night, but I know that in the course of that day he has alleviated pain, and soothed some fellow-creature in the time of need...Is not this to be rich?"
2. "'And don’t you know that you are prettier than you ever were?’
'I did not know that; I am not certain that I know it now. But I know that my dearest little pets are very pretty, and that my darling is very beautiful, and that my husband is very handsome, and that my guardian has the brightest and most benevolent face that ever was seen; and that they can very well do without much beauty in me—even supposing——" 
THE END
3. APPENDIX: The Court of Chancery: Purposes and Cross-Purposes Purposes
4. "To be “in Chancery,” then, was to be enmeshed in a costly web of red tape. (This expression for bureaucratic inefficiency and delay comes from the red tape that bound official documents; the barrister Mr. Tangle is aptly named..."
5. "With lawyers “tripping one another up on slippery precedents, groping knee-deep in technicalities” and suitors “ ‘swearing, and interrogating, and filing, and cross-filing, and arguing, and sealing, and motioning, and referring, and reporting, and revolving about the Lord Chancellor and his satellites’ ”, cases could, and did, “drag ... on [their] dreary length”, “ ’though years and years, and lives and lives’ ”. “A suit in that court is endless, bottomless, and insatiable,” said the Times."

6. ENDNOTES - Regarding the Endnotes
7. Like Jarndyce and Jarndyce, Bleak House has had “ ‘expended’ ” upon it “ ’study, ability, eloquence, knowledge, intellect, ... for many years’ ”
8. "The twenty-first-century editor of Dickens’s “ ‘masterly fictions’ ” thus has the advantage of decades of research and criticism on this most richly allusive and socially comprehensive of his novels."
9. "Connections between Bleak House and articles published in Dickens’s journal, Household Words, abound."
10. "The articles mentioned in the endnotes have been limited, for the most part, to those that Dickens himself wrote or coauthored and that are accessible in published collections, such as Dickens’s own Reprinted Pieces and Harry Stone’s two-volume edition of Charles Dickens’s Uncollected Writings from Household Words, 1850-1859."

11. 6. "Spontaneous Combustion: The belief that the body could ignite of its own accord continued to be held in some medical circles in the nineteenth century. The abuse of alcohol was considered to be a precipitating cause."
12. 7. "Mr. Lewes: G. H. Lewes (1817-1878) was a prominent Victorian man of letters (as well as the companion of novelist George Eliot). In an article in The Leader (December 1852), he took Dickens to task for killing off Krook by spontaneous combustion, which Lewes held to be an unfounded and unscientific notion."
13. 8. “To show to all, that in all familiar things, even in those which are repellant on the surface, there is Romance enough, if we will find it out.” In this aim, and in much else, Dickens was influenced by the work of the philosopher and historian Thomas Carlyle (1795-1881). “Where is Romance?” Carlyle had asked in a historical essay entitled The Diamond Necklace (1837); his answer: “Where is it not?”"
14. 2. "Megalosaurus ... waddling ... up Holborn Hill: When fossils of a dinosaur that came to be named the “Megalosaurus” (Latin for “giant lizard”) were found in 1824, the discovery challenged the belief that dinosaurs were destroyed in the biblical flood..."

15. 4. "Ballooning, first begun in France in the 1780s, had become a very popular amusement by the 1850s."
16. 7. "This is the Court of Chancery: As the ensuing passage indicates, the Court had jurisdiction over the insane as well as control over disputed property."
17. 8. "overthrows the brain and breaks the heart: “There is a comfort in the strength of love; / ’Twill make a thing endurable, which else / Would overset the brain, or break the heart” (William Wordsworth, “Michael” [1800], lines 448-450). Michael, however, dies of grief."
18. 16. "Everybody looks for him. Nobody can see him: “Mine eye shall no more see good. The eye of him that hath seen me shall see me no more: thine eyes are upon me, and I am not” (Job 7:7-8)."
19. 1. "over-sleeping Rip Van Winkles, who have played at strange games through a deal of thundery weather: The protagonist of Washington Irving’s “Rip Van Winkle” (1819) sleeps for twenty years after hearing what sounds like thunder coming from a bowling game played on a mountaintop."

20. 2. "her “place” in Lincolnshire: Lincolnshire was one of the least industrialized counties in England in the mid-nineteenth century. The Dedlocks’ estate, however, was modeled on Rockingham Castle, further south in Northamptonshire, where Dickens had visited in 1849 and 1851."
21. 3. "How Alexander wept when he had no more worlds to conquer: The story is recounted by the ancient Greek biographer Plutarch."
22. 3. "Esther Summerson: In the Old Testament’s Book of Esther, the title figure is a low-born orphan who becomes a savior of her people. Esther Summerson’s character is also based on Dickens’s sister-in-law, Georgina Hogarth (1827-1917), who was his housekeeper and confidante. She was also a model for Agnes Wickfield in David Copperfield (1849-1850)."




A Tale of Two Cities
By Charles Dickens

1. "There was a king with a large jaw and a queen with a plain face, on the throne of England; there was a king with a large jaw and a queen with a fair face, on the throne of France."
2. "France, began making paper money and spending it."
3. "But, that Woodman and that Farmer, though they work unceasingly, work silently, and no one heard them as they went about with muffled tread."
4. "All these things, and a thousand like them, came to pass in and close upon the dear old one thousand seven hundred and seventy-five. Environed by them, while the Woodman and the Farmer worked unheeded, those two of the large jaws, and those other two of the plain and the fair faces, trod with stir enough, and carried their divine rights with a high hand."
Chapter II
5. "Whenever the leader made this rattle, the passenger started, as a nervous passenger might, and was disturbed in the mind."
6. "'Wo-ho!' said the coachman.
'Tst! Joe! cried the coachman in a warning voice. 'What do you say, Tom!'"
7. "They all looked from the coachman to the guard, and from the guard to the coachman, and listened. The stillness consequent on the cessation of the rumbling and laboring of the coach, added to the stillness of the night, made it very quiet indeed. The panting of the horses communicated a tremulous motion to the coach, as if it were in a state of agitation. The hearts of the passengers beat loud enough perhaps to be heard; but at any rate, the quiet pause was audibly expressive of people out of breath, and holding the breath, and having pulses quickened by expectation."
8. Reminds us that there was a time when sending and receiving mail was not as common as it is today. Then follows with a passage discussing Tellson's Bank in London.
9. "You'd be in a blazing bad way, if recalling to life was to come into fashion, Jerry!"
10. "My friend is dead, my neighbor is dead, my love, the darling of my soul, is dead; it is the inexorable consolidation and perpetuation of the secret that was always in that individuality, and which I shall carry in mine to my life's end."

11. In any of the burial-places of this city through which I pass, is there a sleeper more inscrutable than its busy inhabitants are, to me, or than I am to them?"
12. So with the three passengers shut up in the narrow compass of one lumbering old mail coach; they were mysteries to one another..."
13. "The messenger rode back at an easy trot, stopping pretty often at ale-houses by the way to drink, but evincing a tendency to keep his own counsel."
14. Reminds us that a spade was used for digging.

Chapter 4
15. "When the mail got successfully to Dover... he did it with some flourish of ceremony, for a mail journey from London in winter was an achievement to congratulate an adventurous traveller upon."
16 "He sat so still, that he might have been sitting for his portrait."
17. "But I would hold a pretty wager, sir, that a House like Tellson and Company was flourishing, a matter of fifty, not to speak of fifteen years ago?"
"You might treble that, and say a hundred and fifty, yet not be far from the truth."
18. "When Mr Lorry had finished his breakfast, he went out for a stroll on the beach. The little narrow, crooked town of Dover hid itself away from the beach, and ran its head into the chalk-cliffs, like a marine ostrich. The beach was a desert of heaps and sea stones tumbling wildly about, and the sea did what it liked, and what it liked was destruction."
19. "A little fishing was done in the port, particularly at those times when the tide made, and was near flood. Small tradesmen, who did no business whatever, sometimes unaccountably realized large fortunes, and it was remarkable that nobody in the neighborhood could endure a lamplighter."
20. "I received a letter from the Bank, sir, yesterday, informing me that some new intelligence -- or discovery --"

21. "He did not begin, but, in his indecision, met her glance. The forehead lifted itself into that singular expression..."
22. "Miss Manette, I am a man of business. I have a business charge to acquit myself of."
23. "He seemed wilfully to mistake the word she had repeated, when he added, in a hurry..."
24. "Like Monsieur Manette, your father, the gentleman was of repute in Paris. I had the honor of knowing him there. Our relations were business relations, but confidential."

Chapter 4
1. “It was told me by the Bank that the gentleman would explain to me the details of the business.”
2. During the dialogue that follows, one character suggests that the other character be less objective and view the other character's family as people instead of business customers.
3. “Couldn’t you tell her what you had to tell her, without frightening her to death? Do you call that being a banker?”
4. “Other company were there: two playing cards, two playing dominoes…”
5. “He had no good-humor in his face, nor any openness or aspect left, but had become a secret, angry, dangerous man.”
6. Suggests that sometimes we should try to be discreet.
Discreet - careful and circumspect in one's speech or actions, especially in order to avoid causing offense or to gain an advantage.
7. “The keeper of the shop stopped to strike the wall with his hand, and mutter a tremendous curse.”
8. Reminds us that we all want to live a healthy life.
Chapter 6
9. Reminds us that we find comfort in humanity.
10. “The eyes connected with the arm looked, not an every day or an every night look, at monsieur…”
11. “Beneath that arch of unmoved and eternal lights: some so remote from this little earth that the learned tell us it is doubtful…"
12. "Death is Nature's remedy for all things."
13. "...the time, half-past seven of the clock on a windy March morning, Anno Domini seventeen hundred and eighty.”
14. Anno Domini means literally, in Latin, "in the year of the lord," a reference to the Christian era.
15. “Not in regular government pay and employment, to lay traps? No motives but motives of sheer patriotism."

1. Discusses the difference between dictionary knowledge and conversational knowledge of a language.
2. “You anticipate what I would say, though you cannot know how earnestly I say it, how earnestly I feel it, without knowing…”
3. Asks the question, “What do we want in a relationship?”
4. “And all I can say of it is,” laughed Stryver with a vexed laugh, “that this—ha, ha!—beats everything past, present, and to come.”
5. Omitted.

6. "Looking gently at him again, she was surprised and saddened to see that there were tears in his eyes. There were tears in his voice too, as he answered..."

1. “In London, he had expected neither to walk on pavements of gold, nor to lie on beds of roses; if he had had any such exalted expectation, he would not have prospered. He had expected labour, and he found it…”
2. “…Young Jerry, keeping as close to house fronts, walls, and doorways, as his eyes were close to one another, held his honoured parent in view…”
3. Goes on to briefly describe a monster who ran the streets of London.
4. “Mr. Cruncher was soothed, but shook his head in a dubious and moral way.”
5. “It depends upon how you dewelop your talents. Be careful to develop your talents, and never to say no more than you can help to nobody, and…”

6. “ ‘Say, what is he like?’ I make response, ‘Tall as a spectre’.”
7. “…the manner of all of them, while it was secret, was authoritative too.”
8. “…and nothing was more noticed in the vast concourse that saw it done, than the crowd of ladies of quality and fashion, who were full of eager attention to the last…”
9. Omitted.
10. "...and the pure water in the village well—thousands of acres of land—a whole province of France—all France itself—lay under the night sky, concentrated into a faint hair-breadth line."

11. "And as mere human knowledge can split a ray of light and analyse the manner of its composition, so, sublimer intelligences may read in the feeble shining of this earth of ours..."
12. "There was no one bidden to the marriage but Mr. Lorry; there was even to be no bridesmaid but the gaunt Miss Pross. The marriage was to make no change in their place of residence; they had been able to extend it, by taking to themselves the upper rooms formerly belonging to the apocryphal invisible lodger, and they desired nothing more."
13. "It may be the character of his mind, to be always in singular need of occupation. That may be, in part, natural to it..."

1. Briefly discusses the theme of “the eternity of time and space.”
2. “…was difficult to be endured without some remonstrance by any sane man who knew the truth.”
3. “Here is a fellow, who infected by the most pestilent and blasphemous code of devilry that ever was known, abandoned his property to the vilest scum of the earth that ever did…I am sorry because I believe there is contamination in such a scoundrel. That’s why.”
4. “…and assert the claims of mercy and humanity.”
5. “The universal watchfulness so encompassed him, that if he had been taken in a net, or were being forwarded to his destination in a cage, he could not have felt his freedom more completely gone.”

1. Book III Chapter III is entitled The Shadow.
2. “…where the closed blinds in all the other windows of a high melancholy square of buildings marked deserted homes.”
3. “There was no pause, no pity, no peace, no interval of relenting rest, no measurement of time.”
4. Briefly describes La Guillotine.
5. “The billet fell as he spoke,…”

6. “In all weathers, in the snow and frost of winter, in the bitter winds of spring, in the hot sunshine of summer, in the rains of autumn, and again in the snow and frost of winter, Lucie passed two hours of every day at this place;…”
7. “…until he was actually summoned before the Tribunal.”
8. "Who could that be with Mr. Lorry—the owner of the riding-coat upon the chair—who must not be seen?"
Here, perhaps Dickens is implying that you look at people as you would look at deserted, quiet buildings.
9. “...whereas, in England, he lived by giving instruction in the French language and literature.”
10. “His high personal popularity, and the clearness of his answers, made a great impression…”

11. “until the very tide of the river on the bank of which the scene was acted, seemed to run mad, like the people on the shore.”
12. “…the people were so passionately revengeful and fitful, the innocent were so constantly put to death on vague suspicion and black malice, it was so impossible to forget that many as…”
13. “As she did so, Solomon turned to the followers of the Good Republican Brutus of Antiquity, and offered a few words of explanation in the French language, which caused them all to relapse into their former places and pursuits.”
This is inspiration to learn proverbs in different languages.

14. “In short,” said Sydney, “this is a desperate time, when desperate games are played for desperate stakes. Let the Doctor play the winning game; I will play the losing one. No man’s life here is worth purchase…”
15. “…in spite of his utmost tergiversation and treachery in furtherance of the reigning terror, a word might bring it down upon him…”
16. “Here, Mr. Lorry became aware, from where he sat, of a most remarkable goblin shadow on the wall…”
17. “At another time, sir,” he returned, evasively, “the present time is ill-conwenient for explainin…”
18. “As I was telling you last night when Lucie came in so unexpectedly, I have at length done all that I can do here.”
19. “Now, that the streets were quiet, and the night wore on, the words that he repeated were in the echoes of his feet, and were in the air…”
20. “The same determined patriots and good republicans as yesterday and the day before, and tomorrow and the day after.”
Here, Dickens suggests that people appear the same way they did yesterday and the day before, for the most part.
21. To be continued.

22. A woman gets sick, and the doctor writes, “If I had wanted to use anything save narcotic medicines that were poisons in themselves, I would not have administered any of those.”
23. “There was no touch of pity, sorrow, or kindred humanity, in this answer…He was quite incapable of any compassionate feeling about the boy, or about his fate.”
24. “Twice, he put his hand to his wound, and with his forefinger drew a cross in the air.”
25. “…he took a turn or two in the already darkening street, and traced the thought in his mind to its possible consequences.”

1. “First,” he put his hand in his coat, and took another paper from it, “that is the certificate which enables me to pass out of this city. Look at it.”
2. “You know it is a capital crime, to mourn for, or sympathise with, a victim of the Guillotine.”
3. “Several close their eyes, and think, or try to get their straying thoughts together.”
4. “It cannot be, my child; there is no time there, and no trouble there.”
5. “I see a beautiful city and a brilliant people rising from this abyss, and, in their struggles to be truly free, in their triumphs and defeats, through long years to come, I see the evil of this time and of the previous time of which this is the natural birth, gradually making expiation for itself and wearing out.
I see the lives for which I lay down my life, peaceful, useful, prosperous and happy England which I shall see no more.”


6:00am - 7:00am
The Atheists Mass, Honore de Balzac
1. His earliest studies were guided by one of the greatest of French surgeons, the illustrious Desplein, who flashed across science like a meteor.
2. Had Desplein that universal command of knowledge which makes a man the living word, the great figure of his age?
3. Desplein had a godlike eye; he saw into the sufferer and his malady by an intuition, natural or acquired, which enabled him to grasp the diagnostics peculiar to the individual, to determine the very time, the hour, the minute when an operation should be performed, making due allowance for atmospheric conditions and peculiarities of individual temperament.
4. To proceed thus, hand in hand with nature, had he then studied the constant assimilation by living beings, of the elements contained in the atmosphere, or yielded by the earth to man who absorbs them, deriving from them a particular expression of life? Did he work it all out by the power of deduction and analogy, to which we owe the genius of Cuvier? Be this as it may, this man was in all the secrets of the human frame; he knew it in the past and in the future, emphasizing the present.
5. But did he epitomize all science in his own person as Hippocrates did and Galen and Aristotle? Did he guide a whole school towards new worlds? No.
6. He believed neither in the antecedent animal nor the surviving spirit of man. Desplein had no doubts; he was positive. His bold and unqualified atheism was like that of many scientific men, the best men in the world, but invincible atheists—atheists such as religious people declare to be impossible. This opinion could scarcely exist otherwise in a man who was accustomed from his youth to dissect the creature above all others—before, during, and after life; to hunt through all his organs without ever finding the individual soul, which is indispensable to religious theory.
7. When he detected a cerebral centre, a nervous centre, and a centre for aerating the blood—the first two so perfectly complementary that in the latter years of his life he came to a conviction that the sense of hearing is not absolutely necessary for hearing, nor the sense of sight for seeing, and that the solar plexus could supply their place without any possibility of doubt—Desplein, thus finding two souls in man, confirmed his atheism by this fact, though it is no evidence against God. This man died, it is said, in final impenitence, as do, unfortunately, many noble geniuses, whom God may forgive.
8. In our day, for instance, Napoleon was condemned by our contemporaries when he spread his eagle's wings to alight in England: only 1822 could explain 1804 and the flatboats at Boulogne.
9. As, in Desplein, his glory and science were invulnerable, his enemies attacked his odd moods and his temper, whereas, in fact, he was simply characterized by what the English call eccentricity. Sometimes very handsomely dressed, like Crebillon the tragical, he would suddenly affect extreme indifference as to what he wore; he was sometimes seen in a carriage, and sometimes on foot. By turns rough and kind, harsh and covetous on the surface, but capable of offering his whole fortune to his exiled masters—who did him the honor of accepting it for a few days—no man ever gave rise to such contradictory judgements.
10. He has the whole neighborhood scared of him.
11. The qualities of a great man are often federative. If among these colossal spirits one has more talent than wit, his wit is still superior to that of a man of whom it is simply stated that "he is witty." Genius always presupposes moral insight. This insight may be applied to a special subject; but he who can see a flower must be able to see the sun.

7:00am - 8:00am
12. Among the riddles which Desplein's life presents to many of his contemporaries, we have chosen one of the most interesting, because the answer is to be found at the end of the narrative, and will avenge him for some foolish charges.
13. Of all the students in Desplein's hospital, Horace Bianchon was one of those to whom he most warmly attached himself. Before being a house surgeon at the Hotel-Dieu, Horace Bianchon had been a medical student lodging in a squalid boarding house in the Quartier Latin, known as the Maison Vauquer. This poor young man had felt there the gnawing of that burning poverty which is a sort of crucible from which great talents are to emerge as pure and incorruptible as diamonds, which may be subjected to any shock without being crushed. In the fierce fire of their unbridled passions they acquire the most impeccable honesty, and get into the habit of fighting the battles which await genius with the constant work by which they coerce their cheated appetites.
14. Horace was an upright young fellow, incapable of tergiversation on a matter of honor, going to the point without waste of words, and as ready to pledge his cloak for a friend as to give him his time and his night hours. Horace, in short, was one of those friends who are never anxious as to what they may get in return for what they give, feeling sure that they will in their turn get more than they give.
15. He was neither a puritan nor a preacher; he could swear with a grace as he gave his advice, and was always ready for a jollification when occasion offered. A jolly companion, not more prudish than a trooper, as frank and outspoken—not as a sailor, for nowadays sailors are wily diplomates—but as an honest man who has nothing in his life to hide, he walked with his head erect, and a mind content. In short, to put the facts into a word, Horace was the Pylades of more than one Orestes—creditors being regarded as the nearest modern equivalent to the Furies of the ancients.
16. When a leading clinical practitioner takes a young man to his bosom, that young man has, as they say, his foot in the stirrup...These two men—one at the summit of honor and of his science, enjoying an immense fortune and an immense reputation; the other a humble Omega, having neither fortune nor fame—became intimate friends.
17. The great Desplein told his house surgeon everything; the disciple knew whether such or such a woman had sat on a chair near the master, or on the famous couch in Desplein's surgery, on which he slept. Bianchon knew the mysteries of that temperament, a compound of the lion and the bull, which at last expanded and enlarged beyond measure the great man's torso, and caused his death by degeneration of the heart. He studied the eccentricities of that busy life, the schemes of that sordid avarice, the hopes of the politician who lurked behind the man of science; he was able to foresee the mortifications that awaited the only sentiment that lay hid in a heart that was steeled, but not of steel.
18. One day Bianchon spoke to Desplein of a poor water-carrier of the Saint-Jacques district, who had a horrible disease caused by fatigue and want; this wretched Auvergnat had had nothing but potatoes to eat during the dreadful winter of 1821.
19. It is important to use appropriate body language in public.

8:00am - 9:00am
20. The house surgeon, naturally possessed by curiosity, knowing his master's opinions, and being himself a rabid follower of Cabanis (Cabaniste en dyable, with the y, which in Rabelais seems to convey an intensity of devilry)—Bianchon stole into the church, and was not a little astonished to see the great Desplein, the atheist, who had no mercy on the angels—who give no work to the lancet, and cannot suffer from fistula or gastritis—in short, this audacious scoffer kneeling humbly, and where? In the Lady Chapel, where he remained through the mass, giving alms for the expenses of the service, alms for the poor, and looking as serious as though he were superintending an operation.
21. Bianchon did not wish to seem as though he were spying the head surgeon of the Hotel-Dieu; he went away. As it happened, Desplein asked him to dine with him that day, not at his own house, but at a restaurant. At dessert Bianchon skilfully contrived to talk of the mass, speaking of it as mummery and a farce.
22. He said nothing; he began to doubt whether he had really seen his chief at Saint-Sulpice. Desplein would not have troubled himself to tell Bianchon a lie, they knew each other too well; they had already exchanged thoughts on quite equally serious subjects, and discussed systems de natura rerum, probing or dissecting them with the knife and scalpel of incredulity.
23. His statement would justify a scientific investigation.
24. He was a master surgeon, experienced and very skilled.


25. "Will you tell me, my dear fellow," said Bianchon, as they left the church, "the reason for your fit of monkishness? I have caught you three times going to mass—— You! You must account to me for this mystery, explain such a flagrant disagreement between your opinions and your conduct. You do not believe in God, and yet you attend mass? My dear master, you are bound to give me an answer."
26. "I know; Arthez lived there; I went up there almost every day during my first youth; we used to call it then the pickle-jar of great men! What then?"
27. "I was alone, with no one to help me, no money to buy books or to pay the expenses of my medical training; I had not a friend; my irascible, touchy, restless temper was against me. I dined only every other day in a boarding-house where the meal cost me sixteen sous."
28. And no one in Paris can understand that nothing means nothing. When I even thought of revealing my beggary, I had that nervous contraction of the throat which makes a sick man believe that a ball rises up from the oesophagus into the larynx.
29. Well, I was living in that house, I was working hard to pass my first examination, and I had no money at all. You know. I had come to one of those moments of extremity when a man says, 'I will enlist.' I had one hope. My stupidity proved to me that surgery was my only vocation.
30. At night I went home, at the very moment when my fellow lodger also came in—a water-carrier named Bourgeat, a native of Saint-Flour. He himself was also turned out on account of his occupation.
31. "Next morning, just as I was swallowing my little bowl of bread soaked in milk, Bourgeat came in and said to me in his vile Auvergne accent...
32. He was a good man, and a hard worker, but he had a limp, a dead leg.
33. On learning of my situation—for he extracted my secrets with a quiet craftiness and good nature, of which the remembrance touches my heart to this day, he gave up for a time the ambition of his whole life; for twenty-two years he had been carrying water in the street, and he now devoted his hundred crowns to my future prospects."
34. Desplein at these words clutched Bianchon's arm tightly. "He gave me the money for my examination fees! That man, my friend, understood that I had a mission, that the needs of my intellect were greater than his.
34. Discusses the elements of a role reversal.
35. He had a couple of nibbles of a doughnut.
36. "This man centered all his affections in me; he looked upon me as a forlorn and suffering creature, and he became, to me, the most thoughtful mother, the most considerate benefactor, the ideal of the virtue which rejoices in its own work. When I met him in the street, he would throw me a glance of intelligence full of unutterable dignity; he would affect to walk as though he carried no weight, and seemed happy in seeing me in good health and well dressed. It was, in fact, the devoted affection of the lower classes, the love of a girl of the people transferred to a loftier level.
37. And yet, but for him, I should have died of want; he had eaten bread rubbed with garlic that I might have coffee to enable me to sit up at night.
38. This man's faith was perfect; he loved the Holy Virgin as he might have loved his wife. He was an ardent Catholic, but never said a word to me about my want of religion. When he was dying he entreated me to spare no expense that he might have every possible benefit of clergy. I had a mass said for him every day. Often, in the night, he would tell me of his fears as to his future fate; he feared his life had not been saintly enough. Poor man! he was at work from morning till night. For whom, then, is Paradise—if there be a Paradise? He received the last sacrament like the saint that he was, and his death was worthy of his life.
39. End of story.



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