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599_chapter_40
Write a detailed summary of the context provided.
Mr. Pitt comes back to Queen's Crawley and basically takes over as heir, even though Sir Pitt is still technically alive. He finds the estate tangled up in all sorts of crazy mortgages, lawsuits, and other business dealings and begins to try to make sense of the mess his father has made. Mr. Horrocks and his daughter a...
[ "In Which Becky Is Recognized by the Family", "The heir of Crawley arrived at home, in due time, after this\ncatastrophe, and henceforth may be said to have reigned in Queen's\nCrawley. For though the old Baronet survived many months, he never\nrecovered the use of his intellect or his speech completely, and the\...
519
599_chapter_41
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Becky and Rawdon fall into nostalgic thoughts on their way back to Queen's Crawley. Becky thinks about how much younger she seemed to herself nine years ago when she came to Queen's Crawley to be a governess. Rawdon thinks about his own misspent youth. OK, sentimental break over. Young Sir Pitt welcomes Becky and Rawdo...
[ "In Which Becky Revisits the Halls of Her Ancestors", "So the mourning being ready, and Sir Pitt Crawley warned of their\narrival, Colonel Crawley and his wife took a couple of places in the\nsame old High-flyer coach by which Rebecca had travelled in the defunct\nBaronet's company, on her first journey into the ...
520
599_chapter_42
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Yes, how is that Osborne family? Mr. Osborne is more and more growly and miserable than ever. He proposed to Miss Swartz, the mixed-race rich girl he had been trying to get George to marry, but was rejected by her and her minders out of hand. Maria was finally married to Fred Bullock. Jane is a spinster and lives in to...
[ "Which Treats of the Osborne Family", "Considerable time has elapsed since we have seen our respectable\nfriend, old Mr. Osborne of Russell Square. He has not been the\nhappiest of mortals since last we met him. Events have occurred which\nhave not improved his temper, and in more instances than one he has\nnot b...
521
599_chapter_43
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Meanwhile, all this time Dobbin has been stationed in India as a Major under Colonel O'Dowd. With the promotion to Colonel, O'Dowd got a title, so Mrs. O'Dowd became a Lady. Lady O'Dowd is just as kind and domineering as ever. She wants her sister-in-law, Glorvina, to marry Dobbin, so Glorvina spends all day every day ...
[ "In Which the Reader Has to Double the Cape", "The astonished reader must be called upon to transport himself ten\nthousand miles to the military station of Bundlegunge, in the Madras\ndivision of our Indian empire, where our gallant old friends of the\n--th regiment are quartered under the command of the brave C...
522
599_chapter_44
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In London Becky is in charge of redecorating the Crawley family's Gaunt Street house. She loves this job, which plays to her artistic and creative abilities. When young Sir Pitt comes to town, she meets him and invites him to stay at her house while the Gaunt Street house is being worked on. She sings to him, complimen...
[ "A Round-about Chapter between London and Hampshire", "Our old friends the Crawleys' family house, in Great Gaunt Street,\nstill bore over its front the hatchment which had been placed there as\na token of mourning for Sir Pitt Crawley's demise, yet this heraldic\nemblem was in itself a very splendid and gaudy pi...
523
599_chapter_45
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Pitt starts to really live it up at Queen's Crawley. His main goal is to earn back all the respect and reputation for the Crawley family that his father destroyed at the end of his life. To do this, Pitt upgrades the grounds, has people over for dinner, starts up foxhunting again, and donates to the local charities. Ho...
[ "Between Hampshire and London", "Sir Pitt Crawley had done more than repair fences and restore\ndilapidated lodges on the Queen's Crawley estate. Like a wise man he\nhad set to work to rebuild the injured popularity of his house and stop\nup the gaps and ruins in which his name had been left by his\ndisreputable ...
524
599_chapter_46
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The Sedleys have a household income of about 200 pounds a year, which should be enough to keep the four of them comfortable. Amelia scrimps and saves to try to dress George Jr. in the kind of fancy clothes she thinks George's son should be wearing. George is old enough now to go to school, so Amelia sends him to Mr. Bi...
[ "Struggles and Trials", "Our friends at Brompton were meanwhile passing their Christmas after\ntheir fashion and in a manner by no means too cheerful.", "Out of the hundred pounds a year, which was about the amount of her\nincome, the Widow Osborne had been in the habit of giving up nearly\nthree-fourths to her...
525
599_chapter_47
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This chapter clues us in on why Lord Steyne is the way he is. So, to make a long-ish story short: Steyne has a secret set of apartments inside his London mansion where his married friends can bring their mistresses . He also makes his serious, proper wife invite some really gross characters to dinner, thus officially s...
[ "Gaunt House", "All the world knows that Lord Steyne's town palace stands in Gaunt\nSquare, out of which Great Gaunt Street leads, whither we first\nconducted Rebecca, in the time of the departed Sir Pitt Crawley. Peering over the railings and through the black trees into the garden\nof the Square, you see a few ...
526
599_chapter_48
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Finally, finally, all of Becky's striving and work and effort are about to pay off. She is ready to climb to the very top of the social ladder - or least its public side. At last she gets to...wait for it...be presented to the King of England at Court! Yay! Sort of. So what is this presented-at-Court thing all about? W...
[ "In Which the Reader Is Introduced to the Very Best of Company", "At last Becky's kindness and attention to the chief of her husband's\nfamily were destined to meet with an exceeding great reward, a reward\nwhich, though certainly somewhat unsubstantial, the little woman\ncoveted with greater eagerness than more ...
527
599_chapter_49
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How exactly did Becky score that invitation to Lady Steyne's dinner party? We get a little window onto the scene at Gaunt House and see Lord Steyne browbeating Lady Steyne and his daughter-in-law, Lady Gaunt, into sending it. Lady Gaunt at first loudly objects to having anything to do with Becky since she is so low-bor...
[ "In Which We Enjoy Three Courses and a Dessert", "When the ladies of Gaunt House were at breakfast that morning, Lord\nSteyne (who took his chocolate in private and seldom disturbed the\nfemales of his household, or saw them except upon public days, or when\nthey crossed each other in the hall, or when from his p...
528
599_chapter_50
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Mrs. Sedley is growing more and more bitter and unpleasant because of the discomfort and constant embarrassment of being poor. She is no longer friends with the landlady and now has suspicions about the one maid they have. Amelia tries to be nice to her, but to no avail. Amelia tries to figure out if there is something...
[ "Contains a Vulgar Incident", "The Muse, whoever she be, who presides over this Comic History must now\ndescend from the genteel heights in which she has been soaring and have\nthe goodness to drop down upon the lowly roof of John Sedley at\nBrompton, and describe what events are taking place there. Here, too,\ni...
529
599_chapter_51
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Now come the few months of Becky's triumph. Oh, sorry, spoiler alert. Ever since the invitation to the cool table at Lady's Steyne's house, all doors are open to Becky. She takes full advantage and is generally a star. At first she hangs out with the "best" foreigners. Then she is accepted into the society of the "best...
[ "In Which a Charade Is Acted Which May or May Not Puzzle the Reader", "After Becky's appearance at my Lord Steyne's private and select parties, the claims of that estimable woman as regards fashion were settled, and some of the very greatest and tallest doors in the metropolis were speedily opened to her--doors s...
530
599_chapter_52
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Let's take a few steps back in time again. It seems that Lord Steyne has really been on a mission to clear everyone out of Becky's house. What could he possibly be up to? The first thing he does is use his political clout to get Rawdon Jr. a spot at prestigious boarding school. Rawdon is upset at the idea of his son go...
[ "In Which Lord Steyne Shows Himself in a Most Amiable Light", "When Lord Steyne was benevolently disposed, he did nothing by halves,\nand his kindness towards the Crawley family did the greatest honour to\nhis benevolent discrimination. His lordship extended his good-will to\nlittle Rawdon: he pointed out to the...
531
599_chapter_53
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Rawdon goes with the bailiffs who arrested him to the debtors holding prison. He's not too worried, since the amount he owes isn't huge. Everyone at the prison is very nice to him because apparently he has been there a couple times before. Debtors' prisons were more like inns with walls around them than jails. The idea...
[ "A Rescue and a Catastrophe", "Friend Rawdon drove on then to Mr. Moss's mansion in Cursitor Street,\nand was duly inducted into that dismal place of hospitality. Morning\nwas breaking over the cheerful house-tops of Chancery Lane as the\nrattling cab woke up the echoes there. A little pink-eyed Jew-boy,\nwith a...
532
599_chapter_54
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It's now morning, and Rawdon stumbles into Pitt and Lady Jane's mansion. He tries to read the paper in Pitt's study but is too crazed to make out the words. Pitt comes downstairs and is alarmed to see his disheveled brother . Rawdon tells him that it's all over. At first Pitt thinks he's talking about money and starts ...
[ "Sunday After the Battle", "The mansion of Sir Pitt Crawley, in Great Gaunt Street, was just\nbeginning to dress itself for the day, as Rawdon, in his evening\ncostume, which he had now worn two days, passed by the scared female\nwho was scouring the steps and entered into his brother's study. Lady\nJane, in her ...
533
599_chapter_55
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Meanwhile, after lying in bed a little bit, Becky comes around and rings the bell to summon her maid. Nothing happens. She rings again and again, until finally she rips the bell rope out of the wall. It turns out that the maid, realizing that the household was probably about to be bankrupt, had already taken as many va...
[ "In Which the Same Subject is Pursued", "Becky did not rally from the state of stupor and confusion in which the\nevents of the previous night had plunged her intrepid spirit until the\nbells of the Curzon Street Chapels were ringing for afternoon service,\nand rising from her bed she began to ply her own bell, i...
534
599_chapter_56
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George Jr. is living is up at Mr. Osborne's, who has decided that money is no object when it comes to his grandson. Mr. Osborne's hopes and dreams are to turn George Jr. into a titled gentleman. George Jr. has clothes, a nice pony, his own servant, and a series of private tutors. As he learns from these tutors, he real...
[ "Georgy is Made a Gentleman", "Georgy Osborne was now fairly established in his grandfather's mansion\nin Russell Square, occupant of his father's room in the house and heir\napparent of all the splendours there. The good looks, gallant bearing,\nand gentlemanlike appearance of the boy won the grandsire's heart ...
535
599_chapter_57
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At her mother's funeral, Amelia almost wishes she were in the casket instead. Her life seems like it's over. She is forced to live on the charity of Mr. Osborne and to take care of her aging and somewhat mentally unstable father. Still, she bucks up and determines to try her best to make her father's time on earth happ...
[ "Eothen", "It was one of the many causes for personal pride with which old Osborne\nchose to recreate himself that Sedley, his ancient rival, enemy, and\nbenefactor, was in his last days so utterly defeated and humiliated as\nto be forced to accept pecuniary obligations at the hands of the man\nwho had most injur...
536
599_chapter_58
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Jos and Dobbin disembark and take a room at a famous inn. Their first meal of British roast beef and beer is heavenly. Dobbin wants to be off to London ASAP, but Jos is tired and cranky and fat and doesn't want to go without all his stuff. Dobbin agrees to stay overnight at the inn but gets up at the crack of dawn and ...
[ "Our Friend the Major", "Our Major had rendered himself so popular on board the Ramchunder that\nwhen he and Mr. Sedley descended into the welcome shore-boat which was\nto take them from the ship, the whole crew, men and officers, the great\nCaptain Bragg himself leading off, gave three cheers for Major Dobbin,\n...
537
599_chapter_59
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Mr. Sedley is shaken into some rather pathetic business-type activity by the idea that Jos is coming. He starts going through his papers as if Jos is going to do some kind of audit, then cries because Mrs. Sedley is dead and won't be able to ride on Jos's carriage. He's really a very sad old man at this point. But Jos ...
[ "The Old Piano", "The Major's visit left old John Sedley in a great state of agitation and excitement. His daughter could not induce him to settle down to his customary occupations or amusements that night. He passed the evening fumbling amongst his boxes and desks, untying his papers with trembling hands, and so...
538
599_chapter_60
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Now that she is restored to reasonable wealth again, Amelia suddenly regains a bunch of her old "friends." Maybe frenemies is a better word? In any case, Miss Osborne and Dobbin's sisters now start to visit her. She starts to make friends with Jos's circle of India retirees. She does well. The women like her OK, and th...
[ "Returns to the Genteel World", "Good fortune now begins to smile upon Amelia. We are glad to get her\nout of that low sphere in which she has been creeping hitherto and\nintroduce her into a polite circle--not so grand and refined as that in\nwhich our other female friend, Mrs. Becky, has appeared, but still\nha...
539
599_chapter_61
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Not long after Mrs. Sedley's death and Jos and Dobbin's return, Mr. Sedley takes a turn for the worse. Clearly he's about to die. Amelia takes care of him during his final days, and Mr. Sedley loves her more and more for it. Finally he apologizes for how he and her mother were angry with her over her excessive devotion...
[ "In Which Two Lights are Put Out", "There came a day when the round of decorous pleasures and solemn\ngaieties in which Mr. Jos Sedley's family indulged was interrupted by\nan event which happens in most houses. As you ascend the staircase of\nyour house from the drawing towards the bedroom floors, you may have\...
540
599_chapter_62
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A few weeks later it's the season for the British to go abroad. They apparently do this en masse every year at a particular time. On the ship Jos acts like a big-time traveler but gets very sick when the actual journey starts. They see the Bareacres family, who sit alone and talk to no one on board. George Jr. is havin...
[ "Am Rhein", "The above everyday events had occurred, and a few weeks had passed,\nwhen on one fine morning, Parliament being over, the summer advanced,\nand all the good company in London about to quit that city for their\nannual tour in search of pleasure or health, the Batavier steamboat\nleft the Tower-stairs ...
541
599_chapter_63
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Immediately Jos starts getting himself into the highest ranks of the little town's society. The British ambassador to the town, Lord Tapeworm, makes friends with everyone. He recommends a doctor whose miracle diet will make Jos skinny , flirts with Amelia , and gets them all invited to dinner at court with the local du...
[ "In Which We Meet an Old Acquaintance", "Such polite behaviour as that of Lord Tapeworm did not fail to have the\nmost favourable effect upon Mr. Sedley's mind, and the very next\nmorning, at breakfast, he pronounced his opinion that Pumpernickel was\nthe pleasantest little place of any which he had visited on th...
542
599_chapter_64
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So what exactly has Becky been up to this whole time? The narrator would really like to catch us up with her but, well, her doings aren't really appropriate for polite conversation. The narrator makes a now-famous comparison between Becky and the sirens of Greek mythology. Sure she's really pretty sitting on a rock and...
[ "A Vagabond Chapter", "We must pass over a part of Mrs. Rebecca Crawley's biography with that\nlightness and delicacy which the world demands--the moral world, that\nhas, perhaps, no particular objection to vice, but an insuperable\nrepugnance to hearing vice called by its proper name. There are things\nwe do and...
543
599_chapter_65
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The morning after his night gambling, Jos dolls himself up as best as he can and goes to visit Becky. She lives on the upper floor of a quasi-Bohemian kind of hotel where all sorts of people from students to traveling merchants are staying. It's not a nice place, but Becky kind of loves it there. She has reverted almos...
[ "Full of Business and Pleasure", "The day after the meeting at the play-table, Jos had himself arrayed\nwith unusual care and splendour, and without thinking it necessary to\nsay a word to any member of his family regarding the occurrences of the\nprevious night, or asking for their company in his walk, he sallie...
544
599_chapter_66
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Becky is actually quite moved by Amelia's PDA. She feels sort of bad about having to pretend that she's tormented about Rawdon Jr., but there's no way around it now. Amelia immediately falls for Becky's version of the events surrounding her marriage and separation, especially since Becky is clever enough not to speak w...
[ "Amantium Irae", "Frankness and kindness like Amelia's were likely to touch even such a\nhardened little reprobate as Becky. She returned Emmy's caresses and\nkind speeches with something very like gratitude, and an emotion which,\nif it was not lasting, for a moment was almost genuine. That was a\nlucky stroke...
545
599_chapter_67
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Becky is psyched to live in the comfort and affection of Amelia and Jos's place. Like she usually does when she's taken care of, she starts to try to please everyone around her. She does this quite well. Jos is quickly wrapped around Becky's little finger. He starts to give little parties in her honor, and a part of so...
[ "Which Contains Births, Marriages, and Deaths", "Whatever Becky's private plan might be by which Dobbin's true love was\nto be crowned with success, the little woman thought that the secret\nmight keep, and indeed, being by no means so much interested about\nanybody's welfare as about her own, she had a great num...
546
599_chapters_1-4
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Miss Amelia Sedley and Becky Sharp prepare to leave Chiswick Mall for Amelia's home. Miss Pinkerton, who runs the academy, autographs a copy of Dr. Johnson's dictionary for Amelia, whose father is rich. The orphaned Becky, having neither money nor position does not rate one. Miss Pinkerton writes Amelia's mother a stil...
[ "Chiswick Mall", "While the present century was in its teens, and on one sunshiny morning\nin June, there drove up to the great iron gate of Miss Pinkerton's\nacademy for young ladies, on Chiswick Mall, a large family coach, with\ntwo fat horses in blazing harness, driven by a fat coachman in a\nthree-cornered ha...
547
599_chapters_5-7
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This installment begins with a flashback about Dr. Swishtail's school. Students have snubbed William Dobbin because his father is a retail grocer. Dobbin has crossed Cuff, the bully of the school, when he tries to take Dobbin's letter away from him. Later Dobbin stops Cuff from beating George Sedley Osborne. In the ens...
[ "Dobbin of Ours", "Cuff's fight with Dobbin, and the unexpected issue of that contest,\nwill long be remembered by every man who was educated at Dr. Swishtail's famous school. The latter Youth (who used to be called\nHeigh-ho Dobbin, Gee-ho Dobbin, and by many other names indicative of\npuerile contempt) was the ...
548
599_chapters_8-11
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Rebecca writes to Amelia describing her sadness at their separation, relating in detail the coach trip, and ridiculing Sir Pitt. She describes the Crawley family, dwells on Sir Pitt's crudeness and stinginess, saying that he even counts the grapes on the vines. At the close of the letter, the author notes that Rebecca ...
[ "Private and Confidential", "Miss Rebecca Sharp to Miss Amelia Sedley, Russell Square, London.\n(Free.--Pitt Crawley.)", "MY DEAREST, SWEETEST AMELIA,", "With what mingled joy and sorrow do I take up the pen to write to my\ndearest friend! Oh, what a change between to-day and yesterday! Now I\nam friendless ...
549
599_chapters_12-14
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Following the publication of the preceding chapters, some readers wrote that they could see nothing in Amelia. Thackeray says this is the greatest compliment one woman can pay another. With men around, no woman gives another credit for anything. The Osborne girls are jealous of their brother. Miss Maria Osborne's speci...
[ "Quite a Sentimental Chapter", "We must now take leave of Arcadia, and those amiable people practising\nthe rural virtues there, and travel back to London, to inquire what has\nbecome of Miss Amelia.", "\"We don't care a fig for her,\" writes some unknown correspondent with a\npretty little handwriting and a pi...
550
599_chapters_15-18
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The mystery of Becky's refusal of Sir Pitt, her consequent embarrassment and tears, the deepening attachment of Miss Crawley's household for the poor child, start this number off with excitement. The author shows the pace by an essay on the probability of a gentleman's marrying a maidservant. "If people only made prude...
[ "In Which Rebecca's Husband Appears for a Short Time", "Every reader of a sentimental turn (and we desire no other) must have\nbeen pleased with the tableau with which the last act of our little\ndrama concluded; for what can be prettier than an image of Love on his\nknees before Beauty?", "But when Love heard ...
551
599_chapters_19-22
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Thackeray contrasts Mrs. Bute Crawley's flattery of the servants with Rawdon's blunt treatment, and concludes that soft words take a person further than unkind ones. Mrs. Bute Crawley establishes herself in Miss Crawley's house, makes friends of Firkin and Briggs, and digs in for battle, suspecting that Rawdon will try...
[ "Miss Crawley at Nurse", "We have seen how Mrs. Firkin, the lady's maid, as soon as any event of\nimportance to the Crawley family came to her knowledge, felt bound to\ncommunicate it to Mrs. Bute Crawley, at the Rectory; and have before\nmentioned how particularly kind and attentive that good-natured lady\nwas t...
552
599_chapters_23-25
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An essay on friendship explains why Dobbin is so bold for George's interest, whereas he does nothing for himself. In time, now, the reader goes back to Dobbin before his arrival in Brighton. Dobbin's nervous behavior when he has visited Russell Square has made Miss Lane Osborne think that he is about to propose to her....
[ "Captain Dobbin Proceeds on His Canvass", "What is the secret mesmerism which friendship possesses, and under the\noperation of which a person ordinarily sluggish, or cold, or timid,\nbecomes wise, active, and resolute, in another's behalf? As Alexis,\nafter a few passes from Dr. Elliotson, despises pain, reads w...
553
599_chapters_26-29
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This installment begins with a description of the style of living practiced by George and Amelia. When Amelia wants to visit her mother, George goes to the theater. Here Thackeray interposes an essay on mothers. Amelia, married nine days, feels apprehensive rather than happy. "Something which, when obtained, brought do...
[ "Between London and Chatham", "On quitting Brighton, our friend George, as became a person of rank and\nfashion travelling in a barouche with four horses, drove in state to a\nfine hotel in Cavendish Square, where a suite of splendid rooms, and a\ntable magnificently furnished with plate and surrounded by a half-...
554
599_chapters_30-32
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This section opens with the O'Dowds discussing the forthcoming battle and making preparations for the major's march. After his departure Mrs. O'Dowd reads a book of sermons. Rawdon, more affected than Becky at their parting, shows his love and worship for her by his concern for her welfare. "She had known perpetually h...
[ "\"The Girl I Left Behind Me\"", "We do not claim to rank among the military novelists. Our place is with\nthe non-combatants. When the decks are cleared for action we go below\nand wait meekly. We should only be in the way of the manoeuvres that\nthe gallant fellows are performing overhead. We shall go no far...
555
599_chapters_33-35
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Back in England Miss Crawley hears about Rawdon and thinks what a good marriage for money he could have made. Rawdon, through Rebecca, sends his aunt gifts from the battlefield and anecdotes -- both the product of Becky's imagination. At Queen's Crawley, Miss Horrocks, the butler's daughter, accompanies Sir Pitt as he ...
[ "In Which Miss Crawley's Relations Are Very Anxious About Her", "The kind reader must please to remember--while the army is marching\nfrom Flanders, and, after its heroic actions there, is advancing to\ntake the fortifications on the frontiers of France, previous to an\noccupation of that country--that there are ...
556
599_chapters_36-38
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Thackeray starts this section with an essay on how people live on nothing. He then talks about Rawdon and Rebecca, who are settled in Mayfair, entertain all the time, yet have no money, except what Rawdon makes by gambling. The story reverts to the time in Paris when Rawdon has gambled with other soldiers. Colonel O'Do...
[ "How to Live Well on Nothing a Year", "I suppose there is no man in this Vanity Fair of ours so little\nobservant as not to think sometimes about the worldly affairs of his\nacquaintances, or so extremely charitable as not to wonder how his\nneighbour Jones, or his neighbour Smith, can make both ends meet at the\...
557
599_chapters_39-42
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The story goes back to the relatives who hoped to benefit by Miss Crawley's death. Bute has been mourning because he has received five thousand pounds instead of the expected thirty thousand. Mrs. Bute has redoubled her efforts to make good marriages for her daughters. There is a flashback to Pitt's and Lady Jane's vis...
[ "A Cynical Chapter", "Our duty now takes us back for a brief space to some old Hampshire acquaintances of ours, whose hopes respecting the disposal of their rich kinswoman's property were so woefully disappointed. After counting upon thirty thousand pounds from his sister, it was a heavy blow to Bute Crawley to r...
558
599_chapters_43-46
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The reader now goes to the Madras division in the Indian Empire, where Sir Michael O'Dowd commands Dobbin's regiment. Mrs. O'Dowd, kind, impetuous, and eager, tyrannizes her husband, bosses the ladies of the regiment, and mothers the young men. She decides Glorvina should marry Dobbin, who, of course, dreams only of Am...
[ "In Which the Reader Has to Double the Cape", "The astonished reader must be called upon to transport himself ten\nthousand miles to the military station of Bundlegunge, in the Madras\ndivision of our Indian empire, where our gallant old friends of the\n--th regiment are quartered under the command of the brave C...
559
599_chapters_47-50
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This installment opens with a description of Great Gaunt Street from the viewpoint of Tom Eaves. Tom thinks that in rich families the sons and fathers naturally hate each other. The son wishes the father would die so he may inherit; the younger sons wish the older son dead so they may inherit. The insanity of Lord Stey...
[ "Gaunt House", "All the world knows that Lord Steyne's town palace stands in Gaunt\nSquare, out of which Great Gaunt Street leads, whither we first\nconducted Rebecca, in the time of the departed Sir Pitt Crawley. Peering over the railings and through the black trees into the garden\nof the Square, you see a few ...
560
599_chapters_51-53
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Thackeray begins this installment with a discourse on how all the doors of fashion now open for Becky and how vain it all is. He lists the important people and places she visits. Becky continues to charm people; the women try to snub Becky but she bests them. Vanity Fair wonders where Becky gets money to entertain. Som...
[ "In Which a Charade Is Acted Which May or May Not Puzzle the Reader", "After Becky's appearance at my Lord Steyne's private and select parties, the claims of that estimable woman as regards fashion were settled, and some of the very greatest and tallest doors in the metropolis were speedily opened to her--doors s...
561
599_chapters_54-56
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When Rawdon goes to see his older brother, Pitt thinks him drunk, then believes Rawdon wants money and offers many excuses. When Rawdon says he does not want money, Pitt sighs with relief. Rawdon tells all that has happened and says he may be killed in a duel with Steyne. Rawdon asks only that little Rawdon be cared fo...
[ "Sunday After the Battle", "The mansion of Sir Pitt Crawley, in Great Gaunt Street, was just\nbeginning to dress itself for the day, as Rawdon, in his evening\ncostume, which he had now worn two days, passed by the scared female\nwho was scouring the steps and entered into his brother's study. Lady\nJane, in her ...
562
599_chapters_57-60
Write a detailed summary of the context provided.
Old Osborne likes to think of Sedley's being forced to accept charity from him. He hints to Georgy that his mother's father is a wretched old bankrupt, whereupon Georgy patronizes the old man. Amelia's nature is to sacrifice herself and to think herself guilty of selfish love, thereby accounting for her punishment thro...
[ "Eothen", "It was one of the many causes for personal pride with which old Osborne\nchose to recreate himself that Sedley, his ancient rival, enemy, and\nbenefactor, was in his last days so utterly defeated and humiliated as\nto be forced to accept pecuniary obligations at the hands of the man\nwho had most injur...
563
599_chapters_61-63
Write a detailed summary of the context provided.
This section starts with an essay describing the appearance and use of the second-floor arch of a London house where, among other things, the undertaker's men rest the coffin of a deceased person in the household. The subject of this essay leads to Thackeray's revelation that old Mr. Sedley is dying. Before he dies he ...
[ "In Which Two Lights are Put Out", "There came a day when the round of decorous pleasures and solemn\ngaieties in which Mr. Jos Sedley's family indulged was interrupted by\nan event which happens in most houses. As you ascend the staircase of\nyour house from the drawing towards the bedroom floors, you may have\...
564
599_chapters_64-67
Write a detailed summary of the context provided.
Becky's life, after Rawdon leaves her, consists at first in trying to stay respectable, but just when she has built up a new circle of friends, someone informs about her and she is left alone. She tries at first to get Sir Pitt to listen to her, but Wenham, Lord Steyne's man, has told Pitt too much about her. Becky wan...
[ "A Vagabond Chapter", "We must pass over a part of Mrs. Rebecca Crawley's biography with that\nlightness and delicacy which the world demands--the moral world, that\nhas, perhaps, no particular objection to vice, but an insuperable\nrepugnance to hearing vice called by its proper name. There are things\nwe do and...
479
599_chapter_1
Write a detailed summary of the context provided.
Two young ladies-Amelia Sedley and Rebecca Sharp are preparing to leave Miss Pinkertons finishing school. Amelia is the kind hearted, conventional beauty who is loved by all, while Rebecca is a defiant young woman, who is disliked by almost everyone, including Miss Pinkerton. Only Miss Pinkertons sister, Jemima, and A...
[ "Chiswick Mall", "While the present century was in its teens, and on one sunshiny morning\nin June, there drove up to the great iron gate of Miss Pinkerton's\nacademy for young ladies, on Chiswick Mall, a large family coach, with\ntwo fat horses in blazing harness, driven by a fat coachman in a\nthree-cornered ha...
480
599_chapter_2
Write a detailed summary of the context provided.
Becky is wickedly satisfied with the heroic act she has just performed. She tells Amelia that she was treated with contempt and compelled to teach French at the mall and that she was glad to bid it goodbye. Amelia, excitedly, shows Becky around her house and gifts her a Cashmere shawl , besides a lot of other things. T...
[ "In Which Miss Sharp and Miss Sedley Prepare to Open the Campaign", "When Miss Sharp had performed the heroical act mentioned in the last\nchapter, and had seen the Dixonary, flying over the pavement of the\nlittle garden, fall at length at the feet of the astonished Miss\nJemima, the young lady's countenance, wh...
546
599_chapter_1-4
Write a detailed summary of the context provided.
Two, Three and Four Vanity Fair begins in the early 19th century, on a 'sunshiny morning in June'. Miss Amelia Sedley and Miss Rebecca Sharp are leaving Miss Pinkerton's Academy. Amelia's father is wealthy, whereas Becky has been an 'articled pupil' . They are leaving together as Becky is to stay with Amelia for a shor...
[ "Chiswick Mall", "While the present century was in its teens, and on one sunshiny morning\nin June, there drove up to the great iron gate of Miss Pinkerton's\nacademy for young ladies, on Chiswick Mall, a large family coach, with\ntwo fat horses in blazing harness, driven by a fat coachman in a\nthree-cornered ha...
565
599_chapter_5-10
Write a detailed summary of the context provided.
Six, Seven, Eight, Nine and Ten Chapter Five shifts its gaze to give the background of a fight between Cuff and Dobbin at Dr Swishtail's School. Dobbin is teased mercilessly at school because his father is a grocer. Boys young and old join in and this includes the younger Osborne. Despite this, Dobbin stops Cuff bullyi...
[ "Dobbin of Ours", "Cuff's fight with Dobbin, and the unexpected issue of that contest,\nwill long be remembered by every man who was educated at Dr. Swishtail's famous school. The latter Youth (who used to be called\nHeigh-ho Dobbin, Gee-ho Dobbin, and by many other names indicative of\npuerile contempt) was the ...
566
599_chapter_11-16
Write a detailed summary of the context provided.
Twelve, Thirteen, Fourteen, Fifteen and Sixteen Chapter Eleven introduces Sir Pitt's relatives and neighbors who live at the rectory: his brother Bute Crawley and sister-in-law Mrs Bute Crawley. Bute enjoys hunting and socializing and she is thrifty and writes his sermons. Despite her thriftiness, he is always in debt....
[ "Arcadian Simplicity", "Besides these honest folks at the Hall (whose simplicity and sweet\nrural purity surely show the advantage of a country life over a town\none), we must introduce the reader to their relatives and neighbours at\nthe Rectory, Bute Crawley and his wife.", "The Reverend Bute Crawley was a ta...
567
599_chapter_17-24
Write a detailed summary of the context provided.
Eighteen, Nineteen, Twenty, Twenty One, Twenty Two, Twenty Three and Twenty Four Chapter Seventeen begins with an auction of the contents of a house. It is gradually revealed that this is the Sedley home. Although not named at first, we later discover that a painting of a stout man on an elephant is bought by Rawdon an...
[ "How Captain Dobbin Bought a Piano", "If there is any exhibition in all Vanity Fair which Satire and\nSentiment can visit arm in arm together; where you light on the\nstrangest contrasts laughable and tearful: where you may be gentle and\npathetic, or savage and cynical with perfect propriety: it is at one of\nth...
568
599_chapter_25-31
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Five, Twenty Six, Twenty Seven, Twenty Eight, Twenty Nine, Thirty and Thirty One Dobbin is described as a hypocrite by the narrator, in Chapter Twenty Five, as he hides his true feelings for Amelia and plays down the forthcoming war. At the moment, Amelia has little regard for him, but after two hours in Dobbin's compa...
[ "In Which All the Principal Personages Think Fit to Leave Brighton", "Conducted to the ladies, at the Ship Inn, Dobbin assumed a jovial and\nrattling manner, which proved that this young officer was becoming a\nmore consummate hypocrite every day of his life. He was trying to hide\nhis own private feelings, firs...
569
599_chapter_32-38
Write a detailed summary of the context provided.
Two, Thirty Three, Thirty Four, Thirty Five, Thirty Six, Thirty Seven and Thirty Eight Chapter Thirty Two details the preparations of the non-combatants as war looms. Joseph is terrified at the thought of the approaching French army and orders a carriage to take him and Amelia to the port to return to England. Amelia r...
[ "In Which Jos Takes Flight, and the War Is Brought to a Close", "We of peaceful London City have never beheld--and please God never\nshall witness--such a scene of hurry and alarm, as that which Brussels\npresented. Crowds rushed to the Namur gate, from which direction the\nnoise proceeded, and many rode along th...
570
599_chapter_39-45
Write a detailed summary of the context provided.
Nine, Forty, Forty One, Forty Two, Forty Three, Forty Four and Forty Five In Chapter Thirty Nine, Sir Pitt is seen to be closer than ever to Miss Horrocks and she now rules the house. When Sir Pitt falls dangerously ill, Mrs Bute Crawley takes over and dismisses Mr and Miss Horrocks after she is seen attempting to unlo...
[ "A Cynical Chapter", "Our duty now takes us back for a brief space to some old Hampshire acquaintances of ours, whose hopes respecting the disposal of their rich kinswoman's property were so woefully disappointed. After counting upon thirty thousand pounds from his sister, it was a heavy blow to Bute Crawley to r...
571
599_chapter_46-50
Write a detailed summary of the context provided.
Six, Forty Seven, Forty Eight, Forty Nine and Fifty The narrative moves to the Sedleys in Chapter Forty Six and explains how Amelia has to scrimp in order to dress Georgy well. His aunt, Jane Osborne, yearns to see him and after the first time Amelia reluctantly allows more contact. On one of these visits Georgy meets ...
[ "Struggles and Trials", "Our friends at Brompton were meanwhile passing their Christmas after\ntheir fashion and in a manner by no means too cheerful.", "Out of the hundred pounds a year, which was about the amount of her\nincome, the Widow Osborne had been in the habit of giving up nearly\nthree-fourths to her...
572
599_chapter_51-55
Write a detailed summary of the context provided.
One, Fifty Two, Fifty Three, Fifty Four and Fifty Five In Chapter Fifty One, we are told that after being invited to Lord Steyne's parties, 'some of the very greatest and tallest doors in the metropolis' were now open to Becky. At first her success excites her, but then it begins to bore her. A description of a game of...
[ "In Which a Charade Is Acted Which May or May Not Puzzle the Reader", "After Becky's appearance at my Lord Steyne's private and select parties, the claims of that estimable woman as regards fashion were settled, and some of the very greatest and tallest doors in the metropolis were speedily opened to her--doors s...
573
599_chapter_56-63
Write a detailed summary of the context provided.
Six, Fifty Seven, Fifty Eight, Fifty Nine, Sixty, Sixty One , Sixty Two and Sixty Three Georgy is settling in at his grandfather Osborne's home in Chapter Fifty Six. Osborne senior can now afford to make a gentleman of him and this has the effect of Georgy looking down on him. The narrator informs us that his previous ...
[ "Georgy is Made a Gentleman", "Georgy Osborne was now fairly established in his grandfather's mansion\nin Russell Square, occupant of his father's room in the house and heir\napparent of all the splendours there. The good looks, gallant bearing,\nand gentlemanlike appearance of the boy won the grandsire's heart ...
564
599_chapter_64-67
Write a detailed summary of the context provided.
Four, Sixty Five, Sixty Six and Sixty Seven Chapter Sixty Four gives some information as to what has happened to Becky after she left London. At the time of her separation from Rawdon, it is seen as being in everyone's interests that she leaves the country. She writes to her son once and then nothing for a year. She th...
[ "A Vagabond Chapter", "We must pass over a part of Mrs. Rebecca Crawley's biography with that\nlightness and delicacy which the world demands--the moral world, that\nhas, perhaps, no particular objection to vice, but an insuperable\nrepugnance to hearing vice called by its proper name. There are things\nwe do and...
574
416_the_book_of_the_grotesque""
Write a detailed summary of the context provided.
When Sherwood Anderson submitted his manuscript of Winesburg, Ohio to a publisher it had a different title; he had named it The Book of the Grotesque. Although the publisher changed the name of the book, he left the title of the Introduction the same, so Winesburg begins with a sketch that is not about Winesburg or Geo...
[ "THE BOOK OF THE GROTESQUE", "The writer, an old man with a white mustache, had some\ndifficulty in getting into bed. The windows of the\nhouse in which he lived were high and he wanted to look\nat the trees when he awoke in the morning. A carpenter\ncame to fix the bed so that it would be on a level with\nthe wi...
575
416_hands""
Write a detailed summary of the context provided.
In his Memoirs, Anderson tells about the first reactions to Winesburg, Ohio when it was published in 1919. He recalls that it was "widely condemned," described as "a sewer," and its author was called "sex-obsessed." He reports that a woman told him, "I read one of the stories and, after that, I would not touch it with ...
[ "HANDS", "Upon the half decayed veranda of a small frame house\nthat stood near the edge of a ravine near the town of\nWinesburg, Ohio, a fat little old man walked nervously\nup and down. Across a long field that had been seeded\nfor clover but that had produced only a dense crop of\nyellow mustard weeds, he coul...
576
416_paper_pills""
Write a detailed summary of the context provided.
Like "Hands," the story of Doctor Reefy and his paper pills describes a lonely old man and, again, there is emphasis on hands. The doctor's paper pills are scraps of paper on which he writes some of his thoughts, "little pyramids of truth." His big hands stuff these scraps of paper into the pockets of his frayed suit r...
[ "PAPER PILLS", "He was an old man with a white beard and huge nose and\nhands. Long before the time during which we will know\nhim, he was a doctor and drove a jaded white horse from\nhouse to house through the streets of Winesburg. Later\nhe married a girl who had money. She had been left a\nlarge fertile farm w...
577
416_mother""
Write a detailed summary of the context provided.
We move after "Paper Pills" to a story about George Willard's mother and thus get better acquainted with George, the central character of Winesburg, Ohio. Elizabeth Willard is an unhappy woman of forty-five; once she was a tall, dark, restless young girl who dreamed of joining an acting company and "giving something ou...
[ "MOTHER", "Elizabeth Willard, the mother of George Willard, was tall and gaunt and her face was marked with smallpox scars. Although she was but forty-five, some obscure disease had taken the fire out of her figure. Listlessly she went about the disorderly old hotel looking at the faded wall-paper and the ragged ...
578
416_the_philosopher""
Write a detailed summary of the context provided.
Doctor Parcival is one of the strangest of the grotesques in Winesburg. The dirty, middle-aged misanthrope arrived in the Ohio town about five years before the narrative begins and opened a medical practice. During his years in Winesburg, however, he has had few patients, yet he doesn't seem to lack money. Perhaps, as ...
[ "THE PHILOSOPHER", "Doctor Parcival was a large man with a drooping mouth\ncovered by a yellow mustache. He always wore a dirty\nwhite waistcoat out of the pockets of which protruded a\nnumber of the kind of black cigars known as stogies.\nHis teeth were black and irregular and there was\nsomething strange about ...
579
416_nobody_knows""
Write a detailed summary of the context provided.
In "Nobody Knows," George Willard has the first of three significant encounters with women of Winesburg. In this particular story the young reporter has received a note from Louise Trunnion stating, "I'm yours if you want me." As the tale opens, its setting is evening, as it is in so many of the stories. George jumps t...
[ "NOBODY KNOWS", "Looking cautiously about, George Willard arose from his\ndesk in the office of the Winesburg Eagle and went\nhurriedly out at the back door. The night was warm and\ncloudy and although it was not yet eight o'clock, the\nalleyway back of the Eagle office was pitch dark. A\nteam of horses tied to a...
580
416_godliness""
Write a detailed summary of the context provided.
"Godliness" is a tale in four parts telling of the disintegration of the Bentley family. Jesse Bentley, the family patriarch, has, through hard work and thrift, become a wealthy and successful leader in the community. As the years have passed, however, Jesse, once a devout man, has come to confuse amassing wealth with ...
[ "GODLINESS", "A Tale in Four Parts", "There were always three or four old people sitting on\nthe front porch of the house or puttering about the\ngarden of the Bentley farm. Three of the old people\nwere women and sisters to Jesse. They were a colorless,\nsoft voiced lot. Then there was a silent old man with\nt...
581
416_a_man_of_ideas""
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Joe Welling, a man of ideas, is proof that Anderson's grotesques aren't all horrible and hopeless. Indeed, Joe might better be described as ludicrous, for this strange little Standard Oil agent is very quiet and polite until he is seized by an idea; then he becomes uncontrollable. Words roll and tumble from his mouth a...
[ "A MAN OF IDEAS", "He lived with his mother, a grey, silent woman with a\npeculiar ashy complexion. The house in which they lived\nstood in a little grove of trees beyond where the main\nstreet of Winesburg crossed Wine Creek. His name was\nJoe Welling, and his father had been a man of some\ndignity in the commun...
582
416_adventure""
Write a detailed summary of the context provided.
The story of Alice Hindman is another study in appearance and reality. Alice, at twenty-seven, is a quiet, shy clerk in Winney's Dry Goods Store, but Anderson tells us "beneath a placid exterior a continual ferment went on." The first part of the story is really about the absence of adventure, the eleven years since Al...
[ "ADVENTURE", "Alice Hindman, a woman of twenty-seven when George\nWillard was a mere boy, had lived in Winesburg all her\nlife. She clerked in Winney's Dry Goods Store and lived\nwith her mother, who had married a second husband.", "Alice's step-father was a carriage painter, and given\nto drink. His story is a...
583
416_respectability""
Write a detailed summary of the context provided.
Wash Williams, like Alice Hindman, is an example of how unreliable appearance can be. Wash is the ugliest man in Winesburg. He is so fat and dirty that he looks like a huge, grotesque monkey -- a kind of mandrill, as Anderson describes him. Wash is also psychologically grotesque for he is a confirmed misogynist who des...
[ "RESPECTABILITY", "If you have lived in cities and have walked in the park\non a summer afternoon, you have perhaps seen, blinking\nin a corner of his iron cage, a huge, grotesque kind of\nmonkey, a creature with ugly, sagging, hairless skin\nbelow his eyes and a bright purple underbody. This\nmonkey is a true mo...
584
416_the_thinker""
Write a detailed summary of the context provided.
The central character in this story is not, as one might suspect from the title, a wise old citizen; he is a boy about George Willard's age. This boy, Seth Richmond, who is reserved and inarticulate, has earned the reputation of being a "thinker." Even his mother is a little afraid of him. Again Anderson shows the real...
[ "THE THINKER", "The house in which Seth Richmond of Winesburg lived\nwith his mother had been at one time the show place of\nthe town, but when young Seth lived there its glory had\nbecome somewhat dimmed. The huge brick house which\nBanker White had built on Buckeye Street had\novershadowed it. The Richmond plac...
585
416_tandy""
Write a detailed summary of the context provided.
In "Tandy" we meet three interesting characters. Tom Hard, the hard-hearted agnostic, is so busy trying to destroy everyone's belief in God that he can't see God manifested in his own daughter. The child is more appreciated by a tall, red-haired young alcoholic from Cleveland, who stays in Winesburg a while hoping that...
[ "TANDY", "Until she was seven years old she lived in an old\nunpainted house on an unused road that led off Trunion\nPike. Her father gave her but little attention and her\nmother was dead. The father spent his time talking and\nthinking of religion. He proclaimed himself an agnostic\nand was so absorbed in destr...
586
416_the_strength_of_god""
Write a detailed summary of the context provided.
The story of Reverend Curtis Hartman, one of the most powerful characters in the book, is built of irony piled upon irony. Of course, all irony is based on contrast, whether it be between what is said and what is meant, what seems to be true and what is really true, or what one expects to happen and what is meant, and ...
[ "THE STRENGTH OF GOD", "The Reverend Curtis Hartman was pastor of the\nPresbyterian Church of Winesburg, and had been in that\nposition ten years. He was forty years old, and by his\nnature very silent and reticent. To preach, standing in\nthe pulpit before the people, was always a hardship for\nhim and from Wedn...
587
416_the_teacher""
Write a detailed summary of the context provided.
To recognize fully the ironies in "The Strength of God," we must also read "The Teacher." This helps us to understand why Kate Swift threw herself weeping on her bed as Reverend Hartman watched, We see too that the climax of the two stories really occurred simultaneously and this overlapping time sequence is one more l...
[ "THE TEACHER", "Snow lay deep in the streets of Winesburg. It had\nbegun to snow about ten o'clock in the morning and a\nwind sprang up and blew the snow in clouds along Main\nStreet. The frozen mud roads that led into town were\nfairly smooth and in places ice covered the mud. \"There\nwill be good sleighing,\" ...
588
416_loneliness""
Write a detailed summary of the context provided.
Much of Enoch Robinson's story takes place in New York City, but "Loneliness" belongs in Winesburg, Ohio for two reasons. First, Enoch Robinson is, like most of the people of Winesburg, a lonely person. In his case, his loneliness is caused partly by his devotion to art. At twenty-one, he fled Winesburg hoping to find ...
[ "LONELINESS", "He was the son of Mrs. Al Robinson who once owned a\nfarm on a side road leading off Trunion Pike, east of\nWinesburg and two miles beyond the town limits. The\nfarmhouse was painted brown and the blinds to all of\nthe windows facing the road were kept closed. In the\nroad before the house a flock ...
589
416_an_awakening""
Write a detailed summary of the context provided.
"An Awakening" is one of several of the Winesburg stories that deal with George Willard's experience with various women. We have read of George's evening with Louise Trunnion in "Nobody Knows"; later, we will read of the evening he; spends with Helen White in "Sophistication." In "An Awakening," we learn of his meeting...
[ "AN AWAKENING", "Belle Carpenter had a dark skin, grey eyes, and thick\nlips. She was tall and strong. When black thoughts\nvisited her she grew angry and wished she were a man\nand could fight someone with her fists. She worked in\nthe millinery shop kept by Mrs. Kate McHugh and during\nthe day sat trimming hats...
590
416_queer""
Write a detailed summary of the context provided.
Without a doubt, Elmer Cowley is queer, or different. Yet before his family sold their farm and moved into Winesburg, Elmer was evidently a fairly happy individual. He remembers, "I worked and at night I went to bed and slept. I wasn't always seeing people and thinking." In town, however, Elmer and his sister and his f...
[ "\"QUEER\"", "From his seat on a box in the rough board shed that\nstuck like a burr on the rear of Cowley & Son's store\nin Winesburg, Elmer Cowley, the junior member of the\nfirm, could see through a dirty window into the\nprintshop of the Winesburg Eagle. Elmer was putting new\nshoelaces in his shoes. They did...
591
416_the_untold_lie""
Write a detailed summary of the context provided.
"The Untold Lie" introduces us to two farm workers, Ray Pearson and Hal Winters. Ray is about fifty years old, has a sharp-featured, sharp-voiced wife and half-a-dozen thin-legged children. Hal is a twenty-two-year-old bachelor. As the two work side by side in the field one October day, Hal says to Ray "I've got Nell i...
[ "THE UNTOLD LIE", "Ray Pearson and Hal Winters were farm hands employed on\na farm three miles north of Winesburg. On Saturday\nafternoons they came into town and wandered about\nthrough the streets with other fellows from the\ncountry.", "Ray was a quiet, rather nervous man of perhaps fifty\nwith a brown beard...
592
416_drink""
Write a detailed summary of the context provided.
From the title of this story, we might expect it to be about the town drunk; instead, it is about a quiet, gentle youth who drinks too much only one time. Tom Foster has come to Winesburg with his grandmother, who lived there in her youth. An unassuming youth, he slips into the life of the town without anyone noticing ...
[ "DRINK", "Tom Foster came to Winesburg from Cincinnati when he\nwas still young and could get many new impressions. His\ngrandmother had been raised on a farm near the town and\nas a young girl had gone to school there when Winesburg\nwas a village of twelve or fifteen houses clustered\nabout a general store on t...
593
416_death""
Write a detailed summary of the context provided.
In the last three stories of Winesburg, Ohio, all written later than most of the other tales, Anderson seems to be deliberately trying to pull ideas and images together. In "Death," for example, he returns to the past, years before the setting of "The Untold Lie" and "Drink" and focuses on the Willard family. Here, he ...
[ "DEATH", "The stairway leading up to Doctor Reefy's office, in\nthe Heffner Block above the Paris Dry Goods store, was\nbut dimly lighted. At the head of the stairway hung a\nlamp with a dirty chimney that was fastened by a\nbracket to the wall. The lamp had a tin reflector,\nbrown with rust and covered with dust...
594
416_sophistication""
Write a detailed summary of the context provided.
Although many of the tales in Winesburg Ohio have dealt with lonely, frustrated people, "Sophistication" suggests that humans can also find moments of happiness. It is significant that the happiness described in this next-to-the-last tale is a silent hour of togetherness. Both George Willard and Helen White come to the...
[ "SOPHISTICATION", "It was early evening of a day in the late fall and the\nWinesburg County Fair had brought crowds of country\npeople into town. The day had been clear and the night\ncame on warm and pleasant. On the Trunion Pike, where\nthe road after it left town stretched away between\nberry fields now covere...
595
416_departure""
Write a detailed summary of the context provided.
The symbols drawn from nature and suggesting change are used again in "Departure." It is spring rather than fall, as it was in "Sophistication," so instead of fallen leaves and mature corn we have the imagery of buds and seeds. George is to leave early in the morning on the westbound train, both symbolic details, so he...
[ "DEPARTURE", "Young George Willard got out of bed at four in the\nmorning. It was April and the young tree leaves were\njust coming out of their buds. The trees along the\nresidence streets in Winesburg are maple and the seeds\nare winged. When the wind blows they whirl crazily\nabout, filling the air and making ...
574
416_chapter_1_the_book_of_the_grotesque
Write a detailed summary of the context provided.
The writer is described as an old man with a white mustache who has trouble looking out of his windows, which are too high. For this purpose a carpenter has been sent requested, raise the bed to a level with the window. After some general talk, the carpenter who was a soldier in the Civil War begins reminiscing about i...
[ "THE BOOK OF THE GROTESQUE", "The writer, an old man with a white mustache, had some\ndifficulty in getting into bed. The windows of the\nhouse in which he lived were high and he wanted to look\nat the trees when he awoke in the morning. A carpenter\ncame to fix the bed so that it would be on a level with\nthe wi...
575
416_chapter_2_hands
Write a detailed summary of the context provided.
Wing Biddlebaum, a fat, little, old man is walking up and down the veranda of his small house, which stood near a ravine, near the town of Winesburg, Ohio. Wing Biddlebaum, while he has lived in this town for twenty years, still does not consider himself a part of it. He is close to only one boy, George Willard, the so...
[ "HANDS", "Upon the half decayed veranda of a small frame house\nthat stood near the edge of a ravine near the town of\nWinesburg, Ohio, a fat little old man walked nervously\nup and down. Across a long field that had been seeded\nfor clover but that had produced only a dense crop of\nyellow mustard weeds, he coul...
576
416_chapter_3_paper_pills
Write a detailed summary of the context provided.
The old man, with the white beard, was a doctor, married to a girl with money. Within a year of their marriage, she had died and left him all her money. This old man's knuckles were unnaturally large and looked like unpainted wooden balls. Doctor Reefy had a strange habit of writing his thoughts on paper and then crump...
[ "PAPER PILLS", "He was an old man with a white beard and huge nose and\nhands. Long before the time during which we will know\nhim, he was a doctor and drove a jaded white horse from\nhouse to house through the streets of Winesburg. Later\nhe married a girl who had money. She had been left a\nlarge fertile farm w...
577
416_chapter_4_mother
Write a detailed summary of the context provided.
Elizabeth Willard is George Willard's mother and wife of Tom Willard. She manages their disorderly hotel with disinterest and slovenliness. Her husband, who is a brisk militant-looking man, tries as best as possible to put his wife and the hotel out of his mind. His passion is village politics and he dreams of becoming...
[ "MOTHER", "Elizabeth Willard, the mother of George Willard, was tall and gaunt and her face was marked with smallpox scars. Although she was but forty-five, some obscure disease had taken the fire out of her figure. Listlessly she went about the disorderly old hotel looking at the faded wall-paper and the ragged ...
578
416_chapter_5_the_philosopher
Write a detailed summary of the context provided.
George Willard is an assistant to Will Henderson, owner and editor of the 'Eagle'. In the afternoons Will Henderson goes over to Tom Willy's saloon for a drink. Immediately after the departure of Will Henderson, Doctor Parcival appears at George's office to talk to him. The Doctor usually launches into long tales mostl...
[ "THE PHILOSOPHER", "Doctor Parcival was a large man with a drooping mouth\ncovered by a yellow mustache. He always wore a dirty\nwhite waistcoat out of the pockets of which protruded a\nnumber of the kind of black cigars known as stogies.\nHis teeth were black and irregular and there was\nsomething strange about ...
579
416_chapter_6_nobody_knows
Write a detailed summary of the context provided.
George Willard hurriedly leaves his desk at the 'Eagle' office and makes his way through the night. All day at the office, he had been in a daze thought and eventually at six' o clock he finally decides to set forth upon his adventure. George passes street after street, avoiding known faces until he reaches his father'...
[ "NOBODY KNOWS", "Looking cautiously about, George Willard arose from his\ndesk in the office of the Winesburg Eagle and went\nhurriedly out at the back door. The night was warm and\ncloudy and although it was not yet eight o'clock, the\nalleyway back of the Eagle office was pitch dark. A\nteam of horses tied to a...
580
416_chapter_7_godliness_a_tale_in_four_parts
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The occupants of the Bentley house were some old folks, some hired men, a woman named Aunt Callie Beebe who was the housekeeper, Eliza Stoughton the helper, and Jesse Bentley himself, the owner of the house. Before the American Civil War life had been hard for the Bentleys, they had to work hard, and put in grueling ho...
[ "GODLINESS", "A Tale in Four Parts", "There were always three or four old people sitting on\nthe front porch of the house or puttering about the\ngarden of the Bentley farm. Three of the old people\nwere women and sisters to Jesse. They were a colorless,\nsoft voiced lot. Then there was a silent old man with\nt...
581
416_chapter_8_a_man_of_ideas
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Joe Welling lives with his mother in Winesburg. Though a man of small stature, he is like a "living volcano". He is subject to fits of ideas, whereupon he becomes uncontrollable, words spout from his mouth in torrents, and the person who is his victim then has no escape. He works as an agent for the standard Oil Compan...
[ "A MAN OF IDEAS", "He lived with his mother, a grey, silent woman with a\npeculiar ashy complexion. The house in which they lived\nstood in a little grove of trees beyond where the main\nstreet of Winesburg crossed Wine Creek. His name was\nJoe Welling, and his father had been a man of some\ndignity in the commun...
582
416_chapter_9_adventure
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Alice Hindman, twenty-seven year old woman has lived all her life in Winesburg, working as a clerk in Winney's dry good store. When she is sixteen, she has an affair with Ned Currie. But Ned has left Winesburg to try his luck in the city. Before leaving he promises Alice that he would return for her and take her away w...
[ "ADVENTURE", "Alice Hindman, a woman of twenty-seven when George\nWillard was a mere boy, had lived in Winesburg all her\nlife. She clerked in Winney's Dry Goods Store and lived\nwith her mother, who had married a second husband.", "Alice's step-father was a carriage painter, and given\nto drink. His story is a...
583
416_chapter_10_respectability
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In Winesburg, Wash Williams works as a telegraph operator, he is the ugliest man to be seen in the town. He is immense, with thin legs and neck, and is extremely filthy. His hands, however, though fat, are shapely and look sensitive. The townsfolk avoid any contact with him and so does he. Any complaints about his filt...
[ "RESPECTABILITY", "If you have lived in cities and have walked in the park\non a summer afternoon, you have perhaps seen, blinking\nin a corner of his iron cage, a huge, grotesque kind of\nmonkey, a creature with ugly, sagging, hairless skin\nbelow his eyes and a bright purple underbody. This\nmonkey is a true mo...
584
416_chapter_11_the_thinker
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Seth Richmond is a young boy who lives in Winesburg. His father, who died in a shootout with an editor of a magazine, a highly admired man in his times. His mother, Virginia had raised Seth up single handedly. However, she can never quite understand her son, who is too serious and quiet a boy to be treated in a normal ...
[ "THE THINKER", "The house in which Seth Richmond of Winesburg lived\nwith his mother had been at one time the show place of\nthe town, but when young Seth lived there its glory had\nbecome somewhat dimmed. The huge brick house which\nBanker White had built on Buckeye Street had\novershadowed it. The Richmond plac...
585
416_chapter_12_tandy
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In an old unpainted house, lives a child who is seven, with her father Tom Hard. Her father hardly pays any attention to her is an agnostic who is only interested in spending his time talking about religion and God, trying to destroy the idea of God. But one day when the girl was five, a stranger arrives in Winesburg. ...
[ "TANDY", "Until she was seven years old she lived in an old\nunpainted house on an unused road that led off Trunion\nPike. Her father gave her but little attention and her\nmother was dead. The father spent his time talking and\nthinking of religion. He proclaimed himself an agnostic\nand was so absorbed in destr...
586
416_chapter_13
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Though the Reverend Curtis Hartman is a pastor of the Presbyterian Church of Winesburg, it is a hardship for him to preach his sermons. He prays to the Lord to give him the strength to preach well. Reverend Curtis is liked by all, but he wonders when the flame of the spirit would really burn in him. One day, as he is r...
[ "THE STRENGTH OF GOD", "The Reverend Curtis Hartman was pastor of the\nPresbyterian Church of Winesburg, and had been in that\nposition ten years. He was forty years old, and by his\nnature very silent and reticent. To preach, standing in\nthe pulpit before the people, was always a hardship for\nhim and from Wedn...
587
416_chapter_14_the_teacher
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It has snowed heavily in Winesburg, and George Willard, who has nothing to do, walks around, thinking of Kate Swift, the teacher. He has lustful thoughts of her as well as Helen White, as he tries to sleep in his room, in the New Willard House. The night watchman is also asleep, dreaming about breeding his ferrets and ...
[ "THE TEACHER", "Snow lay deep in the streets of Winesburg. It had\nbegun to snow about ten o'clock in the morning and a\nwind sprang up and blew the snow in clouds along Main\nStreet. The frozen mud roads that led into town were\nfairly smooth and in places ice covered the mud. \"There\nwill be good sleighing,\" ...
588
416_chapter_15_loneliness
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Enoch Robinson is Mrs. Al. Robinson's son, a quiet youth, inclined to silence. A little slow at times, he kept to himself and lived a private life of his own. At the age of twenty-one, he left Winesburg and went to New York, to study French and become an artist and a city man. He rented a long and narrow room, and spen...
[ "LONELINESS", "He was the son of Mrs. Al Robinson who once owned a\nfarm on a side road leading off Trunion Pike, east of\nWinesburg and two miles beyond the town limits. The\nfarmhouse was painted brown and the blinds to all of\nthe windows facing the road were kept closed. In the\nroad before the house a flock ...
589
416_chapter_16_an_awakening
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Belle Carpenter, daughter of Henry Carpenter, worked at a millinery shop. Her father is a bully and a sticker of petty routine. As a young girl, she was scared of him, but now he has no power over her. She laughed at his pettiness and foiled his attempts at regularity and routine. Belle walks out with George occasional...
[ "AN AWAKENING", "Belle Carpenter had a dark skin, grey eyes, and thick\nlips. She was tall and strong. When black thoughts\nvisited her she grew angry and wished she were a man\nand could fight someone with her fists. She worked in\nthe millinery shop kept by Mrs. Kate McHugh and during\nthe day sat trimming hats...
590
416_chapter_17_queer
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Elmer Cowley is the son of Ebenezer Cowley who owned the Cowley and Son's Store in Winesburg. The townsfolk called the Cowleys 'queer' because of their strange store filled with never saleable goods and Ebenezer's strange way of dressing. Elmer however hated the idea of being called queer and being jeered upon. Ebeneze...
[ "\"QUEER\"", "From his seat on a box in the rough board shed that\nstuck like a burr on the rear of Cowley & Son's store\nin Winesburg, Elmer Cowley, the junior member of the\nfirm, could see through a dirty window into the\nprintshop of the Winesburg Eagle. Elmer was putting new\nshoelaces in his shoes. They did...
591
416_chapter_18_the_untold_lie
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Ray Pearson and Hal Winters are farmhands, working on a farm. Ray is a quiet and nervous man, married with children and quite serious in his demeanor. Hal on the other hand is the bad one, forever getting into trouble. One day, Hal, and Ray are at work on the fields. Ray is quiet and contemplative thinking about his ma...
[ "THE UNTOLD LIE", "Ray Pearson and Hal Winters were farm hands employed on\na farm three miles north of Winesburg. On Saturday\nafternoons they came into town and wandered about\nthrough the streets with other fellows from the\ncountry.", "Ray was a quiet, rather nervous man of perhaps fifty\nwith a brown beard...