Turtle Reader

Charles Dicken’s Oliver Twist. I just finished David Copperfield (a good [long] read) and felt like some more Dickens. Jonathan Swift’s Gulliver’s Travels. I added this one a while ago but figured I’d throw it in this batch since I never mentioned it. Should be interesting to learn about Lilliputians and Brobdingnagians. H. Beam Piper’s [...]

Soon after the marriage of the young people, the worthy doctor returned to Chertsey, where, bereft of the presence of his old friends, he would have been discontented if his temperament had admitted of such a feeling; and would have turned quite peevish if he had known how. For two or three months, he contented [...]

It was some time before they left the prison. Oliver nearly swooned after this frightful scene, and was so weak that for an hour or more, he had not the strength to walk.Day was dawning when they again emerged. A great multitude had already assembled; the windows were filled with people, smoking and playing cards [...]

From this place, they passed through several strong gates, opened by other turnkeys from the inner side; and, having entered an open yard, ascended a flight of narrow steps, and came into a passage with a row of strong doors on the left hand. Motioning them to remain where they were, the turnkey knocked at [...]

The day passed off. Day? There was no day; it was gone as soon as come–and night came on again; night so long, and yet so short; long in its dreadful silence, and short in its fleeting hours. At one time he raved and blasphemed; and at another howled and tore his hair. Venerable men [...]

At length there was a cry of silence, and a breathless look from all towards the door. The jury returned, and passed him close. He could glean nothing from their faces; they might as well have been of stone. Perfect stillness ensued–not a rustle–not a breath–Guilty.The building rang with a tremendous shout, and another, and [...]

‘Oliver, my child,’ said Mrs. Maylie, ‘where have you been, and why do you look so sad? There are tears stealing down your face at this moment. What is the matter?’It is a world of disappointment: often to the hopes we most cherish, and hopes that do our nature the greatest honour.Poor Dick was dead! [...]

‘Not aunt,’ cried Oliver, throwing his arms about her neck; ‘I’ll never call her aunt–sister, my own dear sister, that something taught my heart to love so dearly from the first! Rose, dear, darling Rose!’Let the tears which fell, and the broken words which were exchanged in the long close embrace between the orphans, be [...]

‘Would you like to see the pawnbroker himself?’ asked Mr. Grimwig with a motion towards the door.‘No,’ replied the woman; ‘if he’–she pointed to Monks–‘has been coward enough to confess, as I see he has, and you have sounded all these hags till you have found the right ones, I have nothing more to say. [...]

There was a short silence here, until Mr. Brownlow took up the thread of the narrative.‘Years after this,’ he said, ‘this man’s–Edward Leeford’s–mother came to me. He had left her, when only eighteen; robbed her of jewels and money; gambled, squandered, forged, and fled to London: where for two years he had associated with the [...]