Chapter 1 of Catherine herself is here in full — 349 sentences across 70 reading sections, with audio for every sentence and word.
A keeper or guardian of historical records and memories.
Chapter I
Chapter 1 of Catherine herself is here in full — 349 sentences across 70 reading sections, with audio for every sentence and word.
CATHERINE thought: Day is white, Night is black, but sometimes it is half-white and half-black.... There were five knobs on the brass rail of the bed: one of them would come off.... The baker came to the door every night and said: “And how is Cathie?” It was cold, and blue flames flickered on top of the coals in the fire-grate.
Chapter 1 of Catherine herself is here in full — 349 sentences across 70 reading sections, with audio for every sentence and word.
Reading 1/69 · 5 reading units · Lines 1–5
These definitions explain words found in the current reading and keep every example grounded in its original sentence.
Oxford-style entry order: headword, part of speech, US IPA, concise definition, contextual example, and audio.
someone who bakes commercially
From this reading “The baker came to the door every night and said: “And how is Cathie?””
an alloy of copper and zinc
From this reading “There were five knobs on the brass rail of the bed: one of them would come off....”
first wife of Henry VIII; Henry VIII's divorce from her was the initial step of the Reformation in England (1485-1536)
From this reading “CATHERINE thought: Day is white, Night is black, but sometimes it is half-white and half-black....”
plural of “coal” — fossil fuel consisting of carbonized vegetable matter deposited in the Carboniferous period
From this reading “It was cold, and blue flames flickered on top of the coals in the fire-grate.”
plural of “flame” — the process of combustion of inflammable materials producing heat and light and (often) smoke
From this reading “It was cold, and blue flames flickered on top of the coals in the fire-grate.”
past form of “flicker” — move back and forth very rapidly
From this reading “It was cold, and blue flames flickered on top of the coals in the fire-grate.”
plural of “knob” — a circular rounded projection or protuberance
From this reading “There were five knobs on the brass rail of the bed: one of them would come off....”
a barrier consisting of a horizontal bar and supports
From this reading “There were five knobs on the brass rail of the bed: one of them would come off....”
English keeps certain words together, and knowing the pair is worth more than knowing each word alone. Every partnership below was counted across our whole published library, and earns its place by appearing far more often than two unrelated words of the same frequency would.
Shown as this reading writes them, with the form the library counts, what kind of pairing it is, and how often it occurs.
In this reading “It was cold, and blue flames flickered on top of the coals in the fire-grate.”
In this reading “It was cold, and blue flames flickered on top of the coals in the fire-grate.”
Every word in these five lines is listed here, and every one of them can be played on its own.
Dictionary details are shown only when verified; these are not licensed Oxford entries.
used to join words or parts of a sentence that go together
From this reading CATHERINE thought: Day is white, Night is black, but sometimes it is half-white and half-black....
someone who bakes commercially
From this reading The baker came to the door every night and said: “And how is Cathie?”
a piece of furniture that provides a place to sleep
From this reading There were five knobs on the brass rail of the bed: one of them would come off....
being of the achromatic color of maximum darkness; having little or no hue owing to absorption of almost all incident light
From this reading CATHERINE thought: Day is white, Night is black, but sometimes it is half-white and half-black....
of the color intermediate between green and violet; having a color similar to that of a clear unclouded sky
From this reading It was cold, and blue flames flickered on top of the coals in the fire-grate.
an alloy of copper and zinc
From this reading There were five knobs on the brass rail of the bed: one of them would come off....
used to introduce something that contrasts with what came before
From this reading CATHERINE thought: Day is white, Night is black, but sometimes it is half-white and half-black....
inflected form of “come” — move toward, travel toward something or somebody or approach something or somebody
From this reading The baker came to the door every night and said: “And how is Cathie?”
first wife of Henry VIII; Henry VIII's divorce from her was the initial step of the Reformation in England (1485-1536)
From this reading CATHERINE thought: Day is white, Night is black, but sometimes it is half-white and half-black....
Dictionary entry pending editorial verification. Tap Listen to hear the word.
From this reading The baker came to the door every night and said: “And how is Cathie?”
plural of “coal” — fossil fuel consisting of carbonized vegetable matter deposited in the Carboniferous period
From this reading It was cold, and blue flames flickered on top of the coals in the fire-grate.
having a low or inadequate temperature or feeling a sensation of coldness or having been made cold by e.g. ice or refrigeration
From this reading It was cold, and blue flames flickered on top of the coals in the fire-grate.
move toward, travel toward something or somebody or approach something or somebody
From this reading There were five knobs on the brass rail of the bed: one of them would come off....
time for Earth to make a complete rotation on its axis
From this reading CATHERINE thought: Day is white, Night is black, but sometimes it is half-white and half-black....
a swinging or sliding barrier that will close the entrance to a room or building or vehicle
From this reading The baker came to the door every night and said: “And how is Cathie?”
all the members of a group, with none left out
From this reading The baker came to the door every night and said: “And how is Cathie?”
Dictionary entry pending editorial verification. Tap Listen to hear the word.
From this reading It was cold, and blue flames flickered on top of the coals in the fire-grate.
the cardinal number that is the sum of four and one
From this reading There were five knobs on the brass rail of the bed: one of them would come off....
plural of “flame” — the process of combustion of inflammable materials producing heat and light and (often) smoke
From this reading It was cold, and blue flames flickered on top of the coals in the fire-grate.
past form of “flicker” — move back and forth very rapidly
From this reading It was cold, and blue flames flickered on top of the coals in the fire-grate.
Dictionary entry pending editorial verification. Tap Listen to hear the word.
From this reading CATHERINE thought: Day is white, Night is black, but sometimes it is half-white and half-black....
Dictionary entry pending editorial verification. Tap Listen to hear the word.
From this reading CATHERINE thought: Day is white, Night is black, but sometimes it is half-white and half-black....
Dictionary entry pending editorial verification. Tap Listen to hear the word.
From this reading The baker came to the door every night and said: “And how is Cathie?”
inside something, or within a place, period, or state
From this reading It was cold, and blue flames flickered on top of the coals in the fire-grate.
the form of “be” used with he, she, it, or a singular noun
From this reading CATHERINE thought: Day is white, Night is black, but sometimes it is half-white and half-black....
a thing, animal, or idea already mentioned
From this reading CATHERINE thought: Day is white, Night is black, but sometimes it is half-white and half-black....
plural of “knob” — a circular rounded projection or protuberance
From this reading There were five knobs on the brass rail of the bed: one of them would come off....
the time after sunset and before sunrise while it is dark outside
From this reading CATHERINE thought: Day is white, Night is black, but sometimes it is half-white and half-black....
belonging to, or connected with, somebody or something
From this reading There were five knobs on the brass rail of the bed: one of them would come off....
from a particular thing or place or position (“forth” is obsolete)
From this reading There were five knobs on the brass rail of the bed: one of them would come off....
touching and supported by a surface
From this reading There were five knobs on the brass rail of the bed: one of them would come off....
used to mean any person in general, including the speaker
From this reading There were five knobs on the brass rail of the bed: one of them would come off....
a barrier consisting of a horizontal bar and supports
From this reading There were five knobs on the brass rail of the bed: one of them would come off....
being the one previously mentioned or spoken of
From this reading The baker came to the door every night and said: “And how is Cathie?”
on certain occasions or in certain cases but not always
From this reading CATHERINE thought: Day is white, Night is black, but sometimes it is half-white and half-black....
used before a noun that is already known, already mentioned, or the only one of its kind
From this reading There were five knobs on the brass rail of the bed: one of them would come off....
the people or things already mentioned, as the object
From this reading There were five knobs on the brass rail of the bed: one of them would come off....
in or at that place or location
From this reading There were five knobs on the brass rail of the bed: one of them would come off....
the content of cognition; the main thing you are thinking about
From this reading CATHERINE thought: Day is white, Night is black, but sometimes it is half-white and half-black....
used before the base form of a verb to make the infinitive
From this reading The baker came to the door every night and said: “And how is Cathie?”
the upper part of anything
From this reading It was cold, and blue flames flickered on top of the coals in the fire-grate.
the past form of “be” used with I, he, she, it, or a singular noun
From this reading It was cold, and blue flames flickered on top of the coals in the fire-grate.
the past form of “be” used with you, we, they, or a plural noun
From this reading There were five knobs on the brass rail of the bed: one of them would come off....
a Caucasian
From this reading CATHERINE thought: Day is white, Night is black, but sometimes it is half-white and half-black....
used for something imagined, polite, or habitual in the past
From this reading There were five knobs on the brass rail of the bed: one of them would come off....
Chapter 1 of Catherine herself by James Hilton holds 349 sentences, grouped into 70 reading sections of at most 5 sentences. The text is the source edition, unabridged, and the chapter records which sentences cover which part of the work so that nothing is dropped. Every word can be tapped for its pronunciation and dictionary entry.
Chapter 1 holds 349 sentences of Catherine herself, unabridged, divided into 70 reading sections.
This page carries chapter 1 of Catherine herself by James Hilton exactly as it stands in the source edition, without abridgement. It runs to 349 sentences, grouped into 70 sections of at most 5 sentences so that a reader can take the chapter in steady, finishable pieces. The chapter also stores a coverage record mapping every one of its sentences to a part of the work, which is how the edition demonstrates that no line was dropped.
Work through the 70 sections in order, replaying any sentence and tapping unfamiliar words for their entries.
Each of the 70 sections in this chapter is short enough to read once, hear once, and then re-read with the vocabulary in view. Tapping a word plays it alone and opens its dictionary entry with IPA, part of speech and meaning, so the reader is never forced to guess a pronunciation from spelling. Working section by section keeps a long chapter from becoming an undifferentiated wall of text, which is the usual reason a reader abandons a work of this period.
Yes — every sentence and every individual word in chapter 1 can be played aloud in United States English.
Audio covers the whole chapter: any sentence can be played, and any single word within it can be played on its own. The voice uses United States English. For a work of this period that matters, because spelling is an unreliable guide to pronunciation for vocabulary that has fallen out of daily use, and a learner who guesses wrong tends to keep the error. Hearing the word in its own sentence, and then alone, settles it.
Common questions about reading Catherine herself by James Hilton on this page, its source edition and its audio.
Yes. All 7547 sentences of Project Gutenberg eBook #71786 are kept, with a record of which sentences cover which part.
Project Gutenberg eBook #71786, unabridged. The Project Gutenberg header, footer and licence are removed.
About 600 minutes of reading across 1510 sections of 5 sentences each, at an unhurried pace.
How to work through Catherine herself section by section, using the audio and the tap-to-define vocabulary.
Choose one of the 24 chapters of Catherine herself to begin.
Each section holds 5 sentences; read it once through.
Play the section aloud, then tap any unfamiliar word for its entry.
Words and structures a reader meets early in Catherine herself, each tappable for pronunciation and meaning.
