Chapter 9 of Fennel and Rue is here in full — 196 sentences across 40 reading sections, with audio for every sentence and word.
A keeper or guardian of historical records and memories.
Chapter IX
Chapter 9 of Fennel and Rue is here in full — 196 sentences across 40 reading sections, with audio for every sentence and word.
Bushwick was gathering the prostrate figure up. "She has fainted!" he called. "Get some water, somebody!" XIX. The early Monday morning train which brought Verrian up to town was so very early that he could sit down to breakfast with his mother only a little later than their usual hour.
Chapter 9 of Fennel and Rue is here in full — 196 sentences across 40 reading sections, with audio for every sentence and word.
Reading 1/39 · 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.
eat an early morning meal
From this reading “The early Monday morning train which brought Verrian up to town was so very early that he could sit down to breakfast with his mother only a little later than their usual hour.”
past form of “faint” — pass out from weakness, physical or emotional distress due to a loss of blood supply to the brain
From this reading “"She has fainted!" he called.”
a group of persons together in one place
From this reading “Bushwick was gathering the prostrate figure up.”
the second day of the week; the first working day
From this reading “The early Monday morning train which brought Verrian up to town was so very early that he could sit down to breakfast with his mother only a little later than their usual hour.”
get into a prostrate position, as in submission
From this reading “Bushwick was gathering the prostrate figure up.”
a person, without saying who
From this reading “"Get some water, somebody!"”
create by training and teaching
From this reading “The early Monday morning train which brought Verrian up to town was so very early that he could sit down to breakfast with his mother only a little later than their usual hour.”
occurring or encountered or experienced or observed frequently or in accordance with regular practice or procedure
From this reading “The early Monday morning train which brought Verrian up to town was so very early that he could sit down to breakfast with his mother only a little later than their usual hour.”
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 before a singular noun to mean one of a group, when it is not a particular one
From this reading The early Monday morning train which brought Verrian up to town was so very early that he could sit down to breakfast with his mother only a little later than their usual hour.
eat an early morning meal
From this reading The early Monday morning train which brought Verrian up to town was so very early that he could sit down to breakfast with his mother only a little later than their usual hour.
inflected form of “bring” — take something or somebody with oneself somewhere
From this reading The early Monday morning train which brought Verrian up to town was so very early that he could sit down to breakfast with his mother only a little later than their usual hour.
Dictionary entry pending editorial verification. Tap Listen to hear the word.
From this reading Bushwick was gathering the prostrate figure up.
past form of “call” — assign a specified (usually proper) proper name to
From this reading "She has fainted!" he called.
the past of “can”; used for possibility or polite requests
From this reading The early Monday morning train which brought Verrian up to town was so very early that he could sit down to breakfast with his mother only a little later than their usual hour.
being or moving lower in position or less in some value
From this reading The early Monday morning train which brought Verrian up to town was so very early that he could sit down to breakfast with his mother only a little later than their usual hour.
at or near the beginning of a period of time or course of events or before the usual or expected time
From this reading The early Monday morning train which brought Verrian up to town was so very early that he could sit down to breakfast with his mother only a little later than their usual hour.
past form of “faint” — pass out from weakness, physical or emotional distress due to a loss of blood supply to the brain
From this reading "She has fainted!" he called.
a diagram or picture illustrating textual material
From this reading Bushwick was gathering the prostrate figure up.
a group of persons together in one place
From this reading Bushwick was gathering the prostrate figure up.
come into the possession of something concrete or abstract
From this reading "Get some water, somebody!"
the form of “have” used with he, she, it, or a singular noun
From this reading "She has fainted!" he called.
a man, boy, or male animal already mentioned, as the subject
From this reading "She has fainted!" he called.
belonging to a man, boy, or male animal already mentioned
From this reading The early Monday morning train which brought Verrian up to town was so very early that he could sit down to breakfast with his mother only a little later than their usual hour.
a period of time equal to 1/24th of a day
From this reading The early Monday morning train which brought Verrian up to town was so very early that he could sit down to breakfast with his mother only a little later than their usual hour.
happening at a time subsequent to a reference time
From this reading The early Monday morning train which brought Verrian up to town was so very early that he could sit down to breakfast with his mother only a little later than their usual hour.
limited or below average in number or quantity or magnitude or extent
From this reading The early Monday morning train which brought Verrian up to town was so very early that he could sit down to breakfast with his mother only a little later than their usual hour.
the second day of the week; the first working day
From this reading The early Monday morning train which brought Verrian up to town was so very early that he could sit down to breakfast with his mother only a little later than their usual hour.
the time period between dawn and noon
From this reading The early Monday morning train which brought Verrian up to town was so very early that he could sit down to breakfast with his mother only a little later than their usual hour.
a woman who has given birth to a child (also used as a term of address to your mother)
From this reading The early Monday morning train which brought Verrian up to town was so very early that he could sit down to breakfast with his mother only a little later than their usual hour.
and nothing more
From this reading The early Monday morning train which brought Verrian up to town was so very early that he could sit down to breakfast with his mother only a little later than their usual hour.
get into a prostrate position, as in submission
From this reading Bushwick was gathering the prostrate figure up.
a woman, girl, or female animal already mentioned, as the subject
From this reading "She has fainted!" he called.
be seated
From this reading The early Monday morning train which brought Verrian up to town was so very early that he could sit down to breakfast with his mother only a little later than their usual hour.
for that reason; with the result that
From this reading The early Monday morning train which brought Verrian up to town was so very early that he could sit down to breakfast with his mother only a little later than their usual hour.
(quantifier) used with either mass nouns or plural count nouns to indicate an unspecified number or quantity
From this reading "Get some water, somebody!"
a person, without saying who
From this reading "Get some water, somebody!"
used to introduce the second part of a comparison
From this reading The early Monday morning train which brought Verrian up to town was so very early that he could sit down to breakfast with his mother only a little later than their usual hour.
used to introduce what somebody said, thought, or felt
From this reading The early Monday morning train which brought Verrian up to town was so very early that he could sit down to breakfast with his mother only a little later than their usual hour.
used before a noun that is already known, already mentioned, or the only one of its kind
From this reading Bushwick was gathering the prostrate figure up.
belonging to the people or things already mentioned
From this reading The early Monday morning train which brought Verrian up to town was so very early that he could sit down to breakfast with his mother only a little later than their usual hour.
used before the base form of a verb to make the infinitive
From this reading The early Monday morning train which brought Verrian up to town was so very early that he could sit down to breakfast with his mother only a little later than their usual hour.
an urban area with a fixed boundary that is smaller than a city
From this reading The early Monday morning train which brought Verrian up to town was so very early that he could sit down to breakfast with his mother only a little later than their usual hour.
create by training and teaching
From this reading The early Monday morning train which brought Verrian up to town was so very early that he could sit down to breakfast with his mother only a little later than their usual hour.
being or moving higher in position or greater in some value; being above a former position or level
From this reading Bushwick was gathering the prostrate figure up.
occurring or encountered or experienced or observed frequently or in accordance with regular practice or procedure
From this reading The early Monday morning train which brought Verrian up to town was so very early that he could sit down to breakfast with his mother only a little later than their usual hour.
Dictionary entry pending editorial verification. Tap Listen to hear the word.
From this reading The early Monday morning train which brought Verrian up to town was so very early that he could sit down to breakfast with his mother only a little later than their usual hour.
precisely as stated
From this reading The early Monday morning train which brought Verrian up to town was so very early that he could sit down to breakfast with his mother only a little later than their usual hour.
the past form of “be” used with I, he, she, it, or a singular noun
From this reading Bushwick was gathering the prostrate figure up.
binary compound that occurs at room temperature as a clear colorless odorless tasteless liquid; freezes into ice below 0 degrees centigrade and boils above 100 degrees centigrade; widely used as a solvent
From this reading "Get some water, somebody!"
used to introduce a clause giving more about a thing just mentioned
From this reading The early Monday morning train which brought Verrian up to town was so very early that he could sit down to breakfast with his mother only a little later than their usual hour.
in the company of; together with
From this reading The early Monday morning train which brought Verrian up to town was so very early that he could sit down to breakfast with his mother only a little later than their usual hour.
Dictionary entry pending editorial verification. Tap Listen to hear the word.
From this reading XIX.
Chapter 9 of Fennel and Rue by William Dean Howells holds 196 sentences, grouped into 40 reading sections of at most 5 sentences. The text is the public-domain source, 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 9 holds 196 sentences of Fennel and Rue, unabridged, divided into 40 reading sections.
This page carries chapter 9 of Fennel and Rue by William Dean Howells exactly as it stands in the public-domain source edition, without abridgement. It runs to 196 sentences, grouped into 40 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 40 sections in order, replaying any sentence and tapping unfamiliar words for their entries.
Each of the 40 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 9 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 Fennel and Rue by William Dean Howells on this page, its source edition and its audio.
Yes. All 2136 sentences of Project Gutenberg eBook #3363 are kept, with a record of which sentences cover which part.
Project Gutenberg eBook #3363, a public-domain edition. The Project Gutenberg header, footer and licence are removed.
About 178 minutes of reading across 428 sections of 5 sentences each, at an unhurried pace.
How to work through Fennel and Rue section by section, using the audio and the tap-to-define vocabulary.
Choose one of the 11 chapters of Fennel and Rue 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 Fennel and Rue, each tappable for pronunciation and meaning.
