Chapter 1 of The Flower Beneath the Foot is here in full — 421 sentences across 85 reading sections, with audio for every sentence and word.
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Chapter I
Chapter 1 of The Flower Beneath the Foot is here in full — 421 sentences across 85 reading sections, with audio for every sentence and word.
To Madame Mathieu and Mademoiselle Dora Garnier-Pagès “Some girls are born organically good: I wasn’t.” ST LAURA DE NAZIANZI. “It was about my eighteenth year that I conquered my _Ego_.” IBID. Neither her Gaudiness the Mistress of the Robes, or her Dreaminess the Queen were feeling quite themselves.
Chapter 1 of The Flower Beneath the Foot is here in full — 421 sentences across 85 reading sections, with audio for every sentence and word.
Reading 1/84 · 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.
brought into existence
From this reading “To Madame Mathieu and Mademoiselle Dora Garnier-Pagès “Some girls are born organically good: I wasn’t.””
past form of “conquer” — bring under control by force or authority
From this reading ““It was about my eighteenth year that I conquered my _Ego_.””
an inflated feeling of pride in your superiority to others
coming next after the seventeenth in position
From this reading ““It was about my eighteenth year that I conquered my _Ego_.””
small silvery drumfish often mistaken for white perch; found along coasts of United States from New York to Mexico
From this reading “To Madame Mathieu and Mademoiselle Dora Garnier-Pagès “Some girls are born organically good: I wasn’t.””
an adulterous woman; a woman who has an ongoing extramarital sexual relationship with a man
From this reading “Neither her Gaudiness the Mistress of the Robes, or her Dreaminess the Queen were feeling quite themselves.”
as an important constituent
From this reading “To Madame Mathieu and Mademoiselle Dora Garnier-Pagès “Some girls are born organically good: I wasn’t.””
plural of “robe” — any loose flowing garment
From this reading “Neither her Gaudiness the Mistress of the Robes, or her Dreaminess the Queen were feeling quite themselves.”
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 about my eighteenth year that I conquered my _Ego_.””
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.
on the subject of; concerning
From this reading “It was about my eighteenth year that I conquered my _Ego_.”
used to join words or parts of a sentence that go together
From this reading To Madame Mathieu and Mademoiselle Dora Garnier-Pagès “Some girls are born organically good: I wasn’t.”
the form of “be” used with you, we, they, or a plural noun
From this reading To Madame Mathieu and Mademoiselle Dora Garnier-Pagès “Some girls are born organically good: I wasn’t.”
brought into existence
From this reading To Madame Mathieu and Mademoiselle Dora Garnier-Pagès “Some girls are born organically good: I wasn’t.”
past form of “conquer” — bring under control by force or authority
From this reading “It was about my eighteenth year that I conquered my _Ego_.”
a Mid-Atlantic state; one of the original 13 colonies
From this reading ST LAURA DE NAZIANZI.
Dictionary entry pending editorial verification. Tap Listen to hear the word.
From this reading To Madame Mathieu and Mademoiselle Dora Garnier-Pagès “Some girls are born organically good: I wasn’t.”
a relaxed comfortable feeling
From this reading Neither her Gaudiness the Mistress of the Robes, or her Dreaminess the Queen were feeling quite themselves.
an inflated feeling of pride in your superiority to others
From this reading “It was about my eighteenth year that I conquered my _Ego_.”
coming next after the seventeenth in position
From this reading “It was about my eighteenth year that I conquered my _Ego_.”
the experiencing of affective and emotional states
From this reading Neither her Gaudiness the Mistress of the Robes, or her Dreaminess the Queen were feeling quite themselves.
Dictionary entry pending editorial verification. Tap Listen to hear the word.
From this reading To Madame Mathieu and Mademoiselle Dora Garnier-Pagès “Some girls are born organically good: I wasn’t.”
tasteless showiness
From this reading Neither her Gaudiness the Mistress of the Robes, or her Dreaminess the Queen were feeling quite themselves.
plural of “girl” — a young female
From this reading To Madame Mathieu and Mademoiselle Dora Garnier-Pagès “Some girls are born organically good: I wasn’t.”
having desirable or positive qualities especially those suitable for a thing specified
From this reading To Madame Mathieu and Mademoiselle Dora Garnier-Pagès “Some girls are born organically good: I wasn’t.”
belonging to a woman, girl, or female animal already mentioned
From this reading Neither her Gaudiness the Mistress of the Robes, or her Dreaminess the Queen were feeling quite themselves.
the person speaking or writing, as the subject of the verb
From this reading To Madame Mathieu and Mademoiselle Dora Garnier-Pagès “Some girls are born organically good: I wasn’t.”
Dictionary entry pending editorial verification. Tap Listen to hear the word.
From this reading IBID.
a thing, animal, or idea already mentioned
From this reading “It was about my eighteenth year that I conquered my _Ego_.”
Dictionary entry pending editorial verification. Tap Listen to hear the word.
From this reading ST LAURA DE NAZIANZI.
title used for a married Frenchwoman
From this reading To Madame Mathieu and Mademoiselle Dora Garnier-Pagès “Some girls are born organically good: I wasn’t.”
small silvery drumfish often mistaken for white perch; found along coasts of United States from New York to Mexico
From this reading To Madame Mathieu and Mademoiselle Dora Garnier-Pagès “Some girls are born organically good: I wasn’t.”
Dictionary entry pending editorial verification. Tap Listen to hear the word.
From this reading To Madame Mathieu and Mademoiselle Dora Garnier-Pagès “Some girls are born organically good: I wasn’t.”
an adulterous woman; a woman who has an ongoing extramarital sexual relationship with a man
From this reading Neither her Gaudiness the Mistress of the Robes, or her Dreaminess the Queen were feeling quite themselves.
belonging to the person speaking
From this reading “It was about my eighteenth year that I conquered my _Ego_.”
Dictionary entry pending editorial verification. Tap Listen to hear the word.
From this reading ST LAURA DE NAZIANZI.
not one and not the other of two
From this reading Neither her Gaudiness the Mistress of the Robes, or her Dreaminess the Queen were feeling quite themselves.
belonging to, or connected with, somebody or something
From this reading Neither her Gaudiness the Mistress of the Robes, or her Dreaminess the Queen were feeling quite themselves.
used to join alternatives or possibilities
From this reading Neither her Gaudiness the Mistress of the Robes, or her Dreaminess the Queen were feeling quite themselves.
as an important constituent
From this reading To Madame Mathieu and Mademoiselle Dora Garnier-Pagès “Some girls are born organically good: I wasn’t.”
the only fertile female in a colony of social insects such as bees and ants and termites; its function is to lay eggs
From this reading Neither her Gaudiness the Mistress of the Robes, or her Dreaminess the Queen were feeling quite themselves.
to a degree (not used with a negative)
From this reading Neither her Gaudiness the Mistress of the Robes, or her Dreaminess the Queen were feeling quite themselves.
plural of “robe” — any loose flowing garment
From this reading Neither her Gaudiness the Mistress of the Robes, or her Dreaminess the Queen were feeling quite themselves.
(quantifier) used with either mass nouns or plural count nouns to indicate an unspecified number or quantity
From this reading To Madame Mathieu and Mademoiselle Dora Garnier-Pagès “Some girls are born organically good: I wasn’t.”
Dictionary entry pending editorial verification. Tap Listen to hear the word.
From this reading ST LAURA DE NAZIANZI.
used to introduce what somebody said, thought, or felt
From this reading “It was about my eighteenth year that I conquered my _Ego_.”
used before a noun that is already known, already mentioned, or the only one of its kind
From this reading Neither her Gaudiness the Mistress of the Robes, or her Dreaminess the Queen were feeling quite themselves.
used when the people doing the action are also its object
From this reading Neither her Gaudiness the Mistress of the Robes, or her Dreaminess the Queen were feeling quite themselves.
used before the base form of a verb to make the infinitive
From this reading To Madame Mathieu and Mademoiselle Dora Garnier-Pagès “Some girls are born organically good: I wasn’t.”
the past form of “be” used with I, he, she, it, or a singular noun
From this reading “It was about my eighteenth year that I conquered my _Ego_.”
Dictionary entry pending editorial verification. Tap Listen to hear the word.
From this reading To Madame Mathieu and Mademoiselle Dora Garnier-Pagès “Some girls are born organically good: I wasn’t.”
the past form of “be” used with you, we, they, or a plural noun
From this reading Neither her Gaudiness the Mistress of the Robes, or her Dreaminess the Queen were feeling quite themselves.
a period of time containing 365 (or 366) days
From this reading “It was about my eighteenth year that I conquered my _Ego_.”
Chapter 1 of The Flower Beneath the Foot by Ronald Firbank holds 421 sentences, grouped into 85 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 421 sentences of The Flower Beneath the Foot, unabridged, divided into 85 reading sections.
This page carries chapter 1 of The Flower Beneath the Foot by Ronald Firbank exactly as it stands in the source edition, without abridgement. It runs to 421 sentences, grouped into 85 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 85 sections in order, replaying any sentence and tapping unfamiliar words for their entries.
Each of the 85 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 The Flower Beneath the Foot by Ronald Firbank on this page, its source edition and its audio.
Yes. All 2092 sentences of Project Gutenberg eBook #59249 are kept, with a record of which sentences cover which part.
Project Gutenberg eBook #59249, unabridged. The Project Gutenberg header, footer and licence are removed.
About 174 minutes of reading across 419 sections of 5 sentences each, at an unhurried pace.
How to work through The Flower Beneath the Foot section by section, using the audio and the tap-to-define vocabulary.
Choose one of the 5 chapters of The Flower Beneath the Foot 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 The Flower Beneath the Foot, each tappable for pronunciation and meaning.
