Chapter 19 of The House of Adventure is here in full — 408 sentences across 82 reading sections, with audio for every sentence and word.
A keeper or guardian of historical records and memories.
Chapter XIX
Chapter 19 of The House of Adventure is here in full — 408 sentences across 82 reading sections, with audio for every sentence and word.
“Monsieur Anatole, a doctor?” Durand gave a dramatic jerk of the hands. “We have one here in the car—Monsieur Lafond!” A man with a black beard was already leaving the grey car. He was short, compact, square, with alert brown eyes shining behind pince-nez, a figure of good-humour, and of energy, direct yet easy in all its movements.
Chapter 19 of The House of Adventure is here in full — 408 sentences across 82 reading sections, with audio for every sentence and word.
Reading 1/81 · 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.
engaged in or accustomed to close observation
From this reading “He was short, compact, square, with alert brown eyes shining behind pince-nez, a figure of good-humour, and of energy, direct yet easy in all its movements.”
the hair growing on the lower part of a man's face
From this reading “A man with a black beard was already leaving the grey car.”
a small cosmetics case with a mirror; to be carried in a woman's purse
From this reading “He was short, compact, square, with alert brown eyes shining behind pince-nez, a figure of good-humour, and of energy, direct yet easy in all its movements.”
command with authority
From this reading “He was short, compact, square, with alert brown eyes shining behind pince-nez, a figure of good-humour, and of energy, direct yet easy in all its movements.”
suitable to or characteristic of drama
From this reading “Durand gave a dramatic jerk of the hands.”
(physics) a thermodynamic quantity equivalent to the capacity of a physical system to do work; the units of energy are joules or ergs
From this reading “He was short, compact, square, with alert brown eyes shining behind pince-nez, a figure of good-humour, and of energy, direct yet easy in all its movements.”
pull, or move with a sudden movement
From this reading “Durand gave a dramatic jerk of the hands.”
plural of “movement” — a change of position that does not entail a change of location
From this reading “He was short, compact, square, with alert brown eyes shining behind pince-nez, a figure of good-humour, and of energy, direct yet easy in all its movements.”
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 “A man with a black beard was already leaving the grey car.”
In this reading “He was short, compact, square, with alert brown eyes shining behind pince-nez, a figure of good-humour, and of energy, direct yet easy in all its movements.”
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 “Monsieur Anatole, a doctor?”
engaged in or accustomed to close observation
From this reading He was short, compact, square, with alert brown eyes shining behind pince-nez, a figure of good-humour, and of energy, direct yet easy in all its movements.
(quantifier) used with either mass or count nouns to indicate the whole number or amount of or every one of a class
From this reading He was short, compact, square, with alert brown eyes shining behind pince-nez, a figure of good-humour, and of energy, direct yet easy in all its movements.
prior to a specified or implied time
From this reading A man with a black beard was already leaving the grey car.
Dictionary entry pending editorial verification. Tap Listen to hear the word.
From this reading “Monsieur Anatole, a doctor?”
used to join words or parts of a sentence that go together
From this reading He was short, compact, square, with alert brown eyes shining behind pince-nez, a figure of good-humour, and of energy, direct yet easy in all its movements.
the hair growing on the lower part of a man's face
From this reading A man with a black beard was already leaving the grey car.
at or toward the back of something
From this reading He was short, compact, square, with alert brown eyes shining behind pince-nez, a figure of good-humour, and of energy, direct yet easy in all its movements.
being of the achromatic color of maximum darkness; having little or no hue owing to absorption of almost all incident light
From this reading A man with a black beard was already leaving the grey car.
an orange of low brightness and saturation
From this reading He was short, compact, square, with alert brown eyes shining behind pince-nez, a figure of good-humour, and of energy, direct yet easy in all its movements.
a motor vehicle with four wheels; usually propelled by an internal combustion engine
From this reading “We have one here in the car—Monsieur Lafond!”
a small cosmetics case with a mirror; to be carried in a woman's purse
From this reading He was short, compact, square, with alert brown eyes shining behind pince-nez, a figure of good-humour, and of energy, direct yet easy in all its movements.
command with authority
From this reading He was short, compact, square, with alert brown eyes shining behind pince-nez, a figure of good-humour, and of energy, direct yet easy in all its movements.
a licensed medical practitioner
From this reading “Monsieur Anatole, a doctor?”
suitable to or characteristic of drama
From this reading Durand gave a dramatic jerk of the hands.
Dictionary entry pending editorial verification. Tap Listen to hear the word.
From this reading Durand gave a dramatic jerk of the hands.
posing no difficulty; requiring little effort
From this reading He was short, compact, square, with alert brown eyes shining behind pince-nez, a figure of good-humour, and of energy, direct yet easy in all its movements.
(physics) a thermodynamic quantity equivalent to the capacity of a physical system to do work; the units of energy are joules or ergs
From this reading He was short, compact, square, with alert brown eyes shining behind pince-nez, a figure of good-humour, and of energy, direct yet easy in all its movements.
opinion or judgment
From this reading He was short, compact, square, with alert brown eyes shining behind pince-nez, a figure of good-humour, and of energy, direct yet easy in all its movements.
a diagram or picture illustrating textual material
From this reading He was short, compact, square, with alert brown eyes shining behind pince-nez, a figure of good-humour, and of energy, direct yet easy in all its movements.
inflected form of “give” — cause to have, in the abstract sense or physical sense
From this reading Durand gave a dramatic jerk of the hands.
Dictionary entry pending editorial verification. Tap Listen to hear the word.
From this reading He was short, compact, square, with alert brown eyes shining behind pince-nez, a figure of good-humour, and of energy, direct yet easy in all its movements.
of an achromatic color of any lightness intermediate between the extremes of white and black
From this reading A man with a black beard was already leaving the grey car.
(with “in”) guardianship over; in divorce cases it is the right to house and care for and discipline a child
From this reading Durand gave a dramatic jerk of the hands.
used with a past participle to form the perfect tenses
From this reading “We have one here in the car—Monsieur Lafond!”
a man, boy, or male animal already mentioned, as the subject
From this reading He was short, compact, square, with alert brown eyes shining behind pince-nez, a figure of good-humour, and of energy, direct yet easy in all its movements.
in or at this place; where the speaker or writer is
From this reading “We have one here in the car—Monsieur Lafond!”
inside something, or within a place, period, or state
From this reading “We have one here in the car—Monsieur Lafond!”
belonging to the thing or animal already mentioned
From this reading He was short, compact, square, with alert brown eyes shining behind pince-nez, a figure of good-humour, and of energy, direct yet easy in all its movements.
pull, or move with a sudden movement
From this reading Durand gave a dramatic jerk of the hands.
Dictionary entry pending editorial verification. Tap Listen to hear the word.
From this reading “We have one here in the car—Monsieur Lafond!”
the act of departing
From this reading A man with a black beard was already leaving the grey car.
an adult person who is male (as opposed to a woman)
From this reading A man with a black beard was already leaving the grey car.
used as a French courtesy title; equivalent to English “Mr”
From this reading “Monsieur Anatole, a doctor?”
plural of “movement” — a change of position that does not entail a change of location
From this reading He was short, compact, square, with alert brown eyes shining behind pince-nez, a figure of good-humour, and of energy, direct yet easy in all its movements.
belonging to, or connected with, somebody or something
From this reading Durand gave a dramatic jerk of the hands.
used to mean any person in general, including the speaker
From this reading “We have one here in the car—Monsieur Lafond!”
spectacles clipped to the nose by a spring
From this reading He was short, compact, square, with alert brown eyes shining behind pince-nez, a figure of good-humour, and of energy, direct yet easy in all its movements.
marked by exceptional merit
From this reading He was short, compact, square, with alert brown eyes shining behind pince-nez, a figure of good-humour, and of energy, direct yet easy in all its movements.
primarily temporal sense; indicating or being or seeming to be limited in duration
From this reading He was short, compact, square, with alert brown eyes shining behind pince-nez, a figure of good-humour, and of energy, direct yet easy in all its movements.
make square
From this reading He was short, compact, square, with alert brown eyes shining behind pince-nez, a figure of good-humour, and of energy, direct yet easy in all its movements.
used before a noun that is already known, already mentioned, or the only one of its kind
From this reading Durand gave a dramatic jerk of the hands.
the past form of “be” used with I, he, she, it, or a singular noun
From this reading A man with a black beard was already leaving the grey car.
the speaker together with one or more other people
From this reading “We have one here in the car—Monsieur Lafond!”
in the company of; together with
From this reading A man with a black beard was already leaving the grey car.
but in spite of that
From this reading He was short, compact, square, with alert brown eyes shining behind pince-nez, a figure of good-humour, and of energy, direct yet easy in all its movements.
Chapter 19 of The House of Adventure by Warwick Deeping holds 408 sentences, grouped into 82 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 19 holds 408 sentences of The House of Adventure, unabridged, divided into 82 reading sections.
This page carries chapter 19 of The House of Adventure by Warwick Deeping exactly as it stands in the source edition, without abridgement. It runs to 408 sentences, grouped into 82 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 82 sections in order, replaying any sentence and tapping unfamiliar words for their entries.
Each of the 82 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 19 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 House of Adventure by Warwick Deeping on this page, its source edition and its audio.
Yes. All 7712 sentences of Project Gutenberg eBook #65149 are kept, with a record of which sentences cover which part.
Project Gutenberg eBook #65149, unabridged. The Project Gutenberg header, footer and licence are removed.
About 600 minutes of reading across 1543 sections of 5 sentences each, at an unhurried pace.
How to work through The House of Adventure section by section, using the audio and the tap-to-define vocabulary.
Choose one of the 19 chapters of The House of Adventure 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 House of Adventure, each tappable for pronunciation and meaning.
