Chapter 5 of The Kempton-Wace Letters is here in full — 420 sentences across 84 reading sections, with audio for every sentence and word.
A keeper or guardian of historical records and memories.
Chapter V
Chapter 5 of The Kempton-Wace Letters is here in full — 420 sentences across 84 reading sections, with audio for every sentence and word.
However, our lovers are natural and uninventive. They get married. Pursuit, with all its Tantalus delights, its sighings and its songs, is gone, never to return. And in its place is possession, which is satisfaction, familiarity, knowledge. It heralds the return of rationality, the return to duty of the weighing and measuring qualities of the mind.
Chapter 5 of The Kempton-Wace Letters is here in full — 420 sentences across 84 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.
plural of “delight” — a feeling of extreme pleasure or satisfaction
From this reading “Pursuit, with all its Tantalus delights, its sighings and its songs, is gone, never to return.”
personal knowledge or information about someone or something
From this reading “And in its place is possession, which is satisfaction, familiarity, knowledge.”
plural of “herald” — (formal) a person who announces important news
From this reading “It heralds the return of rationality, the return to duty of the weighing and measuring qualities of the mind.”
plural of “lover” — a person who loves someone or is loved by someone
From this reading “However, our lovers are natural and uninventive.”
the act or process of assigning numbers to phenomena according to a rule
From this reading “It heralds the return of rationality, the return to duty of the weighing and measuring qualities of the mind.”
the state of having good sense and sound judgment
From this reading “It heralds the return of rationality, the return to duty of the weighing and measuring qualities of the mind.”
(Greek mythology) a wicked king and son of Zeus; condemned in Hades to stand in water that receded when he tried to drink and beneath fruit that receded when he reached for it
From this reading “Pursuit, with all its Tantalus delights, its sighings and its songs, is gone, never to return.”
careful consideration
From this reading “It heralds the return of rationality, the return to duty of the weighing and measuring qualities of the mind.”
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.
take in marriage
In this reading “They get married.”
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.
(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 Pursuit, with all its Tantalus delights, its sighings and its songs, is gone, never to return.
used to join words or parts of a sentence that go together
From this reading However, our lovers are natural and uninventive.
the form of “be” used with you, we, they, or a plural noun
From this reading However, our lovers are natural and uninventive.
plural of “delight” — a feeling of extreme pleasure or satisfaction
From this reading Pursuit, with all its Tantalus delights, its sighings and its songs, is gone, never to return.
the social force that binds you to the courses of action demanded by that force
From this reading It heralds the return of rationality, the return to duty of the weighing and measuring qualities of the mind.
personal knowledge or information about someone or something
From this reading And in its place is possession, which is satisfaction, familiarity, knowledge.
come into the possession of something concrete or abstract
From this reading They get married.
destroyed or killed
From this reading Pursuit, with all its Tantalus delights, its sighings and its songs, is gone, never to return.
plural of “herald” — (formal) a person who announces important news
From this reading It heralds the return of rationality, the return to duty of the weighing and measuring qualities of the mind.
used to add a contrasting statement
From this reading However, our lovers are natural and uninventive.
inside something, or within a place, period, or state
From this reading And in its place is possession, which is satisfaction, familiarity, knowledge.
the form of “be” used with he, she, it, or a singular noun
From this reading Pursuit, with all its Tantalus delights, its sighings and its songs, is gone, never to return.
a thing, animal, or idea already mentioned
From this reading It heralds the return of rationality, the return to duty of the weighing and measuring qualities of the mind.
belonging to the thing or animal already mentioned
From this reading Pursuit, with all its Tantalus delights, its sighings and its songs, is gone, never to return.
the psychological result of perception and learning and reasoning
From this reading And in its place is possession, which is satisfaction, familiarity, knowledge.
plural of “lover” — a person who loves someone or is loved by someone
From this reading However, our lovers are natural and uninventive.
joined in matrimony
From this reading They get married.
the act or process of assigning numbers to phenomena according to a rule
From this reading It heralds the return of rationality, the return to duty of the weighing and measuring qualities of the mind.
The element of a person that enables awareness and thought.
From this reading It heralds the return of rationality, the return to duty of the weighing and measuring qualities of the mind.
in accordance with nature; relating to or concerning nature
From this reading However, our lovers are natural and uninventive.
not ever; at no time in the past or future
From this reading Pursuit, with all its Tantalus delights, its sighings and its songs, is gone, never to return.
belonging to, or connected with, somebody or something
From this reading It heralds the return of rationality, the return to duty of the weighing and measuring qualities of the mind.
belonging to the speaker and others
From this reading However, our lovers are natural and uninventive.
a point located with respect to surface features of some region
From this reading And in its place is possession, which is satisfaction, familiarity, knowledge.
the act of having and controlling property
From this reading And in its place is possession, which is satisfaction, familiarity, knowledge.
the act of pursuing in an effort to overtake or capture
From this reading Pursuit, with all its Tantalus delights, its sighings and its songs, is gone, never to return.
plural of “quality” — an essential and distinguishing attribute of something or someone
From this reading It heralds the return of rationality, the return to duty of the weighing and measuring qualities of the mind.
the state of having good sense and sound judgment
From this reading It heralds the return of rationality, the return to duty of the weighing and measuring qualities of the mind.
go or come back to place, condition, or activity where one has been before
From this reading Pursuit, with all its Tantalus delights, its sighings and its songs, is gone, never to return.
the contentment one feels when one has fulfilled a desire, need, or expectation
From this reading And in its place is possession, which is satisfaction, familiarity, knowledge.
Dictionary entry pending editorial verification. Tap Listen to hear the word.
From this reading Pursuit, with all its Tantalus delights, its sighings and its songs, is gone, never to return.
plural of “song” — a short musical composition with words
From this reading Pursuit, with all its Tantalus delights, its sighings and its songs, is gone, never to return.
(Greek mythology) a wicked king and son of Zeus; condemned in Hades to stand in water that receded when he tried to drink and beneath fruit that receded when he reached for it
From this reading Pursuit, with all its Tantalus delights, its sighings and its songs, is gone, never to return.
used before a noun that is already known, already mentioned, or the only one of its kind
From this reading It heralds the return of rationality, the return to duty of the weighing and measuring qualities of the mind.
the people, animals, or things already mentioned, as the subject
From this reading They get married.
used before the base form of a verb to make the infinitive
From this reading Pursuit, with all its Tantalus delights, its sighings and its songs, is gone, never to return.
deficient in originality or creativity; lacking powers of invention
From this reading However, our lovers are natural and uninventive.
careful consideration
From this reading It heralds the return of rationality, the return to duty of the weighing and measuring qualities of the mind.
used to introduce a clause giving more about a thing just mentioned
From this reading And in its place is possession, which is satisfaction, familiarity, knowledge.
in the company of; together with
From this reading Pursuit, with all its Tantalus delights, its sighings and its songs, is gone, never to return.
Chapter 5 of The Kempton-Wace Letters by Jack London holds 420 sentences, grouped into 84 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 5 holds 420 sentences of The Kempton-Wace Letters, unabridged, divided into 84 reading sections.
This page carries chapter 5 of The Kempton-Wace Letters by Jack London exactly as it stands in the source edition, without abridgement. It runs to 420 sentences, grouped into 84 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 84 sections in order, replaying any sentence and tapping unfamiliar words for their entries.
Each of the 84 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 5 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 Kempton-Wace Letters by Jack London on this page, its source edition and its audio.
Yes. All 2869 sentences of Project Gutenberg eBook #31422 are kept, with a record of which sentences cover which part.
Project Gutenberg eBook #31422, unabridged. The Project Gutenberg header, footer and licence are removed.
About 239 minutes of reading across 574 sections of 5 sentences each, at an unhurried pace.
How to work through The Kempton-Wace Letters section by section, using the audio and the tap-to-define vocabulary.
Choose one of the 7 chapters of The Kempton-Wace Letters 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 Kempton-Wace Letters, each tappable for pronunciation and meaning.
