Chapter 29 of The Last Man is here in full — 168 sentences across 34 reading sections, with audio for every sentence and word.
A keeper or guardian of historical records and memories.
Chapter XXIX
Chapter 29 of The Last Man is here in full — 168 sentences across 34 reading sections, with audio for every sentence and word.
Now—soft awhile—have I arrived so near the end? Yes! it is all over now—a step or two over those new made graves, and the wearisome way is done. Can I accomplish my task? Can I streak my paper with words capacious of the grand conclusion? Arise, black Melancholy! quit thy Cimmerian solitude!
Chapter 29 of The Last Man is here in full — 168 sentences across 34 reading sections, with audio for every sentence and word.
Reading 1/33 · 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.
put in effect
From this reading “Can I accomplish my task?”
come into existence; take on form or shape
From this reading “Arise, black Melancholy! quit thy Cimmerian solitude!”
for a short time
From this reading “Now—soft awhile—have I arrived so near the end?”
large in capacity
From this reading “Can I streak my paper with words capacious of the grand conclusion?”
English writer known for his interest in mythology and in the classics (1895-1985)
From this reading “Yes! it is all over now—a step or two over those new made graves, and the wearisome way is done.”
put an end to a state or an activity
From this reading “Arise, black Melancholy! quit thy Cimmerian solitude!”
an unbroken series of events
From this reading “Can I streak my paper with words capacious of the grand conclusion?”
so lacking in interest as to cause mental weariness
From this reading “Yes! it is all over now—a step or two over those new made graves, and the wearisome way is done.”
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 Yes! it is all over now—a step or two over those new made graves, and the wearisome way is done.
put in effect
From this reading Can I accomplish my task?
(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 Yes! it is all over now—a step or two over those new made graves, and the wearisome way is done.
used to join words or parts of a sentence that go together
From this reading Yes! it is all over now—a step or two over those new made graves, and the wearisome way is done.
come into existence; take on form or shape
From this reading Arise, black Melancholy! quit thy Cimmerian solitude!
past form of “arrive” — reach a destination; arrive by movement or progress
From this reading Now—soft awhile—have I arrived so near the end?
for a short time
From this reading Now—soft awhile—have I arrived so near the end?
being of the achromatic color of maximum darkness; having little or no hue owing to absorption of almost all incident light
From this reading Arise, black Melancholy! quit thy Cimmerian solitude!
to be able to, or to be allowed to
From this reading Can I accomplish my task?
large in capacity
From this reading Can I streak my paper with words capacious of the grand conclusion?
intensely dark and gloomy as with perpetual darkness
From this reading Arise, black Melancholy! quit thy Cimmerian solitude!
a position or opinion or judgment reached after consideration
From this reading Can I streak my paper with words capacious of the grand conclusion?
having finished or arrived at completion
From this reading Yes! it is all over now—a step or two over those new made graves, and the wearisome way is done.
either extremity of something that has length
From this reading Now—soft awhile—have I arrived so near the end?
of behavior that is impressive and ambitious in scale or scope
From this reading Can I streak my paper with words capacious of the grand conclusion?
English writer known for his interest in mythology and in the classics (1895-1985)
From this reading Yes! it is all over now—a step or two over those new made graves, and the wearisome way is done.
used with a past participle to form the perfect tenses
From this reading Now—soft awhile—have I arrived so near the end?
the person speaking or writing, as the subject of the verb
From this reading Now—soft awhile—have I arrived so near the end?
the form of “be” used with he, she, it, or a singular noun
From this reading Yes! it is all over now—a step or two over those new made graves, and the wearisome way is done.
a thing, animal, or idea already mentioned
From this reading Yes! it is all over now—a step or two over those new made graves, and the wearisome way is done.
produced by a manufacturing process
From this reading Yes! it is all over now—a step or two over those new made graves, and the wearisome way is done.
a feeling of thoughtful sadness
From this reading Arise, black Melancholy! quit thy Cimmerian solitude!
belonging to the person speaking
From this reading Can I accomplish my task?
near in time or place or relationship
From this reading Now—soft awhile—have I arrived so near the end?
not of long duration; having just (or relatively recently) come into being or been made or acquired or discovered
From this reading Yes! it is all over now—a step or two over those new made graves, and the wearisome way is done.
in the historical present; at this point in the narration of a series of past events
From this reading Now—soft awhile—have I arrived so near the end?
belonging to, or connected with, somebody or something
From this reading Can I streak my paper with words capacious of the grand conclusion?
used to join alternatives or possibilities
From this reading Yes! it is all over now—a step or two over those new made graves, and the wearisome way is done.
above and across; more than
From this reading Yes! it is all over now—a step or two over those new made graves, and the wearisome way is done.
a material made of cellulose pulp derived mainly from wood or rags or certain grasses
From this reading Can I streak my paper with words capacious of the grand conclusion?
put an end to a state or an activity
From this reading Arise, black Melancholy! quit thy Cimmerian solitude!
for that reason; with the result that
From this reading Now—soft awhile—have I arrived so near the end?
yielding readily to pressure or weight
From this reading Now—soft awhile—have I arrived so near the end?
a state of social isolation
From this reading Arise, black Melancholy! quit thy Cimmerian solitude!
any maneuver made as part of progress toward a goal
From this reading Yes! it is all over now—a step or two over those new made graves, and the wearisome way is done.
an unbroken series of events
From this reading Can I streak my paper with words capacious of the grand conclusion?
any piece of work that is undertaken or attempted
From this reading Can I accomplish my task?
used before a noun that is already known, already mentioned, or the only one of its kind
From this reading Now—soft awhile—have I arrived so near the end?
the plural of “that”: the people or things further away, or already known
From this reading Yes! it is all over now—a step or two over those new made graves, and the wearisome way is done.
an old word for “your”, speaking to one person
From this reading Arise, black Melancholy! quit thy Cimmerian solitude!
the cardinal number that is the sum of one and one or a numeral representing this number
From this reading Yes! it is all over now—a step or two over those new made graves, and the wearisome way is done.
how something is done or how it happens
From this reading Yes! it is all over now—a step or two over those new made graves, and the wearisome way is done.
so lacking in interest as to cause mental weariness
From this reading Yes! it is all over now—a step or two over those new made graves, and the wearisome way is done.
in the company of; together with
From this reading Can I streak my paper with words capacious of the grand conclusion?
the words that are spoken
From this reading Can I streak my paper with words capacious of the grand conclusion?
an affirmative
From this reading Yes! it is all over now—a step or two over those new made graves, and the wearisome way is done.
Chapter 29 of The Last Man by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley holds 168 sentences, grouped into 34 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 29 holds 168 sentences of The Last Man, unabridged, divided into 34 reading sections.
This page carries chapter 29 of The Last Man by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley exactly as it stands in the source edition, without abridgement. It runs to 168 sentences, grouped into 34 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 34 sections in order, replaying any sentence and tapping unfamiliar words for their entries.
Each of the 34 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 29 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 Last Man by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley on this page, its source edition and its audio.
Yes. All 6659 sentences of Project Gutenberg eBook #18247 are kept, with a record of which sentences cover which part.
Project Gutenberg eBook #18247, unabridged. The Project Gutenberg header, footer and licence are removed.
About 554 minutes of reading across 1332 sections of 5 sentences each, at an unhurried pace.
How to work through The Last Man section by section, using the audio and the tap-to-define vocabulary.
Choose one of the 30 chapters of The Last Man 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 Last Man, each tappable for pronunciation and meaning.
