Chapter 12 of The Letters of Robert Louis Stevenson is here in full — 161 sentences across 33 reading sections, with audio for every sentence and word.
A keeper or guardian of historical records and memories.
Chapter XII
Chapter 12 of The Letters of Robert Louis Stevenson is here in full — 161 sentences across 33 reading sections, with audio for every sentence and word.
R. L. S. TO E. L. BURLINGAME _Honolulu_, _January_ 1889. MY DEAR BURLINGAME,—Here at last I have arrived. We could not get away from Tahiti till Christmas Day, and then had thirty days of calms and squalls, a deplorable passage. This has thrown me all out of gear in every way.
Chapter 12 of The Letters of Robert Louis Stevenson is here in full — 161 sentences across 33 reading sections, with audio for every sentence and word.
Reading 1/32 · 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 “calm” — steadiness of mind under stress
From this reading “We could not get away from Tahiti till Christmas Day, and then had thirty days of calms and squalls, a deplorable passage.”
period extending from Dec. 24 to Jan. 6
From this reading “We could not get away from Tahiti till Christmas Day, and then had thirty days of calms and squalls, a deplorable passage.”
bad; unfortunate
From this reading “We could not get away from Tahiti till Christmas Day, and then had thirty days of calms and squalls, a deplorable passage.”
a toothed wheel that engages another toothed mechanism in order to change the speed or direction of transmitted motion
From this reading “This has thrown me all out of gear in every way.”
the capital and largest city of Hawaii; located on a large bay on the island of Oahu
the first month of the year; begins 10 days after the winter solstice
plural of “squall” — sudden violent winds; often accompanied by precipitation
From this reading “We could not get away from Tahiti till Christmas Day, and then had thirty days of calms and squalls, a deplorable passage.”
an island in the south Pacific; the most important island in French Polynesia; made famous by Robert Louis Stevenson and Paul Gauguin
From this reading “We could not get away from Tahiti till Christmas Day, and then had thirty days of calms and squalls, a deplorable passage.”
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.
Dictionary entry pending editorial verification. Tap Listen to hear the word.
From this reading TO E. L. BURLINGAME _Honolulu_, _January_ 1889.
used before a singular noun to mean one of a group, when it is not a particular one
From this reading We could not get away from Tahiti till Christmas Day, and then had thirty days of calms and squalls, a deplorable passage.
(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 This has thrown me all out of gear in every way.
used to join words or parts of a sentence that go together
From this reading We could not get away from Tahiti till Christmas Day, and then had thirty days of calms and squalls, a deplorable passage.
past form of “arrive” — reach a destination; arrive by movement or progress
From this reading MY DEAR BURLINGAME,—Here at last I have arrived.
in or near a particular place or position
From this reading MY DEAR BURLINGAME,—Here at last I have arrived.
from a particular thing or place or position (“forth” is obsolete)
From this reading We could not get away from Tahiti till Christmas Day, and then had thirty days of calms and squalls, a deplorable passage.
Dictionary entry pending editorial verification. Tap Listen to hear the word.
From this reading TO E. L. BURLINGAME _Honolulu_, _January_ 1889.
plural of “calm” — steadiness of mind under stress
From this reading We could not get away from Tahiti till Christmas Day, and then had thirty days of calms and squalls, a deplorable passage.
period extending from Dec. 24 to Jan. 6
From this reading We could not get away from Tahiti till Christmas Day, and then had thirty days of calms and squalls, a deplorable passage.
the past of “can”; used for possibility or polite requests
From this reading We could not get away from Tahiti till Christmas Day, and then had thirty days of calms and squalls, a deplorable passage.
time for Earth to make a complete rotation on its axis
From this reading We could not get away from Tahiti till Christmas Day, and then had thirty days of calms and squalls, a deplorable passage.
the time during which someone's life continues
From this reading We could not get away from Tahiti till Christmas Day, and then had thirty days of calms and squalls, a deplorable passage.
dearly loved
From this reading MY DEAR BURLINGAME,—Here at last I have arrived.
bad; unfortunate
From this reading We could not get away from Tahiti till Christmas Day, and then had thirty days of calms and squalls, a deplorable passage.
a fat-soluble vitamin that is essential for normal reproduction; an important antioxidant that neutralizes free radicals in the body
From this reading TO E. L. BURLINGAME _Honolulu_, _January_ 1889.
all the members of a group, with none left out
From this reading This has thrown me all out of gear in every way.
showing where something starts, or who sent it
From this reading We could not get away from Tahiti till Christmas Day, and then had thirty days of calms and squalls, a deplorable passage.
a toothed wheel that engages another toothed mechanism in order to change the speed or direction of transmitted motion
From this reading This has thrown me all out of gear in every way.
come into the possession of something concrete or abstract
From this reading We could not get away from Tahiti till Christmas Day, and then had thirty days of calms and squalls, a deplorable passage.
the past form of “have”, used to form the past perfect
From this reading We could not get away from Tahiti till Christmas Day, and then had thirty days of calms and squalls, a deplorable passage.
the form of “have” used with he, she, it, or a singular noun
From this reading This has thrown me all out of gear in every way.
used with a past participle to form the perfect tenses
From this reading MY DEAR BURLINGAME,—Here at last I have arrived.
in or at this place; where the speaker or writer is
From this reading MY DEAR BURLINGAME,—Here at last I have arrived.
the capital and largest city of Hawaii; located on a large bay on the island of Oahu
From this reading TO E. L. BURLINGAME _Honolulu_, _January_ 1889.
the person speaking or writing, as the subject of the verb
From this reading MY DEAR BURLINGAME,—Here at last I have arrived.
inside something, or within a place, period, or state
From this reading This has thrown me all out of gear in every way.
the first month of the year; begins 10 days after the winter solstice
From this reading TO E. L. BURLINGAME _Honolulu_, _January_ 1889.
a metric unit of capacity, formerly defined as the volume of one kilogram of pure water under standard conditions; now equal to 1,000 cubic centimeters (or approximately 1.75 pints)
From this reading R. L. S.
immediately past
From this reading MY DEAR BURLINGAME,—Here at last I have arrived.
the person speaking, as the object of a verb or preposition
From this reading This has thrown me all out of gear in every way.
belonging to the person speaking
From this reading MY DEAR BURLINGAME,—Here at last I have arrived.
used to make a word, phrase, or sentence negative
From this reading We could not get away from Tahiti till Christmas Day, and then had thirty days of calms and squalls, a deplorable passage.
belonging to, or connected with, somebody or something
From this reading We could not get away from Tahiti till Christmas Day, and then had thirty days of calms and squalls, a deplorable passage.
not allowed to continue to bat or run
From this reading This has thrown me all out of gear in every way.
the act of passing from one state or place to the next
From this reading We could not get away from Tahiti till Christmas Day, and then had thirty days of calms and squalls, a deplorable passage.
a unit of radiation exposure; the dose of ionizing radiation that will produce 1 electrostatic unit of electricity in 1 cc of dry air
From this reading R. L. S.
1/60 of a minute; the basic unit of time adopted under the Systeme International d'Unites
From this reading R. L. S.
plural of “squall” — sudden violent winds; often accompanied by precipitation
From this reading We could not get away from Tahiti till Christmas Day, and then had thirty days of calms and squalls, a deplorable passage.
an island in the south Pacific; the most important island in French Polynesia; made famous by Robert Louis Stevenson and Paul Gauguin
From this reading We could not get away from Tahiti till Christmas Day, and then had thirty days of calms and squalls, a deplorable passage.
subsequently or soon afterward (often used as sentence connectors)
From this reading We could not get away from Tahiti till Christmas Day, and then had thirty days of calms and squalls, a deplorable passage.
the cardinal number that is the product of ten and three
From this reading We could not get away from Tahiti till Christmas Day, and then had thirty days of calms and squalls, a deplorable passage.
used for a person or thing that is near, or that has just been mentioned
From this reading This has thrown me all out of gear in every way.
caused to fall to the ground
From this reading This has thrown me all out of gear in every way.
up to a particular time
From this reading We could not get away from Tahiti till Christmas Day, and then had thirty days of calms and squalls, a deplorable passage.
used before the base form of a verb to make the infinitive
From this reading TO E. L. BURLINGAME _Honolulu_, _January_ 1889.
how something is done or how it happens
From this reading This has thrown me all out of gear in every way.
the speaker together with one or more other people
From this reading We could not get away from Tahiti till Christmas Day, and then had thirty days of calms and squalls, a deplorable passage.
Chapter 12 of The Letters of Robert Louis Stevenson by Robert Louis Stevenson holds 161 sentences, grouped into 33 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 12 holds 161 sentences of The Letters of Robert Louis Stevenson, unabridged, divided into 33 reading sections.
This page carries chapter 12 of The Letters of Robert Louis Stevenson by Robert Louis Stevenson exactly as it stands in the public-domain source edition, without abridgement. It runs to 161 sentences, grouped into 33 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 33 sections in order, replaying any sentence and tapping unfamiliar words for their entries.
Each of the 33 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 12 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 Letters of Robert Louis Stevenson by Robert Louis Stevenson on this page, its source edition and its audio.
Yes. All 5116 sentences of Project Gutenberg eBook #637 are kept, with a record of which sentences cover which part.
Project Gutenberg eBook #637, a public-domain edition. The Project Gutenberg header, footer and licence are removed.
About 426 minutes of reading across 1024 sections of 5 sentences each, at an unhurried pace.
How to work through The Letters of Robert Louis Stevenson section by section, using the audio and the tap-to-define vocabulary.
Choose one of the 33 chapters of The Letters of Robert Louis Stevenson 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 Letters of Robert Louis Stevenson, each tappable for pronunciation and meaning.
