MY PLE

• Chapter I. Down the Rabbit-Hole.

‘and what is the use of a book’ thought Alice ‘without pictures or conversations?’

I liked this phrase because I think it’s funny that Alice believed that the books without pictures or dialogues didn't serve to anything but actually most of the books don't have dialogues or pictures, so I think it's funny cause Alice was too young to realize that, and when you grow up you realize that most of the books you have to read aren't story books, are knowledge books, like maths, science, history and kind of that.

• Chapter II.  The Pool of Tears.

Alice took up the fan and gloves, and, as the hall was very hot, she kept fanning herself all the time she went on talking: 'Dear, dear! How queer everything is to-day! And yesterday things went on just as usual. I wonder if I've been changed in the night? Let me think: was I the same when I got up this morning? I almost think I can remember feeling a little different. But if I'm not the same, the next question is, Who in the world am I? Ah, that's the great puzzle!' And she began thinking over all the children she knew that were of the same age as herself, to see if she could have been changed for any of them.

I liked that phrase because in that moment Alice was feeling strange and dizzy but she said something that all of we have thought once in our life, we felt like we were another person, we didn't feel like us, like if we have been changed for someone else in the night and we ask us why I'm in that world, what do I have to do to make sense in my life, we didn't feel useful and we search for an answer that give anything special to continue with it.

• Chapter III. A Caucus-Race and a Long Tale

'I am older than you, and must know better'

The Lory said this phrase when he was tired of the argument with Alice, and I likes it because many times, especially when we were younger the adults says it to us when they didn't know how to explain different things and they said this just to shut up our mouths and it's ironic because in many times the youngest people know more about some things than the old people.

• CHAPTER IV: The Rabbit Sends in a Little Bill

The White Rabbit continues running and hurrying himself then he saw Alice and thinks she is his housemaid and tells her to looking for his gloves and fan to his house, Alice obeys and when she enter the rabbit's house she look a little bottle and she drank it cause she fancied that it will made her tall again and it did but too much because she grows rapidly and can barely fit in the room. Her arm dangles from a window and her foot becomes wedged in the chimney.

Then the White Rabbit came into his house and calls for his fan and gloves. He tries to enter into the house, but Alice’s giant arm was blocking the door from opening. The Rabbit tries to climb through the window, but Alice bats him away with her enormous hand. The Rabbit calls out for his servant, Pat, and the two begin to plot a way to deal with Alice when she swats them away again. The Rabbit and Pat recruit another servant, a lizard named Bill, to climb down the chimney, but Alice launches him into the air with her foot. A crowd gathered outside calls to burn down the house. Alice threatens to send Dinah to get them and they begin hurling pebbles through the window at her face. The pebbles transform into cakes, and reasoning that the cakes might cause her to become smaller, Alice eats one and shrinks. She leaves the house and encounters a mob of animals ready to rush her.

Alice runs out and gets into a wood where she thinks about how she might return to her normal size and find the garden. Then a bark causes her to look up at an enormous puppy standing over her. Alice gives him a stick because she thought it was hungry. After that she continues with her walk and in  the top of a mushroom she discover a blue caterpillar smoking a hookah.

• CHAPTER V: Advice from a Caterpillar

The Caterpillar asks Alice who she is. She answers that she doesn’t know because she has changed so many times that day. They continue with their conversation but during this, Alice began to feel irritated because the caterpillar keeps saying the same things once and once again.

Alice started complaining about her size and the Caterpillar advises her to eat from the mushroom: one side will make her grow taller and the other side will make her grow shorter. Then he crawls away. Not knowing which side makes her grow, Alice tries one part which makes her so tall until her head hits her feet. Quickly she eats from the other part which makes her grow until her head and neck rise far above the treetops.

Because of her long neck a pigeon mistakes her for a serpent in search of her eggs. Alice convinced it that she is only a little girl and eats again from the mushroom until she is reduced to her normal size. She starts to walk again and arrived to a little house. She was too long to enter it so she ate from the mushroom again to the correct size.

• CHAPTER VI: Pig and Pepper

While Alice were standing in front of the house, a fish-like footman comes out of the forest, knocks on the door and a frog-like footman opens. The fish-footman  gives him an invitation from the Queen for the Duchess to play croquet and leaves. The frog-footman sits on the ground outside the house. Alice knocks the door, but the footman tells her that it is no use knocking as he is on the same side of the door and they’re making too much noise in the house to hear her anyway. So Alice opens the door herself.

She enters herself in a large kitchen with the Duchess nursing a baby, a grinning Cat and a cook who is making soup. There is so much pepper in the air that everyone but the Cook and the Cat has to sneeze, and the baby howls continuously. The Duchess tells Alice that the Cat grins because it’s a Cheshire Cat. At once the cook starts throwing everything within her reach at the Duchess and the baby. The Duchess doesn’t seem to mind and continues nursing the baby in a very cruel way. She has to get ready to play croquet so she throws the baby to Alice who takes it outside to save it from being killed. The baby starts grunting, turns into a pig and runs into the woods.

Alice notices that the Cheshire Cat is sitting on a branch of a tree and asks it which way she should go. It tells her that the March Hare and the Mad Hatter live near and disappears suddenly. It reappears to ask a question and then disappears again. Alice decides to visit the March Hare.The Cat appears for the third time, but as Alice tells him to stop appearing and vanishing so suddenly he vanishes slowly this time, leaving only his grin behind. Alice reaches the house of the Hare, but the house is rather big so she first eats a little from the mushroom.

• CHAPTER VII: A Mad Tea-Party

Alice comes where The March Hare and the Mad Hatter are having a tea party and a Dormouse is sitting between them, asleep. Alice sits down in a chair, although the Hare and Hatter tell her there’s no space for her. The Hare offers her some wine, but there is only tea. When she protests that it isn't polite to offer wine when there isn't any, he replies that it wasn't very polite of her to sit down uninvited. The Hatter asks her what day of the month it is. Because his watch doesn’t tell the time, only the day of the month, Alice thinks it is strange to have a watch that tells the day of the month but not the hour.

The Hatter and the Hare asks Alice a riddle and she doesn't have an answer for it but the Hatter and the Hare don't have one either, so Alice tells them they shouldn't waste time by asking riddles with no answers. The Hatter tells her that he quarreled with Time last March when he was singing "Twinkle, twinkle, little bat" at a concert given by the Queen of Hearts, and now it is forever six o'clock. As this is teatime they must always have tea and thus they never have time to wash the cups, so they just keep moving around the table to a new set of places.

Then the Dormouse tells them a story about three sisters but Alice keeps interrupting the story so the others make rude remarks to her. Finally she becomes really offended and walks away. Alice notices a tree with a door in it, and when she enters it she finds herself in the long hallway with the glass table. She takes the key and unlocks the door, eats from the mushroom to make herself smaller and is finally able to enter the beautiful garden.

• CHAPTER VIII: The Queen's Croquet-Ground

Alice enters to the garden and find in it three gardeners that were arguing with each other because they have planted white roses trees and the Queen of Hearts specifically wanted red rose trees so they were painting the roses before The Queen will come and see it.  But just in that time The Queen arrived and the gardeners made her a reverence, who asks for Alice’s name with great severity. Alice answers the Queen and made her notice that she wasn't afraid of her and her subjects because they just were a simply pack of cards, the Queen, really angry order to make cut Alice's head, but she says that it is nonsense and saves the gardeners hiding them on a flower pot.

The Queen invites Alice to play croquet with them and when the game begins Alice notices that the balls are live hedgehogs, the mallets live flamingos, and the soldiers make the arches. She tries to manage them but she can't do it correctly, at the same time the other people were playing too but the Queen was angry because they were dirty playing and making loud so she orders many times to cut the heads of the people.

Then the Cheshire Cat appears and Alice starts complaining, the King noticed it and give an advice to the Queen who orders to cut the head of the Cheshire Cat too, but there is no way because they only can see the Cheshire Cat's head and no his body until it disappears.

• CHAPTER IX: The Mock Turtle's Story

After the Cheshire Cat disappeared Alice and the Queen who is in a very good mood now start walking together. The Queen tells Alice various moral lessons and Alice politely tries to agree with all and tolerate her presence, although she was very uncomfortable.

Then The Queen invites Alice to finish their croquet game and there were anyone cause The Queen was ordered so many cut heads, The Queen thought that it were time to Alice visit the Mock Turtle, and she led Alice with the Gryphon while the King were pardoning all the prisoners. The Gryphon takes Alice with the Mock Turtle and in the way they tells her that the Queen had never pardoned anyone so she was fortunate, then they arrive with the Turtle that was sitting sadly on a rock sighing loudly so Alice asks the Gryphon what was happening with him and he answers that nothing.

The Mock Turtle starts telling his history to Alice almost crying  and with long pauses. He tells how he once was a real turtle and went to school at the bottom of the sea where his master was an old turtle called Tortoise and he took courses like Reeling and Writhing, but when Alice asked something about the subjects the Gryphon changed the theme of conversation into games.

• CHAPTER X: The Lobster Quadrille

The Gryphon and the Mock Turtle explain to Alice what sort of dance a Lobster Quadrille is and start dancing around her while the Mock Turtle sings the words.

When they’re finished they ask Alice to tell her story. She tells them about her curious day and when she gets to the part about her repeating `You are old, Father William' to the Caterpillar they interrupt her and make her repeat ‘Tis the voice of the Sluggard’, which comes out all wrong too.

Then they ask the Mock Turtle to sing ‘Turtle Soup’ for them. He is interrupted with a cry in the distance: 'The trial's beginning!’ Alice and the Gryphon run away and leave the Mock Turtle alone, still singing.

• CHAPTER XI.: Who Stole the Tarts?

When Alice arrives sees the King and Queen of Hearts sitting on their throne, with a great crowd assembled about them. The Knave is standing before them in chains and the White Rabbit has a trumpet in one hand and a scroll of parchment in the other. In the middle of the court is a table with a large dish of tarts upon it. While waiting for the trial to begin, Alice looks around and notices that the King is the judge and that the jurors are not very smart.

The White Rabbit starts reading the accusation; he claims that the Knave of Hearts stole the tarts. The King wants the jury to consider their verdict, but the Rabbit tells him that they should have the witnesses first.

The first witness is the Mad Hatter, accompanied by the March Hare and the Dormouse. Alice feels that she is starting to grow again. The Hatter gives no evidence so they move on to the next witness. The next witness is the Duchess’ cook and she is being cross-examined. She testifies that tarts are made mostly of pepper. To her great surprise Alice herself is being called as the third witness.

• CHAPTER XII: Alice's Evidence

Alice jumps to the White Rabbit’s call to the stand. She forgets that she has grown larger and knocks over the jury stand, then scrambles to put all of the jurors back. Alice claims to know “nothing whatever” about the tarts, which the King deems “very important.” The White Rabbit corrects the King, suggesting that he in fact means “unimportant.” The King agrees, muttering the words “important” and “unimportant” to himself.

The King interjects with Rule 42, which states, “All persons more than a mile high to leave the court.” Everyone turns to Alice, who denies she is a mile high and accuses the King of fabricating the rule. The King replies that Rule 42 is the oldest rule in the book, but Alice retorts that if it is the oldest rule in the book, it ought to be the first rule. The King becomes quiet for a moment before calling for a verdict. The White Rabbit interrupts and declares that more evidence must be presented first. He presents a paper supposedly written by the Knave, though it is not written in the Knave’s handwriting. The Knave refutes the charge, explaining that there is no signature on the document. Alice has grown to her full size and bats away the playing cards as they fly upon her.

Alice suddenly wakes up and finds herself back on her sister’s lap at the riverbank. She tells her adventures to her sister who bids her go inside for tea. Alice traipses off, while her sister remains by the riverbank daydreaming. She envisions the characters from Alice’s adventures, but knows that when she opens her eyes the images will dissipate. She imagines that Alice will one day grow older but retain her childlike spirit and recount her adventures to other children.

CHAPTER I

The narrator of The Great Gatsby is Nick Carraway, a young man from Minnesota. He not only narrates the story but casts himself as the book’s author. He begins by commenting on himself, stating that he learned from his father to reserve judgment about other people, because if he holds them up to his own moral standards, he will misunderstand them. He characterizes himself as both highly moral and highly tolerant. He briefly mentions the hero of his story, Gatsby, saying that Gatsby represented everything he scorns, but that he exempts Gatsby completely from his usual judgments. Gatsby’s personality was nothing short of “gorgeous.”

In the summer of 1922, Nick writes, he had just arrived in New York, where he moved to work in the bond business, and rented a house on a part of Long Island called West Egg. Unlike the conservative, aristocratic East Egg, West Egg is home to the “new rich,” those who, having made their fortunes recently, have neither the social connections nor the refinement to move among the East Egg set. West Egg is characterized by lavish displays of wealth and garish poor taste. Nick’s comparatively modest West Egg house is next door to Gatsby’s mansion, a sprawling Gothic monstrosity.

Nick is unlike his West Egg neighbors; whereas they lack social connections and aristocratic pedigrees, Nick graduated from Yale and has many connections on East Egg. One night, he drives out to East Egg to have dinner with his cousin Daisy and her husband, Tom Buchanan, a former member of Nick’s social club at Yale. Tom, a powerful figure dressed in riding clothes, greets Nick on the porch. Inside, Daisy lounges on a couch with her friend Jordan Baker, a competitive golfer who yawns as though bored by her surroundings.

Tom tries to interest the others in a book called The Rise of the Colored Empires by a man named Goddard. The book espouses racist, white-supremacist attitudes that Tom seems to find convincing. Daisy teases Tom about the book but is interrupted when Tom leaves the room to take a phone call. Daisy follows him hurriedly, and Jordan tells Nick that the call is from Tom’s lover in New York. After an awkward dinner, the party breaks up. Jordan wants to go to bed because she has a golf tournament the next day. As Nick leaves, Tom and Daisy hint that they would like for him to take a romantic interest in Jordan. When Nick arrives home, he sees Gatsby for the first time, a handsome young man standing on the lawn with his arms reaching out toward the dark water. Nick looks out at the water, but all he can see is a distant green light that might mark the end of a dock.

CHAPTER II

Halfway between West Egg and New York City sprawls a desolate plain, a gray valley where New York’s ashes are dumped. The men who live here work at shoveling up the ashes. Overhead, two huge, blue, spectacle-rimmed eyes—the last vestige of an advertising gimmick by a long-vanished eye doctor—stare down from an enormous sign. These unblinking eyes, the eyes of Doctor T. J. Eckleburg, watch over everything that happens in the valley of ashes.

The commuter train that runs between West Egg and New York passes through the valley, making several stops along the way. One day, as Nick and Tom are riding the train into the city, Tom forces Nick to follow him out of the train at one of these stops. Tom leads Nick to George Wilson’s garage, which sits on the edge of the valley of ashes. Tom’s lover Myrtle is Wilson’s wife. Wilson is a lifeless yet handsome man, colored gray by the ashes in the air. In contrast, Myrtle has a kind of desperate vitality; she strikes Nick as sensuous despite her stocky figure. Tom taunts Wilson and then orders Myrtle to follow him to the train. Tom takes Nick and Myrtle to New York City, to the Morningside Heights apartment he keeps for his affair. Here they have an impromptu party with Myrtle’s sister, Catherine, and a couple named McKee. Catherine has bright red hair, wears a great deal of makeup, and tells Nick that she has heard that Jay Gatsby is the nephew or cousin of Kaiser Wilhelm, the ruler of Germany during World War I. The McKees, who live downstairs, are a horrid couple: Mr. McKee is pale and feminine, and Mrs. McKee is shrill. The group proceeds to drink excessively. Nick claims that he got drunk for only the second time in his life at this party.

The ostentatious behavior and conversation of the others at the party repulse Nick, and he tries to leave. At the same time, he finds himself fascinated by the lurid spectacle of the group. Myrtle grows louder and more obnoxious the more she drinks, and shortly after Tom gives her a new puppy as a gift, she begins to talk about Daisy. Tom sternly warns her never to mention his wife. Myrtle angrily says that she will talk about whatever she chooses and begins chanting Daisy’s name. Tom responds by breaking her nose, bringing the party to an abrupt halt. Nick leaves, drunkenly, with Mr. McKee, and ends up taking the 4 A.M. train back to Long Island.

CHAPTER III

One of the reasons that Gatsby has become so famous around New York is that he throws elaborate parties every weekend at his mansion, lavish spectacles to which people long to be invited. One day, Gatsby’s chauffeur brings Nick an invitation to one of these parties. At the appointed time, Nick makes the short walk to Gatsby’s house and joins the festivities, feeling somewhat out of place amid the throng of jubilant strangers. Guests mill around exchanging rumors about their host—no one seems to know the truth about Gatsby’s wealth or personal history. Nick runs into Jordan Baker, whose friend, Lucille, speculates that Gatsby was a German spy during the war. Nick also hears that Gatsby is a graduate of Oxford and that he once killed a man in cold blood.

Gatsby’s party is almost unbelievably luxurious: guests marvel over his Rolls-Royce, his swimming pool, his beach, crates of fresh oranges and lemons, buffet tents in the gardens overflowing with a feast, and a live orchestra playing under the stars. Liquor flows freely, and the crowd grows rowdier and louder as more and more guests get drunk. In this atmosphere of opulence and revelry, Nick and Jordan, curious about their host, set out to find Gatsby. Instead, they run into a middle-aged man with huge, owl-eyed spectacles (whom Nick dubs Owl Eyes) who sits poring over the unread books in Gatsby’s library. At midnight, Nick and Jordan go outside to watch the entertainment. They sit at a table with a handsome young man who says that Nick looks familiar to him; they realize that they served in the same division during the war. The man introduces himself as none other than Jay Gatsby. Gatsby’s speech is elaborate and formal, and he has a habit of calling everyone “old sport.” As the party progresses, Nick becomes increasingly fascinated with Gatsby. He notices that Gatsby does not drink and that he keeps himself separate from the party, standing alone on the marble steps, watching his guests in silence. At two o’clock in the morning, as husbands and wives argue over whether to leave, a butler tells Jordan that Gatsby would like to see her. Jordan emerges from her meeting with Gatsby saying that she has just heard something extraordinary.

Nick says goodbye to Gatsby, who goes inside to take a phone call from Philadelphia. Nick starts to walk home. On his way, he sees Owl Eyes struggling to get his car out of a ditch. Owl Eyes and another man climb out of the wrecked automobile, and Owl Eyes drunkenly declares that he washes his hands of the whole business. Nick then proceeds to describe his everyday life, to prove that he does more with his time than simply attend parties. He works in New York City, through which he also takes long walks, and he meets women. After a brief relationship with a girl from Jersey City, Nick follows the advice of Daisy and Tom and begins seeing Jordan Baker. Nick says that Jordan is fundamentally a dishonest person; he even knows that she cheated in her first golf tournament. Nick feels attracted to her despite her dishonesty, even though he himself claims to be one of the few honest people he has ever known.

CHAPTER IV

Nick lists all of the people who attended Gatsby’s parties that summer, a roll call of the nation’s most wealthy and powerful people. He then describes a trip that he took to New York with Gatsby to eat lunch. As they drive to the city, Gatsby tells Nick about his past, but his story seems highly improbable. He claims, for instance, to be the son of wealthy, deceased parents from the Midwest. When Nick asks which Midwestern city he is from, Gatsby replies, “San Francisco.” Gatsby then lists a long and preposterously detailed set of accomplishments: he claims to have been educated at Oxford, to have collected jewels in the capitals of Europe, to have hunted big game, and to have been awarded medals in World War I by multiple European countries. Seeing Nick’s skepticism, Gatsby produces a medal from Montenegro and a picture of himself playing cricket at Oxford.

Gatsby’s car speeds through the valley of ashes and enters the city. When a policeman pulls Gatsby over for speeding, Gatsby shows him a white card and the policeman apologizes for bothering him. In the city, Gatsby takes Nick to lunch and introduces him to Meyer Wolfshiem, who, he claims, was responsible for fixing the 1919 World Series. Wolfshiem is a shady character with underground business connections. He gives Nick the impression that the source of Gatsby’s wealth might be unsavory, and that Gatsby may even have ties to the sort of organized crime with which Wolfshiem is associated. After the lunch in New York, Nick sees Jordan Baker, who finally tells him the details of her mysterious conversation with Gatsby at the party. She relates that Gatsby told her that he is in love with Daisy Buchanan. According to Jordan, during the war, before Daisy married Tom, she was a beautiful young girl in Louisville, Kentucky, and all the military officers in town were in love with her. Daisy fell in love with Lieutenant Jay Gatsby, who was stationed at the base near her home. Though she chose to marry Tom after Gatsby left for the war, Daisy drank herself into numbness the night before her wedding, after she received a letter from Gatsby.

Daisy has apparently remained faithful to her husband throughout their marriage, but Tom has not. Jordan adds that Gatsby bought his mansion in West Egg solely to be near Daisy. Nick remembers the night he saw Gatsby stretching his arms out to the water and realizes that the green light he saw was the light at the end of Daisy’s dock. According to Jordan, Gatsby has asked her to convince Nick to arrange a reunion between Gatsby and Daisy. Because he is terrified that Daisy will refuse to see him, Gatsby wants Nick to invite Daisy to tea. Without Daisy’s knowledge, Gatsby intends to come to the tea at Nick’s house as well, surprising her and forcing her to see him.

CHAPTER V

That night, Nick comes home from the city after a date with Jordan. He is surprised to see Gatsby’s mansion lit up brightly, but it seems to be unoccupied, as the house is totally silent. As Nick walks home, Gatsby startles him by approaching him from across the lawn. Gatsby seems agitated and almost desperate to make Nick happy—he invites him to Coney Island, then for a swim in his pool. Nick realizes that Gatsby is nervous because he wants Nick to agree to his plan of inviting Daisy over for tea. Nick tells Gatsby that he will help him with the plan. Overjoyed, Gatsby immediately offers to have someone cut Nick’s grass. He also offers him the chance to make some money by joining him in some business he does on the side—business that does not involve Meyer Wolfshiem. Nick is slightly offended that Gatsby wants to pay him for arranging the meeting with Daisy and refuses Gatsby’s offers, but he still agrees to call Daisy and invite her to his house.

It rains on the day of the meeting, and Gatsby becomes terribly nervous. Despite the rain, Gatsby sends a gardener over to cut Nick’s grass and sends another man over with flowers. Gatsby worries that even if Daisy accepts his advances, things between them will not be the same as they were in Louisville. Daisy arrives, but when Nick brings her into the house, he finds that Gatsby has suddenly disappeared. There is a knock at the door. Gatsby enters, having returned from a walk around the house in the rain. At first, Gatsby’s reunion with Daisy is terribly awkward. Gatsby knocks Nick’s clock over and tells Nick sorrowfully that the meeting was a mistake. After he leaves the two alone for half an hour, however, Nick returns to find them radiantly happy—Daisy shedding tears of joy and Gatsby glowing. Outside, the rain has stopped, and Gatsby invites Nick and Daisy over to his house, where he shows them his possessions. Daisy is overwhelmed by his luxurious lifestyle, and when he shows her his extensive collection of English shirts, she begins to cry. Gatsby tells Daisy about his long nights spent outside, staring at the green light at the end of her dock, dreaming about their future happiness.

Nick wonders whether Daisy can possibly live up to Gatsby’s vision of her. Gatsby seems to have idealized Daisy in his mind to the extent that the real Daisy, charming as she is, will almost certainly fail to live up to his expectations. For the moment, however, their romance seems fully rekindled. Gatsby calls in Klipspringer, a strange character who seems to live at Gatsby’s mansion, and has him play the piano. Klipspringer plays a popular song called “Ain’t We Got Fun?” Nick quickly realizes that Gatsby and Daisy have forgotten that he is there. Quietly, Nick gets up and leaves Gatsby and Daisy alone together.

CHAPTER VI

The rumors about Gatsby continue to circulate in New York—a reporter even travels to Gatsby’s mansion hoping to interview him. Having learned the truth about Gatsby’s early life sometime before writing his account, Nick now interrupts the story to relate Gatsby’s personal history—not as it is rumored to have occurred, nor as Gatsby claimed it occurred, but as it really happened. Gatsby was born James Gatz on a North Dakota farm, and though he attended college at St. Olaf’s in Minnesota, he dropped out after two weeks, loathing the humiliating janitorial work by means of which he paid his tuition. He worked on Lake Superior the next summer fishing for salmon and digging for clams. One day, he saw a yacht owned by Dan Cody, a wealthy copper mogul, and rowed out to warn him about an impending storm.

The grateful Cody took young Gatz, who gave his name as Jay Gatsby, on board his yacht as his personal assistant. Traveling with Cody to the Barbary Coast and the West Indies, Gatsby fell in love with wealth and luxury. Cody was a heavy drinker, and one of Gatsby’s jobs was to look after him during his drunken binges. This gave Gatsby a healthy respect for the dangers of alcohol and convinced him not to become a drinker himself. When Cody died, he left Gatsby $25,000, but Cody’s mistress prevented him from claiming his inheritance. Gatsby then dedicated himself to becoming a wealthy and successful man. Nick sees neither Gatsby nor Daisy for several weeks after their reunion at Nick’s house. Stopping by Gatsby’s house one afternoon, he is alarmed to find Tom Buchanan there. Tom has stopped for a drink at Gatsby’s house with Mr. and Mrs. Sloane, with whom he has been out riding. Gatsby seems nervous and agitated, and tells Tom awkwardly that he knows Daisy. Gatsby invites Tom and the Sloanes to stay for dinner, but they refuse. To be polite, they invite Gatsby to dine with them, and he accepts, not realizing the insincerity of the invitation. Tom is contemptuous of Gatsby’s lack of social grace and highly critical of Daisy’s habit of visiting Gatsby’s house alone. He is suspicious, but he has not yet discovered Gatsby and Daisy’s love.

The following Saturday night, Tom and Daisy go to a party at Gatsby’s house. Though Tom has no interest in the party, his dislike for Gatsby causes him to want to keep an eye on Daisy. Gatsby’s party strikes Nick much more unfavorably this time around—he finds the revelry oppressive and notices that even Daisy has a bad time. Tom upsets her by telling her that Gatsby’s fortune comes from bootlegging. She angrily replies that Gatsby’s wealth comes from a chain of drugstores that he owns. Gatsby seeks out Nick after Tom and Daisy leave the party; he is unhappy because Daisy has had such an unpleasant time. Gatsby wants things to be exactly the same as they were before he left Louisville: he wants Daisy to leave Tom so that he can be with her. Nick reminds Gatsby that he cannot re-create the past. Gatsby, distraught, protests that he can. He believes that his money can accomplish anything as far as Daisy is concerned. As he walks amid the debris from the party, Nick thinks about the first time Gatsby kissed Daisy, the moment when his dream of Daisy became the dominant force in his life. Now that he has her, Nick reflects, his dream is effectively over.

CHAPTER VII

Preoccupied by his love for Daisy, Gatsby calls off his parties, which were primarily a means to lure Daisy. He also fires his servants to prevent gossip and replaces them with shady individuals connected to Meyer Wolfshiem. On the hottest day of the summer, Nick takes the train to East Egg for lunch at the house of Tom and Daisy. He finds Gatsby and Jordan Baker there as well. When the nurse brings in Daisy’s baby girl, Gatsby is stunned and can hardly believe that the child is real. For her part, Daisy seems almost uninterested in her child. During the awkward afternoon, Gatsby and Daisy cannot hide their love for one another. Complaining of her boredom, Daisy asks Gatsby if he wants to go into the city. Gatsby stares at her passionately, and Tom becomes certain of their feelings for each other. Looking for a confrontation, Tom seizes upon Daisy’s suggestion that they should all go to New York together.

Nick rides with Jordan and Tom in Gatsby’s car, and Gatsby and Daisy ride together in Tom’s car. Stopping for gas at Wilson’s garage, Nick, Tom, and Jordan learn that Wilson has discovered his wife’s infidelity—though not the identity of her lover—and plans to move her to the West. Under the brooding eyes of Doctor T. J. Eckleburg, Nick perceives that Tom and Wilson are in the same position. In the oppressive New York City heat, the group decides to take a suite at the Plaza Hotel. Tom initiates his planned confrontation with Gatsby by mocking his habit of calling people “old sport.” He accuses Gatsby of lying about having attended Oxford. Gatsby responds that he did attend Oxford—for five months, in an army program following the war. Tom asks Gatsby about his intentions for Daisy, and Gatsby replies that Daisy loves him, not Tom. Tom claims that he and Daisy have a history that Gatsby could not possibly understand. He then accuses Gatsby of running a bootlegging operation. Daisy, in love with Gatsby earlier in the afternoon, feels herself moving closer and closer to Tom as she observes the quarrel. Realizing he has bested Gatsby, Tom sends Daisy back to Long Island with Gatsby to prove Gatsby’s inability to hurt him. As the row quiets down, Nick realizes that it is his thirtieth birthday.

Driving back to Long Island, Nick, Tom, and Jordan discover a frightening scene on the border of the valley of ashes. Someone has been fatally hit by an automobile. Michaelis, a Greek man who runs the restaurant next to Wilson’s garage, tells them that Myrtle was the victim—a car coming from New York City struck her, paused, then sped away. Nick realizes that Myrtle must have been hit by Gatsby and Daisy, driving back from the city in Gatsby’s big yellow automobile. Tom thinks that Wilson will remember the yellow car from that afternoon. He also assumes that Gatsby was the driver. Back at Tom’s house, Nick waits outside and finds Gatsby hiding in the bushes. Gatsby says that he has been waiting there in order to make sure that Tom did not hurt Daisy. He tells Nick that Daisy was driving when the car struck Myrtle, but that he himself will take the blame. Still worried about Daisy, Gatsby sends Nick to check on her. Nick finds Tom and Daisy eating cold fried chicken and talking. They have reconciled their differences, and Nick leaves Gatsby standing alone in the moonlight.

CHAPTER VIII

After the day’s traumatic events, Nick passes a sleepless night. Before dawn, he rises restlessly and goes to visit Gatsby at his mansion. Gatsby tells him that he waited at Daisy’s until four o’clock in the morning and that nothing happened—Tom did not try to hurt her and Daisy did not come outside. Nick suggests that Gatsby forget about Daisy and leave Long Island, but Gatsby refuses to consider leaving Daisy behind. Gatsby, melancholy, tells Nick about courting Daisy in Louisville in 1917. He says that he loved her for her youth and vitality, and idolized her social position, wealth, and popularity. He adds that she was the first girl to whom he ever felt close and that he lied about his background to make her believe that he was worthy of her. Eventually, he continues, he and Daisy made love, and he felt as though he had married her. She promised to wait for him when he left for the war, but then she married Tom, whose social position was solid and who had the approval of her parents.

Gatsby’s gardener interrupts the story to tell Gatsby that he plans to drain the pool. The previous day was the hottest of the summer, but autumn is in the air this morning, and the gardener worries that falling leaves will clog the pool drains. Gatsby tells the gardener to wait a day; he has never used the pool, he says, and wants to go for a swim. Nick has stayed so long talking to Gatsby that he is very late for work. He finally says goodbye to Gatsby. As he walks away, he turns back and shouts that Gatsby is worth more than the Buchanans and all of their friends. Nick goes to his office, but he feels too distracted to work, and even refuses to meet Jordan Baker for a date. The focus of his narrative then shifts to relate to the reader what happened at the garage after Myrtle was killed (the details of which Nick learns from Michaelis): George Wilson stays up all night talking to Michaelis about Myrtle. He tells him that before Myrtle died, he confronted her about her lover and told her that she could not hide her sin from the eyes of God. The morning after the accident, the eyes of Doctor T. J. Eckleburg, illuminated by the dawn, overwhelm Wilson. He believes they are the eyes of God and leaps to the conclusion that whoever was driving the car that killed Myrtle must have been her lover.

He decides that God demands revenge and leaves to track down the owner of the car. He looks for Tom, because he knows that Tom is familiar with the car’s owner—he saw Tom driving the car earlier that day but knows Tom could not have been the driver since Tom arrived after the accident in a different car with Nick and Jordan. Wilson eventually goes to Gatsby’s house, where he finds Gatsby lying on an air mattress in the pool, floating in the water and looking up at the sky. Wilson shoots Gatsby, killing him instantly, then shoots himself. Nick hurries back to West Egg and finds Gatsby floating dead in his pool. Nick imagines Gatsby’s final thoughts, and pictures him disillusioned by the meaninglessness and emptiness of life without Daisy, without his dream.

CHAPTER IX

Writing two years after Gatsby’s death, Nick describes the events that surrounded the funeral. Swarms of reporters, journalists, and gossipmongers descend on the mansion in the aftermath of the murder. Wild, untrue stories, more exaggerated than the rumors about Gatsby when he was throwing his parties, circulate about the nature of Gatsby’s relationship to Myrtle and Wilson. Feeling that Gatsby would not want to go through a funeral alone, Nick tries to hold a large funeral for him, but all of Gatsby’s former friends and acquaintances have either disappeared—Tom and Daisy, for instance, move away with no forwarding address—or refuse to come, like Meyer Wolfshiem and Klipspringer. The latter claims that he has a social engagement in Westport and asks Nick to send along his tennis shoes. Outraged, Nick hangs up on him. The only people to attend the funeral are Nick, Owl Eyes, a few servants, and Gatsby’s father, Henry C. Gatz, who has come all the way from Minnesota. Henry Gatz is proud of his son and saves a picture of his house. He also fills Nick in on Gatsby’s early life, showing him a book in which a young Gatsby had written a schedule for self-improvement.

Sick of the East and its empty values, Nick decides to move back to the Midwest. He breaks off his relationship with Jordan, who suddenly claims that she has become engaged to another man. Just before he leaves, Nick encounters Tom on Fifth Avenue in New York City. Nick initially refuses to shake Tom’s hand but eventually accepts. Tom tells him that he was the one who told Wilson that Gatsby owned the car that killed Myrtle, and describes how greatly he suffered when he had to give up the apartment he kept in the city for his affair. He says that Gatsby deserved to die. Nick comes to the conclusion that Tom and Daisy are careless and uncaring people and that they destroy people and things, knowing that their money will shield them from ever having to face any negative consequences. Nick muses that, in some ways, this story is a story of the West even though it has taken place entirely on the East Coast. Nick, Jordan, Tom, and Daisy are all from west of the Appalachians, and Nick believes that the reactions of each, himself included, to living the fast-paced, lurid lifestyle of the East has shaped his or her behavior. Nick remembers life in the Midwest, full of snow, trains, and Christmas wreaths, and thinks that the East seems grotesque and distorted by comparison. On his last night in West Egg before moving back to Minnesota, Nick walks over to Gatsby’s empty mansion and erases an obscene word that someone has written on the steps.

He sprawls out on the beach behind Gatsby’s house and looks up. As the moon rises, he imagines the island with no houses and considers what it must have looked like to the explorers who discovered the New World centuries before. He imagines that America was once a goal for dreamers and explorers, just as Daisy was for Gatsby. He pictures the green land of America as the green light shining from Daisy’s dock, and muses that Gatsby—whose wealth and success so closely echo the American dream—failed to realize that the dream had already ended, that his goals had become hollow and empty. Nick senses that people everywhere are motivated by similar dreams and by a desire to move forward into a future in which their dreams are realized. Nick envisions their struggles to create that future as boats moving in a body of water against a current that inevitably carries them back into the past.

Summary: Chapter 1

The stranger, who the reader soon learns is Victor Frankenstein, begins his narration. He starts with his family background, birth, and early childhood, telling Walton about his father, Alphonse, and his mother, Caroline. Alphonse became Caroline’s protector when her father, Alphonse’s longtime friend Beaufort, died in poverty. They married two years later, and Victor was born soon after.

Frankenstein then describes how his childhood companion, Elizabeth Lavenza, entered his family. At this point in the narrative, the original (1818) and revised (1831) versions of Frankenstein diverge. In the original version, Elizabeth is Victor’s cousin, the daughter of Alphonse’s sister; when Victor is four years old, Elizabeth’s mother dies and Elizabeth is adopted into the Frankenstein family.

In the revised version, Elizabeth is discovered by Caroline, on a trip to Italy, when Victor is about five years old. While visiting a poor Italian family, Caroline notices a beautiful blonde girl among the dark-haired Italian children; upon discovering that Elizabeth is the orphaned daughter of a Milanese nobleman and a German woman and that the Italian family can barely afford to feed her, Caroline adopts Elizabeth and brings her back to Geneva. Victor’s mother decides at the moment of the adoption that Elizabeth and Victor should someday marry.

Summary: Chapter 2

Elizabeth and Victor grow up together as best friends. Victor’s friendship with Henry Clerval, a schoolmate and only child, flourishes as well, and he spends his childhood happily surrounded by this close domestic circle.

As a teenager, Victor becomes increasingly fascinated by the mysteries of the natural world. He chances upon a book by Cornelius Agrippa, a sixteenth-century scholar of the occult sciences, and becomes interested in natural philosophy. He studies the outdated findings of the alchemists Agrippa, Paracelsus, and Albertus Magnus with enthusiasm.

He witnesses the destructive power of nature when, during a raging storm, lightning destroys a tree near his house. A modern natural philosopher accompanying the Frankenstein family explains to Victor the workings of electricity, making the ideas of the alchemists seem outdated and worthless. (In the 1818 version, a demonstration of electricity by his father convinces Victor of the alchemists’ mistakenness.)

Summary: Chapter 3

At the age of seventeen, Victor leaves his family in Geneva to attend the university at Ingolstadt. Just before Victor departs, his mother catches scarlet fever from Elizabeth, whom she has been nursing back to health, and dies.

On her deathbed, she begs Elizabeth and Victor to marry. Several weeks later, still grieving, Victor goes off to Ingolstadt. Arriving at the university, he finds quarters in the town and sets up a meeting with a professor of natural philosophy, M. Krempe. Krempe tells Victor that all the time that Victor has spent studying the alchemists has been wasted, further souring Victor on the study of natural philosophy. He then attends a lecture in chemistry by a professor named Waldman.

This lecture, along with a subsequent meeting with the professor, convinces Victor to pursue his studies in the sciences.

Summary: Chapter 4

Victor attacks his studies with enthusiasm and, ignoring his social life and his family far away in Geneva, makes rapid progress.

Fascinated by the mystery of the creation of life, he begins to study how the human body is built (anatomy) and how it falls apart (death and decay). After several years of tireless work, he masters all that his professors have to teach him, and he goes one step further: discovering the secret of life.

Privately, hidden away in his apartment where no one can see him work, he decides to begin the construction of an animate creature, envisioning the creation of a new race of wonderful beings. Zealously devoting himself to this labor, he neglects everything else—family, friends, studies, and social life—and grows increasingly pale, lonely, and obsessed.

Summary: Chapter 5

One stormy night, after months of labor, Victor completes his creation. But when he brings it to life, its awful appearance horrifies him. He rushes to the next room and tries to sleep, but he is troubled by nightmares about Elizabeth and his mother’s corpse.

He wakes to discover the monster looming over his bed with a grotesque smile and rushes out of the house. He spends the night pacing in his courtyard. The next morning, he goes walking in the town of Ingolstadt, frantically avoiding a return to his now-haunted apartment. As he walks by the town inn, Victor comes across his friend Henry Clerval, who has just arrived to begin studying at the university. Delighted to see Henry—a breath of fresh air and a reminder of his family after so many months of isolation and ill health—he brings him back to his apartment. Victor enters first and is relieved to find no sign of the monster.

But, weakened by months of work and shock at the horrific being he has created, he immediately falls ill with a nervous fever that lasts several months. Henry nurses him back to health and, when Victor has recovered, gives him a letter from Elizabeth that had arrived during his illness.

Summary: Chapter 6

Elizabeth’s letter expresses her concern about Victor’s illness and entreats him to write to his family in Geneva as soon as he can. She also tells him that Justine Moritz, a girl who used to live with the Frankenstein family, has returned to their house following her mother’s death.

After Victor has recovered, he introduces Henry, who is studying Oriental languages, to the professors at the university. The task is painful, however, since the sight of any chemical instrument worsens Victor’s symptoms; even speaking to his professors torments him.

He decides to return to Geneva and awaits a letter from his father specifying the date of his departure. Meanwhile, he and Henry take a walking tour through the country, uplifting their spirits with the beauties of nature.

Summary: Chapter 7

On their return to the university, Victor finds a letter from his father telling him that Victor’s youngest brother, William, has been murdered.

Saddened, shocked, and apprehensive, Victor departs immediately for Geneva. By the time he arrives, night has fallen and the gates of Geneva have been shut, so he spends the evening walking in the woods around the outskirts of the town. As he walks near the spot where his brother’s body was found, he spies the monster lurking and becomes convinced that his creation is responsible for killing William.

The next day, however, when he returns home, Victor learns that Justine has been accused of the murder. After the discovery of the body, a servant had found in Justine’s pocket a picture of Caroline Frankenstein last seen in William’s possession. Victor proclaims Justine’s innocence, but the evidence against her seems irrefutable, and Victor refuses to explain himself for fear that he will be labeled insane.

Summary: Chapter 8

Justine confesses to the crime, believing that she will thereby gain salvation, but tells Elizabeth and Victor that she is innocent—and miserable.

They remain convinced of her innocence, but Justine is soon executed. Victor becomes consumed with guilt, knowing that the monster he created and the cloak of secrecy within which the creation took place have now caused the deaths of two members of his family.

Summary: Chapter 9

After Justine’s execution, Victor becomes increasingly melancholy. He considers suicide but restrains himself by thinking of Elizabeth and his father. Alphonse, hoping to cheer up his son, takes his children on an excursion to the family home at Belrive. From there, Victor wanders alone toward the valley of Chamounix. The beautiful scenery cheers him somewhat, but his respite from grief is short-lived.

Summary: Chapter 10

One rainy day, Victor wakes to find his old feelings of despair resurfacing. He decides to travel to the summit of Montanvert, hoping that the view of a pure, eternal, beautiful natural scene will revive his spirits.

When he reaches the glacier at the top, he is momentarily consoled by the sublime spectacle. As he crosses to the opposite side of the glacier, however, he spots a creature loping toward him at incredible speed.

At closer range, he recognizes clearly the grotesque shape of the monster. He issues futile threats of attack to the monster, whose enormous strength and speed allow him to elude Victor easily. Victor curses him and tells him to go away, but the monster, speaking eloquently, persuades him to accompany him to a fire in a cave of ice. Inside the cave, the monster begins to narrate the events of his life.

Summary: Chapter 11

Sitting by the fire in his hut, the monster tells Victor of the confusion that he experienced upon being created. He describes his flight from Victor’s apartment into the wilderness and his gradual acclimation to the world through his discovery of the sensations of light, dark, hunger, thirst, and cold.

According to his story, one day he finds a fire and is pleased at the warmth it creates, but he becomes dismayed when he burns himself on the hot embers. He realizes that he can keep the fire alive by adding wood, and that the fire is good not only for heat and warmth but also for making food more palatable.

In search of food, the monster finds a hut and enters it. His presence causes an old man inside to shriek and run away in fear. The monster proceeds to a village, where more people flee at the sight of him. As a result of these incidents, he resolves to stay away from humans. One night he takes refuge in a small hovel adjacent to a cottage. In the morning, he discovers that he can see into the cottage through a crack in the wall and observes that the occupants are a young man, a young woman, and an old man.

Summary: Chapter 12

Observing his neighbors for an extended period of time, the monster notices that they often seem unhappy, though he is unsure why. He eventually realizes, however, that their despair results from their poverty, to which he has been contributing by surreptitiously stealing their food.

Torn by his guilty conscience, he stops stealing their food and does what he can to reduce their hardship, gathering wood at night to leave at the door for their use.

The monster becomes aware that his neighbors are able to communicate with each other using strange sounds. Vowing to learn their language, he tries to match the sounds they make with the actions they perform. He acquires a basic knowledge of the language, including the names of the young man and woman, Felix and Agatha. He admires their graceful forms and is shocked by his ugliness when he catches sight of his reflection in a pool of water. He spends the whole winter in the hovel, unobserved and well protected from the elements, and grows increasingly affectionate toward his unwitting hosts.

Summary: Chapter 13

As winter thaws into spring, the monster notices that the cottagers, particularly Felix, seem unhappy. A beautiful woman in a dark dress and veil arrives at the cottage on horseback and asks to see Felix.

Felix becomes ecstatic the moment he sees her. The woman, who does not speak the language of the cottagers, is named Safie. She moves into the cottage, and the mood of the household immediately brightens. As Safie learns the language of the cottagers, so does the monster. He also learns to read, and, since Felix uses Constantin-François de Volney’s Ruins of Empires to instruct Safie, he learns a bit of world history in the process.

Now able to speak and understand the language perfectly, the monster learns about human society by listening to the cottagers’ conversations. Reflecting on his own situation, he realizes that he is deformed and alone. “Was I then a monster,” he asks, “a blot upon the earth, from which all men fled, and whom all men disowned?” He also learns about the pleasures and obligations of the family and of human relations in general, which deepens the agony of his own isolation.

Summary: Chapter 14

After some time, the monster’s constant eavesdropping allows him to reconstruct the history of the cottagers. The old man, De Lacey, was once an affluent and successful citizen in Paris; his children, Agatha and Felix, were well-respected members of the community.

 Safie’s father, a Turk, was falsely accused of a crime and sentenced to death. Felix visited the Turk in prison and met his daughter, with whom he immediately fell in love. Safie sent Felix letters thanking him for his intention to help her father and recounting the circumstances of her plight (the monster tells Victor that he copied some of these letters and offers them as proof that his tale is true). The letters relate that Safie’s mother was a Christian Arab who had been enslaved by the Turks before marrying her father. She inculcated in Safie an independence and intelligence that Islam prevented Turkish women from cultivating. Safie was eager to marry a European man and thereby escape the near-slavery that awaited her in Turkey. 

Felix successfully coordinated her father’s escape from prison, but when the plot was discovered, Felix, Agatha, and De Lacey were exiled from France and stripped of their wealth. They then moved into the cottage in Germany upon which the monster has stumbled. Meanwhile, the Turk tried to force Safie to return to Constantinople with him, but she managed to escape with some money and the knowledge of Felix’s whereabouts.

Summary: Chapter 15

While foraging for food in the woods around the cottage one night, the monster finds an abandoned leather satchel containing some clothes and books. Eager to learn more about the world than he can discover through the chink in the cottage wall, he brings the books back to his hovel and begins to read. The books include Johann Wolfgang von Goethe’s Sorrows of Werter, a volume of Plutarch’s Lives, and John Milton’s Paradise Lost, the last of which has the most profound effect on the monster.

Unaware that Paradise Lost is a work of imagination, he reads it as a factual history and finds much similarity between the story and his own situation. Rifling through the pockets of his own clothes, stolen long ago from Victor’s apartment, he finds some papers from Victor’s journal. With his newfound ability to read, he soon understands the horrific manner of his own creation and the disgust with which his creator regarded him. Dismayed by these discoveries, the monster wishes to reveal himself to the cottagers in the hope that they will see past his hideous exterior and befriend him.

He decides to approach the blind De Lacey first, hoping to win him over while Felix, Agatha, and Safie are away. He believes that De Lacey, unprejudiced against his hideous exterior, may be able to convince the others of his gentle nature. The perfect opportunity soon presents itself, as Felix, Agatha, and Safie depart one day for a long walk. The monster nervously enters the cottage and begins to speak to the old man. Just as he begins to explain his situation, however, the other three return unexpectedly. Felix drives the monster away, horrified by his appearance.

Summary: Chapter 16

In the wake of this rejection, the monster swears to revenge himself against all human beings, his creator in particular. Journeying for months out of sight of others, he makes his way toward Geneva. On the way, he spots a young girl, seemingly alone; the girl slips into a stream and appears to be on the verge of drowning. When the monster rescues the girl from the water, the man accompanying her, suspecting him of having attacked her, shoots him.

As he nears Geneva, the monster runs across Victor’s younger brother, William, in the woods. When William mentions that his father is Alphonse Frankenstein, the monster erupts in a rage of vengeance and strangles the boy to death with his bare hands.

He takes a picture of Caroline Frankenstein that the boy has been holding and places it in the folds of the dress of a girl sleeping in a barn—Justine Moritz, who is later executed for William’s murder. Having explained to Victor the circumstances behind William’s murder and Justine’s conviction, the monster implores Victor to create another monster to accompany him and be his mate.

Summary: Chapter 17

The monster tells Victor that it is his right to have a female monster companion. Victor refuses at first, but the monster appeals to Victor’s sense of responsibility as his creator. He tells Victor that all of his evil actions have been the result of a desperate loneliness. He promises to take his new mate to South America to hide in the jungle far from human contact. 

With the sympathy of a fellow monster, he argues, he will no longer be compelled to kill. Convinced by these arguments, Victor finally agrees to create a female monster. Overjoyed but still skeptical, the monster tells Victor that he will monitor Victor’s progress and that Victor need not worry about contacting him when his work is done.

Summary: Chapter 18

After his fateful meeting with the monster on the glacier, Victor puts off the creation of a new, female creature. He begins to have doubts about the wisdom of agreeing to the monster’s request.

He realizes that the project will require him to travel to England to gather information. His father notices that his spirits are troubled much of the time—Victor, still racked by guilt over the deaths of William and Justine, is now newly horrified by the task in which he is about to engage—and asks him if his impending marriage to Elizabeth is the source of his melancholy. Victor assures him that the prospect of marriage to Elizabeth is the only happiness in his life. Eager to raise Victor’s spirits, Alphonse suggests that they celebrate the marriage immediately. 

Victor refuses, unwilling to marry Elizabeth until he has completed his obligation to the monster. He asks Alphonse if he can first travel to England, and Alphonse consents. Victor and Alphonse arrange a two-year tour, on which Henry Clerval, eager to begin his studies after several years of unpleasant work for his father in Geneva, will accompany Victor. After traveling for a while, they reach London.

Summary: Chapter 19

Victor and Henry journey through England and Scotland, but Victor grows impatient to begin his work and free himself of his bond to the monster.

Victor has an acquaintance in a Scottish town, with whom he urges Henry to stay while he goes alone on a tour of Scotland. Henry consents reluctantly, and Victor departs for a remote, desolate island in the Orkneys to complete his project.

Quickly setting up a laboratory in a small shack, Victor devotes many hours to working on his new creature. He often has trouble continuing his work, however, knowing how unsatisfying, even grotesque, the product of his labor will be.

Summary: Chapter 20

While working one night, Victor begins to think about what might happen after he finishes his creation. He imagines that his new creature might not want to seclude herself, as the monster had promised, or that the two creatures might have children, creating “a race of devils . . . on the earth.” In the midst of these reflections and growing concern, Victor looks up to see the monster grinning at him through the window.

Overcome by the monster’s hideousness and the possibility of a second creature like him, he destroys his work in progress. The monster becomes enraged at Victor for breaking his promise, and at the prospect of his own continued solitude. He curses and vows revenge, then departs, swearing that he will be with Victor on his wedding night. The following night, Victor receives a letter from Henry, who, tired of Scotland, suggests that they continue their travels. Before he leaves his shack, Victor cleans and packs his chemical instruments and collects the remains of his second creature.

Late that evening, he rows out onto the ocean and throws the remains into the water, allowing himself to rest in the boat for a while. When he wakes, he finds that the winds will not permit him to return to shore. Panicking, in fear for his life, he contemplates the possibility of dying at sea, blown far out into the Atlantic. Soon the winds change, however, and he reaches shore near a town. When he lands, a group of townspeople greet him rudely, telling him that he is under suspicion for a murder discovered the previous night.

Summary: Chapter 21

After confronting Victor, the townspeople take him to Mr. Kirwin, the town magistrate. Victor hears witnesses testify against him, claiming that they found the body of a man along the beach the previous night and that, just before finding the body, they saw a boat in the water that resembled Victor’s.

Mr. Kirwin decides to bring Victor to look at the body to see what effect it has on him: if Victor is the murderer, perhaps he will react with visible emotion. When Victor sees the body, he does indeed react with horror, for the victim is Henry Clerval, with the black marks of the monster’s hands around his neck. In shock, Victor falls into convulsions and suffers a long illness. Victor remains ill for two months. Upon his recovery, he finds himself still in prison. Mr. Kirwin, now compassionate and much more sympathetic than before Victor’s illness, visits him in his cell.

He tells him that he has a visitor, and for a moment Victor fears that the monster has come to cause him even more misery. The visitor turns out to be his father, who, upon hearing of his son’s illness and the death of his friend, rushed from Geneva to see him.

Victor is overjoyed to see his father, who stays with him until the court, having nothing but circumstantial evidence, finds him innocent of Henry’s murder. After his release, Victor departs with his father for Geneva.

Summary: Chapter 22

On their way home, father and son stop in Paris, where Victor rests to recover his strength. Just before leaving again for Geneva, Victor receives a letter from Elizabeth.

Worried by Victor’s recurrent illnesses, she asks him if he is in love with another, to which Victor replies that she is the source of his joy. The letter reminds him of the monster’s threat that he will be with Victor on his wedding night. He believes that the monster intends to attack him and resolves that he will fight back. Whichever one of them is destroyed, his misery will at last come to an end. 

Eventually, Victor and his father arrive home and begin planning the wedding. Elizabeth is still worried about Victor, but he assures her that all will be well after the wedding. He has a terrible secret, he tells her, that he can only reveal to her after they are married. As the wedding day approaches, Victor grows more and more nervous about his impending confrontation with the monster. Finally, the wedding takes place, and Victor and Elizabeth depart for a family cottage to spend the night.

Summary: Chapter 23

In the evening, Victor and Elizabeth walk around the grounds, but Victor can think of nothing but the monster’s imminent arrival. Inside, Victor worries that Elizabeth might be upset by the monster’s appearance and the battle between them. He tells her to retire for the night.

He begins to search for the monster in the house, when suddenly he hears Elizabeth scream and realizes that it was never his death that the monster had been intending this night. Consumed with grief over Elizabeth’s death, Victor returns home and tells his father the gruesome news.

Shocked by the tragic end of what should have been a joyous day, his father dies a few days later. Victor finally breaks his secrecy and tries to convince a magistrate in Geneva that an unnatural monster is responsible for the death of Elizabeth, but the magistrate does not believe him. Victor resolves to devote the rest of his life to finding and destroying the monster.

Summary: Chapter 24

His whole family destroyed, Victor decides to leave Geneva and the painful memories it holds behind him forever.

He tracks the monster for months, guided by slight clues, messages, and hints that the monster leaves for him. Angered by these taunts, Victor continues his pursuit into the ice and snow of the North.

There he meets Walton and tells his story. He entreats Walton to continue his search for vengeance after he is dead.

Chapter 1

The story is narrated by a young girl named Jean Louise Finch, who is almost always called by her nickname, Scout. Scout starts to explain the circumstances that led to the broken arm that her older brother, Jem, sustained many years earlier; she begins by recounting her family history. The first of her ancestors to come to America was a fur-trader and apothecary named Simon Finch, who fled England to escape religious persecution and established a successful farm on the banks of the Alabama River. The farm, called Finch’s Landing, supported the family for many years. The first Finches to make a living away from the farm were Scout’s father, Atticus Finch, who became a lawyer in the nearby town of Maycomb, and his brother, Jack Finch, who went to medical school in Boston. Their sister, Alexandra Finch, stayed to run the Landing.

In the summer of 1933, when Jem is nearly ten and Scout almost six, a peculiar boy named Charles Baker Harris moves in next door. The boy, who calls himself Dill, stays for the summer with his aunt, Miss Rachel Haverford, who owns the house next to the Finches’. Dill doesn’t like to discuss his father’s absence from his life, but he is otherwise a talkative and extremely intelligent boy who quickly becomes the Finch children’s chief playmate. All summer, the three act out various stories that they have read. When they grow bored of this activity, Dill suggests that they attempt to lure Boo Radley, a mysterious neighbor, out of his house.Arthur “Boo” Radley lives in the run-down Radley Place, and no one has seen him outside it in years. Scout recounts how, as a boy, Boo got in trouble with the law and his father imprisoned him in the house as punishment.

He was not heard from until fifteen years later, when he stabbed his father with a pair of scissors. Although people suggested that Boo was crazy, old Mr. Radley refused to have his son committed to an asylum. When the old man died, Boo’s brother, Nathan, came to live in the house with Boo. Nevertheless, Boo continued to stay inside. Dill is fascinated by Boo and tries to convince the Finch children to help him lure this phantom of Maycomb outside. Eventually, he dares Jem to run over and touch the house. Jem does so, sprinting back hastily; there is no sign of movement at the Radley Place, although Scout thinks that she sees a shutter move slightly, as if someone were peeking out.

Chapter 2

September arrives, and Dill leaves Maycomb to return to the town of Meridian. Scout, meanwhile, prepares to go to school for the first time, an event that she has been eagerly anticipating.

Once she is finally at school, however, she finds that her teacher, Miss Caroline Fisher, deals poorly with children. When Miss Caroline concludes that Atticus must have taught Scout to read, she becomes very displeased and makes Scout feel guilty for being educated. At recess, Scout complains to Jem, but Jem says that Miss Caroline is just trying out a new method of teaching. Miss Caroline and Scout get along badly in the afternoon as well. Walter Cunningham, a boy in Scout’s class, has not brought a lunch.

Miss Caroline offers him a quarter to buy lunch, telling him that he can pay her back tomorrow. Walter’s family is large and poor—so poor that they pay Atticus with hickory nuts, turnip greens, or other goods when they need legal help—and Walter will never be able to pay the teacher back or bring a lunch to school. When Scout attempts to explain these circumstances, however, Miss Caroline fails to understand and grows so frustrated that she slaps Scout’s hand with a ruler.

Chapter 3

At lunch, Scout rubs Walter’s nose in the dirt for getting her in trouble, but Jem intervenes and invites Walter to lunch (in the novel, as in certain regions of the country, the midday meal is called “dinner”).

At the Finch house, Walter and Atticus discuss farm conditions “like two men,” and Walter puts molasses all over his meat and vegetables, to Scout’s horror. When she criticizes Walter, however, Calpurnia calls her into the kitchen to scold her and slaps her as she returns to the dining room, telling her to be a better hostess. Back at school, Miss Caroline becomes terrified when a tiny bug, or “cootie,” crawls out of a boy’s hair. The boy is Burris Ewell, a member of the Ewell clan, which is even poorer and less respectable than the Cunningham clan. In fact, Burris only comes to school the first day of every school year, making a token appearance to avoid trouble with the law. He leaves the classroom, making enough vicious remarks to cause the teacher to cry.

At home, Atticus follows Scout outside to ask her if something is wrong, to which she responds that she is not feeling well. She tells him that she does not think she will go to school anymore and suggests that he could teach her himself. Atticus replies that the law demands that she go to school, but he promises to keep reading to her, as long as she does not tell her teacher about it.

Chapter 4

The rest of the school year passes grimly for Scout, who endures a curriculum that moves too slowly and leaves her constantly frustrated in class. After school one day, she passes the Radley Place and sees some tinfoil sticking out of a knothole in one of the Radleys’ oak trees.

Scout reaches into the knothole and discovers two pieces of chewing gum. She chews both pieces and tells Jem about it. He panics and makes her spit it out. On the last day of school, however, they find two old “Indian-head” pennies hidden in the same knothole where Scout found the gum and decide to keep them. Summer comes at last, school ends, and Dill returns to Maycomb. He, Scout, and Jem begin their games again.One of the first things they do is roll one another inside an old tire.

On Scout’s turn, she rolls in front of the Radley steps, and Jem and Scout panic. However, this incident gives Jem the idea for their next game: they will play “Boo Radley.” As the summer passes, their game becomes more complicated, until they are acting out an entire Radley family melodrama. Eventually, however, Atticus catches them and asks if their game has anything to do with the Radleys. Jem lies, and Atticus goes back into the house. The kids wonder if it’s safe to play their game anymore.

Chapter 5

Jem and Dill grow closer, and Scout begins to feel left out of their friendship. As a result, she starts spending much of her time with one of their neighbors: Miss Maudie Atkinson, a widow with a talent for gardening and cake baking who was a childhood friend of Atticus’s brother, Jack.

She tells Scout that Boo Radley is still alive and it is her theory Boo is the victim of a harsh father (now deceased), a “foot-washing” Baptist who believed that most people are going to hell. Miss Maudie adds that Boo was always polite and friendly as a child. She says that most of the rumors about him are false, but that if he wasn’t crazy as a boy, he probably is by now.

Meanwhile, Jem and Dill plan to give a note to Boo inviting him out to get ice cream with them. They try to stick the note in a window of the Radley Place with a fishing pole, but Atticus catches them and orders them to “stop tormenting that man” with either notes or the “Boo Radley” game.

Chapter 6

Jem and Dill obey Atticus until Dill’s last day in Maycomb, when he and Jem plan to sneak over to the Radley Place and peek in through a loose shutter. Scout accompanies them, and they creep around the house, peering in through various windows. Suddenly, they see the shadow of a man with a hat on and flee, hearing a shotgun go off behind them.

They escape under the fence by the schoolyard, but Jem’s pants get caught on the fence, and he has to kick them off in order to free himself. The children return home, where they encounter a collection of neighborhood adults, including Atticus, Miss Maudie, and Miss Stephanie Crawford, the neighborhood gossip. Miss Maudie informs them that Mr. Nathan Radley shot at “a Negro” in his yard. Miss Stephanie adds that Mr.

Radley is waiting outside with his gun so he can shoot at the next sound he hears. When Atticus asks Jem where his pants are, Dill interjects that he won Jem’s pants in a game of strip poker. Alarmed, Atticus asks them if they were playing cards. Jem responds that they were just playing with matches. Late that night, Jem sneaks out to the Radley Place, and retrieves his pants.

Chapter 7

A few days later, after school has begun for the year, Jem tells Scout that he found the pants mysteriously mended and hung neatly over the fence. When they come home from school that day, they find another present hidden in the knothole: a ball of gray twine. They leave it there for a few days, but no one takes it, so they claim it for their own.

Unsurprisingly, Scout is as unhappy in second grade as she was in first, but Jem promises her that school gets better the farther along one goes. Late that fall, another present appears in the knothole—two figures carved in soap to resemble Scout and Jem. The figures are followed in turn by chewing gum, a spelling bee medal, and an old pocket watch.

The next day, Jem and Scout find that the knothole has been filled with cement. When Jem asks Mr. Radley (Nathan Radley, Boo’s brother) about the knothole the following day, Mr. Radley replies that he plugged the knothole because the tree is dying.

Chapter 8

For the first time in years, Maycomb endures a real winter. There is even light snowfall, an event rare enough for school to be closed. Jem and Scout haul as much snow as they could from Miss Maudie’s yard to their own. Since there is not enough snow to make a real snowman, they build a small figure out of dirt and cover it with snow. They make it look like Mr. Avery, an unpleasant man who lives down the street. The figure’s likeness to Mr. Avery is so strong that Atticus demands that they disguise it. Jem places Miss Maudie’s sunhat on its head and sticks her hedge clippers in its hands, much to her chagrin.

That night, Atticus wakes Scout and helps her put on her bathrobe and coat and goes outside with her and Jem. Miss Maudie’s house is on fire. The neighbors help her save her furniture, and the fire truck arrives in time to stop the fire from spreading to other houses, but Miss Maudie’s house burns to the ground. In the confusion, someone drapes a blanket over Scout. When Atticus later asks her about it, she has no idea who put it over her. Jem realizes that Boo Radley put it on her, and he reveals the whole story of the knothole, the presents, and the mended pants to Atticus. Atticus tells them to keep it to themselves, and Scout, realizing that Boo was just behind her, nearly throws up.

Despite having lost her house, Miss Maudie is cheerful the next day. She tells the children how much she hated her old home and that she is already planning to build a smaller house and plant a larger garden. She says that she wishes she had been there when Boo put the blanket on Scout to catch him in the act.

Chapter 9

At school, Scout nearly starts a fight with a classmate named Cecil Jacobs after Cecil declares that “Scout Finch’s daddy defends niggers.” Atticus has been asked to defend Tom Robinson, a black man accused of raping a white woman. It is a case he cannot hope to win, but he tells Scout that he must argue it to uphold his sense of justice and self-respect.

At Christmastime, Atticus’s brother, Jack, comes to stay with Atticus for a week during the holidays. Scout generally gets along well with Uncle Jack, but when he arrives in Maycomb, she begins cursing in front of him (a habit that she has recently picked up). After supper, Jack has Scout sit on his lap and he warns her not to curse in his presence. On Christmas Day, Atticus takes his children and Jack to Finch’s Landing, a rambling old house in the country where Atticus’s sister, Alexandra, and her husband live. There, Scout endures Francis, Alexandra’s grandson, who had been dropped off at Finch’s Landing for the holiday. Scout thinks Francis is the most “boring” child she has ever met. She also has to put up with the prim and proper Alexandra, who insists that Scout dress like a lady instead of wearing pants.

One night, Francis tells Scout that Dill is a runt and then calls Atticus a “nigger-lover.” Scout curses him and beats him up. Francis tells Alexandra and Uncle Jack that Scout hit him, and Uncle Jack spanks her without hearing her side of the story. After they return to Maycomb, Scout tells Jack what Francis said and Jack becomes furious. Scout makes him promise not to tell Atticus, however, because Atticus had asked her not to fight anyone over what is said about him. Jack promises and keeps his word. Later, Scout overhears Atticus telling Jack that Tom Robinson is innocent but doomed, since it’s inconceivable that an all-white jury would ever acquit him.

Chapter 10

“Mockingbirds don’t do one thing but make music for us to enjoy . . . but sing their hearts out for us. That’s why it’s a sin to kill a mockingbird.” Atticus, Scout says, is somewhat older than most of the other fathers in Maycomb.

His relatively advanced age often embarrasses his children—he wears glasses and reads, for instance, instead of hunting and fishing like the other men in town. One day, however, a mad dog appears, wandering down the main street toward the Finches’ house. Calpurnia calls Atticus, who returns home with Heck Tate, the sheriff of Maycomb.

Heck brings a rifle and asks Atticus to shoot the animal. To Jem and Scout’s amazement, Atticus does so, hitting the dog with his first shot despite his considerable distance from the dog. Later, Miss Maudie tells Jem and Scout that, as a young man, Atticus was the best shot in the county—“One-shot Finch.” Scout is eager to brag about this, but Jem tells her to keep it a secret, because if Atticus wanted them to know, he would have told them.

Chapter 11

On the way to the business district in Maycomb is the house of Mrs. Dubose, a cantankerous old lady who always shouts at Jem and Scout as they pass by.

Atticus warns Jem to be a gentleman to her, because she is old and sick, but one day she tells the children that Atticus is not any better than the “niggers and trash he works for,” and Jem loses his temper. Jem takes a baton from Scout and destroys all of Mrs. Dubose’s camellia bushes.As punishment, Jem must go to her house every day for a month and read to her. Scout accompanies him and they endure Mrs. Dubose’s abuse and peculiar fits, which occur at the end of every reading session.

Each session is longer than the one before. Mrs. Dubose dies a little more than a month after Jem’s punishment ends. Atticus reveals to Jem that she was addicted to morphine and that the reading was part of her successful effort to combat this addiction. Atticus gives Jem a box that Mrs. Dubose had given her maid for Jem; in it lies a single white camellia.

Chapter 12

By this time, Jem has reached the age of twelve, and he begins to demand that Scout “stop pestering him” and act more like a girl. Scout becomes upset and looks forward desperately to Dill’s arrival in the summer. To Scout’s disappointment, however, Dill does not come to Maycomb this year. He sends a letter saying that he has a new father (presumably, his mother has remarried) and will stay with his family in Meridian.

To make matters worse, the state legislature, of which Atticus is a member, is called into session, forcing Atticus to travel to the state capital every day for two weeks. Calpurnia decides to take the children to her church, a “colored” church, that Sunday. Maycomb’s black church is an old building, called First Purchase because it was bought with the first earnings of freed slaves. One woman, Lula, criticizes Calpurnia for bringing white children to church, but the congregation is generally friendly, and Reverend Sykes welcomes them, saying that everyone knows their father.

The church has no money for hymnals, and few of the parishioners can read, so they sing by echoing the words that Zeebo, Calpurnia’s eldest son and the town garbage collector, reads from their only hymnal. During the service, Reverend Sykes takes up a collection for Tom Robinson’s wife, Helen, who cannot find work now that her husband has been accused of rape. After the service, Scout learns that Tom Robinson has been accused by Bob Ewell and cannot understand why anyone would believe the Ewells’ word. When the children return home, they find Aunt Alexandra waiting for them.

Chapter 13

Aunt Alexandra explains that she should stay with the children for a while, to give them a “feminine influence.” Maycomb gives her a fine welcome: various ladies in the town bake her cakes and have her over for coffee, and she soon becomes an integral part of the town’s social life.

Alexandra is extremely proud of the Finches and spends much of her time discussing the characteristics of the various families in Maycomb. This “family consciousness” is an integral part of life in Maycomb, an old town where the same families have lived for generations, where every family has its quirks and eccentricities. However, Jem and Scout lack the pride that Aunt Alexandra considers commensurate with being a Finch.

She orders Atticus to lecture them on the subject of their ancestry. He makes a valiant attempt but succeeds only in making Scout cry.

Chapter 14

The impending trial of Tom Robinson and Atticus’s role as his defense lawyer make Jem and Scout the objects of whispers and glances whenever they go to town. One day, Scout tries to ask Atticus what “rape” is, and the subject of the children’s trip to Calpurnia’s church comes up. Aunt Alexandra tells Scout she cannot go back the next Sunday.

Later, she tries to convince Atticus to get rid of Calpurnia, saying that they no longer need her. Atticus refuses. That night, Jem tells Scout not to antagonize Alexandra. Scout gets angry at being lectured and attacks Jem. Atticus breaks up the fight and sends them to bed. Scout discovers something under her bed. She calls Jem in and they discover Dill hiding there.

 Dill has run away from home because his mother and new father did not pay enough attention to him. He took a train from Meridian to Maycomb Junction, fourteen miles away, and covered the remaining distance on foot and on the back of a cotton wagon. Jem goes down the hall and tells Atticus. Atticus asks Scout to get more food than a pan of cold corn bread for Dill, before going next door to tell Dill’s aunt, Miss Rachel, of his whereabouts. Dill eats, then gets into Jem’s bed to sleep, but soon climbs over to Scout’s bed to talk things over.

Chapter 15

A week after Dill’s arrival, a group of men led by the sheriff, Heck Tate, come to Atticus’s house in the evening. As his trial is nearing, Tom Robinson is to be moved to the Maycomb jail, and concerns about the possibility of a lynch mob have arisen. Later, Jem tells Scout that Alexandra and Atticus have been arguing about the trial; she nearly accused him of bringing disgrace on the family. The following evening, Atticus takes the car into town. At about ten o’clock, Jem, accompanied by Scout and Dill, sneaks out of the house and follows his father to the town center. From a distance, they see Atticus sitting in front of the Maycomb jail, reading a newspaper. Jem suggests that they not disturb Atticus and return home.

At that moment, four cars drive into Maycomb and park near the jail. A group of men gets out, and one demands that Atticus move away from the jailhouse door. Atticus refuses, and Scout suddenly comes racing out of her hiding place next door, only to realize that this group of men differs from the group that came to their house the previous night. Jem and Dill follow her, and Atticus orders Jem to go home. Jem refuses, and one of the men tells Atticus that he has fifteen seconds to get his children to leave.

Meanwhile, Scout looks around the group and recognizes Mr. Cunningham, the father of her classmate Walter Cunningham. She starts talking to him about his legal entailments and his son, and asks him to tell his son “hey.” All of the men stare at her. Mr. Cunningham, suddenly ashamed, squats down and tells Scout that he will tell his son “hey” for her, and then tells his companions to clear out. They depart, and Mr. Underwood, the owner of the newspaper, speaks from a nearby window where he is positioned with a double-barreled shotgun: “Had you covered all the time, Atticus.” Atticus and Mr. Underwood talk for a while, and then Atticus takes the children home.

Chapter 16

The trial begins the next day. People from all over the county flood the town. Everyone makes an appearance in the courtroom, from Miss Stephanie Crawford to Mr. Dolphus Raymond, a wealthy eccentric who owns land on a river bank, lives near the county line, is involved with a black woman, and has mulatto children.

Only Miss Maudie refuses to go, saying that watching someone on trial for his life is like attending a Roman carnival. The vast crowd camps in the town square to eat lunch. Afterward, Jem, Scout, and Dill wait for most of the crowd to enter the courthouse so that they can slip in at the back and thus prevent Atticus from noticing them.

However, because they wait too long, they succeed in getting seats only when Reverend Sykes lets them sit in the balcony where black people are required to sit in order to watch the trial. From these seats, they can see the whole courtroom. Judge Taylor, a white-haired old man with a reputation for running his court in an informal fashion, presides over the case.

Chapter 17

The prosecutor, Mr. Gilmer, questions Heck Tate, who recounts how, on the night of November 21, Bob Ewell urged him to go to the Ewell house and told him that his daughter Mayella had been raped. When Tate got there, he found Mayella bruised and beaten, and she told him that Tom Robinson had raped her. Atticus cross-examines the witness, who admits that no doctor was summoned, and tells Atticus that Mayella’s bruises were concentrated on the right side of her face. Tate leaves the stand, and Bob Ewell is called.

Bob Ewell and his children live behind the town garbage dump in a tin-roofed cabin with a yard full of trash. No one is sure how many children Ewell has, and the only orderly corner of the yard is planted with well-tended geraniums rumored to belong to Mayella. An extremely rude little man, Ewell testifies that on the evening in question he was coming out of the woods with a load of kindling when he heard his daughter yelling.

When he reached the house, he looked in the window and saw Tom Robinson raping her. Robinson fled, and Ewell went into the house, saw that his daughter was all right, and ran for the sheriff. Atticus’s cross-examination is brief: he asks Mr. Ewell why no doctor was called (it was too expensive and there was no need), and then has the witness write his name. Bob Ewell, the jury sees, is left-handed—and a left-handed man would be more likely to leave bruises on the right side of a girl’s face.

Chapter 18

The trial continues, with the whole town glued to the proceedings. Mayella, who testifies next, is a reasonably clean—by the Ewells’ standards—and obviously terrified nineteen-year-old girl.

She says that she called Tom Robinson inside the fence that evening and offered him a nickel to break up a dresser for her, and that once he got inside the house he grabbed her and took advantage of her. In Atticus’s cross-examination, Mayella reveals that her life consists of seven unhelpful siblings, a drunken father, and no friends. Atticus then examines her testimony and asks why she didn’t put up a better fight, why her screams didn’t bring the other children running, and, most important, how Tom Robinson managed the crime: how he bruised the right side of her face with his useless left hand, which was torn apart by a cotton gin when he was a boy.

Atticus pleads with Mayella to admit that there was no rape, that her father beat her. She shouts at him and yells that the courtroom would have to be a bunch of cowards not to convict Tom Robinson; she then bursts into tears, refusing to answer any more questions. In the recess that follows, Mr. Underwood notices the children up in the balcony, but Jem tells Scout that the newspaper editor won’t tell Atticus about their being there—although he might include it in the social section of the newspaper. The prosecution rests, and Atticus calls only one witness—Tom Robinson.

Chapter 19

Tom testifies that he always passed the Ewell house on the way to work and that Mayella often asked him to do chores for her. On the evening in question, he recounts, she asked him to come inside the house and fix a door. When he got inside, there was nothing wrong with the door, and he noticed that the other children were gone. Mayella told him she had saved her money and sent them all to buy ice cream. Then she asked him to lift a box down from a dresser. When Tom climbed on a chair, she grabbed his legs, scaring him so much that he jumped down.

She then hugged him around the waist and asked him to kiss her. As she struggled, her father appeared at the window, calling Mayella a whore and threatening to kill her. Tom fled. Link Deas, Tom’s white employer, stands up and declares that in eight years of work, he has never had any trouble from Tom. Judge Taylor furiously expels Deas from the courtroom for interrupting. Mr. Gilmer gets up and cross-examines Tom. The prosecutor points out that the defendant was once arrested for disorderly conduct and gets Tom to admit that he has the strength, even with one hand, to choke the breath out of a woman and sling her to the floor. He begins to badger the witness, asking about his motives for always helping Mayella with her chores, until Tom declares that he felt sorry for her.

This statement puts the courtroom ill at ease—in Maycomb, black people aren’t supposed to feel sorry for a white person. Mr. Gilmer reviews Mayella’s testimony, accusing Tom of lying about everything. Dill begins to cry, and Scout takes him out of the courtroom. Outside the courtroom, Dill complains to Scout about Mr. Gilmer’s rude treatment of Tom Robinson during the questioning. As they walk, Scout and Dill encounter Mr. Dolphus Raymond, the rich white man with the colored mistress and mulatto children.

Chapter 20

Mr. Dolphus Raymond reveals that he is drinking from a paper sack. He commiserates with Dill and offers him a drink in a paper bag. Dill slurps up some of the liquid and Scout warns him not to take much, but Dill reveals to her that the drink isn’t alcoholic—it’s only Coca-Cola. Mr.

Raymond tells the children that he pretends to be a drunk to provide the other white people with an explanation for his lifestyle, when, in fact, he simply prefers black people to whites. When Dill and Scout return to the courtroom, Atticus is making his closing remarks. He has finished going over the evidence and now makes a personal appeal to the jury. He points out that the prosecution has produced no medical evidence of the crime and has presented only the shaky testimony of two unreliable witnesses; moreover, the physical evidence suggests that Bob Ewell, not Tom Robinson, beat Mayella.

He then offers his own version of events, describing how Mayella, lonely and unhappy, committed the unmentionable act of lusting after a black man and then concealed her shame by accusing him of rape after being caught. Atticus begs the jury to avoid the state’s assumption that all black people are criminals and to deliver justice by freeing Tom Robinson. As soon as Atticus finishes, Calpurnia comes into the courtroom.

Chapter 21

Calpurnia hands Atticus a note telling him that his children have not been home since noon. Mr. Underwood says that Jem and Scout are in the colored balcony and have been there since just after one in the afternoon. Atticus tells them to go home and have supper.

They beg to be allowed to hear the verdict; Atticus says that they can return after supper, though he knows that the jury will likely have returned before then. Calpurnia marches Jem, Scout, and Dill home. They eat quickly and return to find the jury still out, the courtroom still full.Evening comes, night falls, and the jury continues to deliberate. Jem is confident of victory, while Dill has fallen asleep. Finally, after eleven that night, the jury enters.

Scout remembers that a jury never looks at a man it has convicted, and she notices that the twelve men do not look at Tom Robinson as they file in and deliver a guilty verdict. The courtroom begins to empty, and as Atticus goes out, everyone in the colored balcony rises in a gesture of respect.

Chapter 22

That night, Jem cries, railing against the injustice of the verdict. The next day, Maycomb’s black population delivers an avalanche of food to the Finch household.

Outside, Miss Stephanie Crawford is gossiping with Mr. Avery and Miss Maudie, and she tries to question Jem and Scout about the trial. Miss Maudie rescues the children by inviting them in for some cake. Jem complains that his illusions about Maycomb have been shattered: he thought that these people were the best in the world, but, having seen the trial, he doesn’t think so anymore.

Miss Maudie points out that there were people who tried to help, like Judge Taylor, who appointed Atticus to the case instead of the regular public defender. She adds that the jury’s staying out so long constitutes a sign of progress in race relations. As the children leave Miss Maudie’s house, Miss Stephanie runs over to tell them that Bob Ewell accosted their father that morning, spat on him, and swore revenge.

Chapter 23

Bob Ewell’s threats are worrisome to everyone except Atticus. Atticus tells Jem and Scout that because he made Ewell look like a fool, Ewell needed to get revenge. Now that Ewell has gotten that vengefulness out of his system, Atticus expects no more trouble. Aunt Alexandra and the children remain worried. Meanwhile, Tom Robinson has been sent to another prison seventy miles away while his appeal winds through the court system. Atticus feels that his client has a good chance of being pardoned. When Scout asks what will happen if Tom loses, Atticus replies that Tom will go to the electric chair, as rape is a capital offense in Alabama.

Jem and Atticus discuss the justice of executing men for rape. The subject then turns to jury trials and to how all twelve men could have convicted Tom. Atticus tells Jem that in an Alabama court of law, a white man’s word always beats a black man’s, and that they were lucky to have the jury out so long. In fact, one man on the jury wanted to acquit—amazingly, it was one of the Cunninghams. Upon hearing this revelation, Scout announces that she wants to invite young Walter Cunningham to dinner, but Aunt Alexandra expressly forbids it, telling her that the Finches do not associate with trash.

Scout grows furious, and Jem hastily takes her out of the room. In his bedroom, Jem reveals his minimal growth of chest hair and tells Scout that he is going to try out for the football team in the fall. They discuss the class system—why their aunt despises the Cunninghams, why the Cunninghams look down on the Ewells, who hate black people, and other such matters. After being unable to figure out why people go out of their way to despise each other, Jem suggests Boo Radley does not come out of his house because he does not want to leave it.

Chapter 24

One day in August, Aunt Alexandra invites her missionary circle to tea. Scout, wearing a dress, helps Calpurnia bring in the tea, and Alexandra invites Scout to stay with the ladies.

Scout listens to the missionary circle first discuss the plight of the poor Mrunas, a benighted African tribe being converted to Christianity, and then talk about how their own black servants have behaved badly ever since Tom Robinson’s trial. Miss Maudie shuts up their prattle with icy remarks. Suddenly, Atticus appears and calls Alexandra to the kitchen. There he tells her, Scout, Calpurnia, and Miss Maudie that Tom Robinson attempted to escape and was shot seventeen times.

He takes Calpurnia with him to tell the Robinson family of Tom’s death. Alexandra asks Miss Maudie how the town can allow Atticus to wreck himself in pursuit of justice. Maudie replies that the town trusts him to do right. They return with Scout to the missionary circle, managing to act as if nothing is wrong.

Chapter 25

September has begun and Jem and Scout are on the back porch when Scout notices a roly-poly bug. She is about to mash it with her hand when Jem tells her not to. She dutifully places the bug outside.

When she asks Jem why she shouldn’t have mashed it, he replies that the bug didn’t do anything to harm her. Scout observes that it is Jem, not she, who is becoming more and more like a girl. Her thoughts turn to Dill, and she remembers him telling her that he and Jem ran into Atticus as they started home from swimming during the last two days of August. Jem had convinced Atticus to let them accompany him to Helen Robinson’s house, where they saw her collapse even before Atticus could say that her husband, Tom, was dead. Meanwhile, the news occupies Maycomb’s attention for about two days, and everyone agrees that it is typical for a black man to do something irrational like try to escape.

Mr. Underwood writes a long editorial condemning Tom’s death as the murder of an innocent man. The only other significant reaction comes when Bob Ewell is overheard saying that Tom’s death makes “one down and about two more to go.” Summer ends and Dill leaves.

Chapter 26

School starts, and Jem and Scout again begin to pass by the Radley Place every day. They are now too old to be frightened by the house, but Scout still wistfully wishes to see Boo Radley just once.

Meanwhile, the shadow of the trial still hangs over her. One day in school, her third-grade teacher, Miss Gates, lectures the class on the wickedness of Hitler’s persecution of the Jews and on the virtues of equality and democracy. Scout listens and later asks Jem how Miss Gates can preach about equality when she came out of the courthouse after the trial and told Miss Stephanie Crawford that it was about time that someone taught the blacks in town a lesson.

Jem becomes furious and tells Scout never to mention the trial to him again. Scout, upset, goes to Atticus for comfort.

Chapter 27

By the middle of October, Bob Ewell gets a job with the WPA, one of the Depression job programs, and loses it a few days later. He blames Atticus for “getting” his job. Also in the middle of October, Judge Taylor is home alone and hears someone prowling around; when he goes to investigate, he finds his screen door open and sees a shadow creeping away.

Bob Ewell then begins to follow Helen Robinson to work, keeping his distance but whispering obscenities at her. Deas sees Ewell and threatens to have him arrested if he doesn’t leave Helen alone; he gives her no further trouble. But these events worry Aunt Alexandra, who points out that Ewell seems to have a grudge against everyone connected with the case. That Halloween, the town sponsors a party and play at the school. This plan constitutes an attempt to avoid the unsupervised mischief of the previous Halloween, when someone burglarized the house of two elderly sisters and hid all of their furniture in their basement.

The play is an “agricultural pageant” in which every child portrays a food: Scout wears a wire mesh shaped to look like ham. Both Atticus and Aunt Alexandra are too tired to attend the festivities, so Jem takes Scout to the school.

Chapter 28

It is dark on the way to the school, and Cecil Jacobs jumps out and frightens Jem and Scout. Scout and Cecil wander around the crowded school, visiting the haunted house in a seventh-grade classroom and buying homemade candy. The pageant nears its start and all of the children go backstage. Scout, however, has fallen asleep and consequently misses her entrance. She runs onstage at the end, prompting Judge Taylor and many others to burst out laughing. The woman in charge of the pageant accuses Scout of ruining it. Scout is so ashamed that she and Jem wait backstage until the crowd is gone before they make their way home.

On the walk back home, Jem hears noises behind him and Scout. They think it must be Cecil Jacobs trying to frighten them again, but when they call out to him, they hear no reply. They have almost reached the road when their pursuer begins running after them. Jem screams for Scout to run, but in the dark, hampered by her costume, she loses her balance and falls. Something tears at the metal mesh, and she hears struggling behind her. Jem then breaks free and drags Scout almost all the way to the road before their assailant pulls him back. Scout hears a crunching sound and Jem screams; she runs toward him and is grabbed and squeezed. Suddenly, her attacker is pulled away. Once the noise of struggling has ceased, Scout feels on the ground for Jem, finding only the prone figure of an unshaven man smelling of whiskey. She stumbles toward home, and sees, in the light of the streetlamp, a man carrying Jem toward her house.

Scout reaches home, and Aunt Alexandra goes to call Dr. Reynolds. Atticus calls Heck Tate, telling him that someone has attacked his children. Alexandra removes Scout’s costume, and tells her that Jem is only unconscious, not dead. Dr. Reynolds then arrives and goes into Jem’s room. When he emerges, he informs Scout that Jem has a broken arm and a bump on his head, but that he will be all right. Scout goes in to see Jem. The man who carried him home is in the room, but she does not recognize him. Heck Tate appears and tells Atticus that Bob Ewell is lying under a tree, dead, with a knife stuck under his ribs.

Chapter 29

As Scout tells everyone what she heard and saw, Heck Tate shows her costume with a mark on it where a knife slashed and was stopped by the wire. When Scout gets to the point in the story where Jem was picked up and carried home, she turns to the man in the corner and really looks at him for the first time. He is pale, with torn clothes and a thin, pinched face and colorless eyes. She realizes that it is Boo Radley.

Chapter 30

Scout takes Boo—“Mr. Arthur”—down to the porch, and they sit in shadow listening to Atticus and Heck Tate argue. Heck insists on calling the death an accident, but Atticus, thinking that Jem killed Bob Ewell, doesn’t want his son protected from the law. Heck corrects him—Ewell fell on his knife; Jem didn’t kill him.

Although he knows that Boo is the one who stabbed Ewell, Heck wants to hush up the whole affair, saying that Boo doesn’t need the attention of the neighborhood brought to his door. Tom Robinson died for no reason, he says, and now the man responsible is dead: “Let the dead bury the dead.”

Chapter 31

Atticus was right. One time he said you never really know a man until you stand in his shoes and walk around in them. Just standing on the Radley porch was enough.

Scout takes Boo upstairs to say goodnight to Jem and then walks him home. He goes inside his house, and she never sees him again. But, for just a moment, she imagines the world from his perspective. She returns home and finds Atticus sitting in Jem’s room. He reads one of Jem’s books to her until she falls asleep.

• Chapter 1

Humbert lists the many different names of his love: Dolores, Lo, Dolly, Lolita. He admits to being a murderer and states that he will present his case to the readers, whom he calls “his jury.” Humbert explains that Lolita was not the first girl-child in his life and refers to a particular girl he calls “exhibit number one.”

• Chapter 2

Humbert begins his story from his birth in Paris and his childhood on the Riviera, where a frequently absent father and a kind, yet strict aunt raise him. His mother had died suddenly, and he describes this traumatic event with only two brief words: “picnic, lightning.” His father runs a luxurious hotel, and Humbert lives a healthy, happy childhood among the Riviera tourists. He states that his sexual education up until the age of thirteen has been sporadic and somewhat dreamlike, based on old French novels and movies.

• Chapter 3

In the summer of 1923, Humbert meets a twelve-year-old girl named Annabel Leigh, who is traveling with her parents. Although Humbert and Annabel are initially just friends, that friendship soon changes into passionate, adolescent love. Humbert states that he doesn’t have as clear a picture of Annabel as he does of Lolita, though he lyrically recounts their awkward, fumbling attempts at sex. Annabel and Humbert never manage to consummate their love, and four months later she dies of typhus in Corfu.

• Chapter 4

Humbert wonders if his predilection for young girls began with Annabel and claims that she and Lolita are somehow connected. He claims that his brief encounter with Annabel had physical and spiritual components that today’s children would never understand. He mourns the fact that he was never able to complete the sexual act with Annabel and describes one encounter in the mimosa grove where they came very close. He tells the reader that he was only able to break free of Annabel’s spell when he met Lolita, more than twenty years later.

• Chapter 5

Humbert discusses his college days, when he gave up the study of psychiatry for the study of English literature. Moderately successful, he publishes a few books. During this time, he visits many kinds of prostitutes but finds himself mostly drawn to a particular type of girl, the nymphet. A nymphet, according to Humbert, is a girl between the ages of nine and fourteen, not necessarily beautiful, but possessing an elusive, sexually appealing quality. He attributes this quality to a magic spell and makes references to historical and cultural instances of romance and marriage between underage girls and older men. He states that that the allure of the nymphet can only be understood by adult men who are at least thirty years older and who have the wisdom to understand the girls’ enchanting qualities. While Humbert spends his time watching nymphets in the playground, he rarely acts on his obsession. As an attractive man, Humbert finds himself with many adult female admirers. However, most of them repulse him. Humbert finds it unfair that a man can bed a girl of seventeen but not one of twelve.

• Chapter 6

Humbert wonders what happens to nymphets as they grow older. He describes his affair with the young prostitute Monique, which ends when Monique matures out of her nymphet phase. Humbert then encounters an aging procuress who provides him with another prostitute who, although young, isn’t a nymphet in Humbert’s view. When he tries to leave, the girl becomes angry. Humbert takes her upstairs and pays her, but he doesn’t sleep with her.

• Chapter 7

In an effort to curtail his illicit desires, Humbert decides to get married. He courts and marries a Polish doctor’s daughter named Valeria. He finds the conquest rather easy, given his good looks, but states that despite his success with adult women, he considers himself hopeless in matters of sex.

• Chapter 8

Humbert chooses Valeria because of her childlike nature and flirtatious, doll-like airs, and she quickly falls in love with him. Despite his initial attraction to her girlish personality, Humbert finds Valeria’s intellectual inferiority distasteful, and he rarely sleeps with her. After some time, an uncle dies and leaves him an inheritance, but the will includes the condition that Humbert move to America and take some interest in the uncle’s business. Valeria feels reluctant to leave Paris, though Humbert tries to convince her that she’ll enjoy America. Finally, Valeria confesses to having an affair with a taxi driver. Despite his relative indifference to Valeria, Humbert feels deeply betrayed and thinks about killing her. Courteous and apologetic, the taxi driver arrives to take Valeria away. He does not leave Humbert alone with Valeria at any moment, so Humbert can’t kill her. Valeria rather melodramatically packs her things and leaves. He later learns that Valeria died in childbirth in 1945, after she and her husband moved to California to participate in a bizarre psychological experiment.

At this point in the story, Humbert becomes distracted by the poor state of the prison library. He names some of the books available, including the Children’s Encyclopedia, which he likes for the pictures of Girl Scouts. He notes a surprising coincidence in a copy of Who’s Who in the Limelight and transcribes a page for the reader. The page includes the playwright Clare Quilty, who wrote such plays as The Little Nymph and Fatherly Love. Who’s Who claims that Quilty’s works with children are particularly notable. The transcribed page also contains an entry on Dolores Quine, and Humbert says that seeing Lolita’s given name, Dolores, still gives him a thrill. He states that his Lolita might have appeared in a play called The Murdered Playwright, and he plays word games with the names “Quine” and “Quilty.” He notes that he now has only words to play with.

• Chapter 9

Humbert recounts his travels to New York, where he takes a job transcribing French literature and writing perfume ads. He watches the nymphets in Central Park and later has a breakdown due to the stress of his job. After his release from the sanitarium, Humbert takes part in an exploratory trip to the Arctic, where he is charged with studying the psychology of his teammates. The trip improves his health, but he finds the project tedious and publishes a phony analysis of the psychological issues he was supposed to be studying. Upon his return, he has another breakdown and is institutionalized once again, where he enjoys confusing the doctors with fictional symptoms. This behavior improves his mood greatly. He stays for a few months before checking out and reentering the world.

• Chapter 10

Upon his release from the sanitarium, Humbert heads for a small town to stay with a Mr. McCoo. A relative of a friend of his uncle’s, McCoo has a twelve-year-old daughter, whom Humbert fantasizes about. When he arrives in the town of Ramsdale, however, he learns that the McCoos’ house has burned down. Mr. McCoo recommends a boarding house at 342 Lawn Street, run by the widowed Mrs. Haze. Neither Mrs. Haze nor the house impress Humbert. He describes her as a fatally conventional woman, one who, despite her so-called cultural and community activities, has many pretensions and little imagination. He realizes with distaste that she will probably try to seduce him. He finds the house horribly unappealing until he sees Mrs. Haze’s twelve-year-old daughter, Dolores, sitting on the lawn. Humbert finds her resemblance to Annabel uncanny and immediately remembers his time with Annabel twenty-five years ago. He decides to stay.

• Chapter 11

From prison, Humbert recalls passages from his diary regarding the time he lived at the Haze house in 1947 and his initial thoughts of Lolita. Almost all his entries describe encounters with Lolita and contain romantic descriptions of her nymphet qualities, as well as his various attempts to lure her into his presence. Delighted, he learns that he resembles a celebrity Lolita adores, which causes Charlotte to tease Lolita about having a crush on Humbert. Though he knows that he should not be keeping a journal of his attraction, Humbert can’t help himself. He often goes into Lolita’s room and touches her things. He describes Charlotte Haze disdainfully and hates her for always complaining about Lolita. He knows that he must behave himself with Charlotte around, so he daydreams about killing her.

• Chapter 12

Charlotte, Lolita, and Humbert plan to go to Hourglass Lake for a picnic, but the trip continually gets postponed. Humbert gets a further disappointment when he learns that a classmate of Lolita’s will accompany them. Humbert learns that the previous boarder, elderly Mrs. Phalen, broke her hip and had to leave suddenly, which enabled Humbert to come and live with the Hazes. Humbert expresses amazement at how fate led him here, to his dream nymphet.

• Chapter 13

One Sunday, when the trip to the lake gets postponed yet again, Lolita becomes angry and refuses to go to church with Charlotte. Delighted, Humbert has Lolita all to himself. When Lolita starts eating an apple, Humbert teasingly takes it away from her. He finally returns it and, as Lolita sings a popular song, discreetly rubs against her until he climaxes. Lolita runs off, apparently without having noticed anything.

• Chapter 14

Famished, Humbert goes into town for lunch. He feels proud that he managed to satisfy himself without corrupting the child, and he wavers between wanting to repeat the experience and wanting to preserve Lolita’s purity. Later, Charlotte tells Humbert that she is sending Lolita away to summer camp for three weeks. Humbert hides his misery by pretending to have a toothache. Mrs. Haze recommends that he see their neighbor, Dr. Quilty, a dentist and the uncle of a playwright.

• Chapter 15

Humbert considers leaving the boarding house until Lolita returns in the fall. Lolita doesn’t want to go to camp, but Charlotte dismisses her tears. Humbert muses that Lolita might lose her purity while she’s away and cease to be a nymphet. Just before she enters the car to go to camp, Lolita rushes back and kisses Humbert.

• Chapter 16

Still reeling from Lolita’s kiss, Humbert is handed a note by the maid, Louise. Charlotte Haze has written him a letter, confessing her love for him and asking that he leave—unless he reciprocates the feeling and marries her. Humbert goes into Lolita’s room and looks at the clippings on the wall. One of the men in the pictures resembles Humbert, and Lolita has written “H. H.” on it.

• Chapter 17

Humbert considers marrying Charlotte so he can stay close to Lolita. He even toys with the idea of giving both mother and daughter sleeping pills in order to fondle Lolita. He would stop short, he thinks, of having sex with the girl. Humbert decides to marry Charlotte and calls the summer camp to tell her. However, Charlotte has already left, and he reaches Lolita instead. He informs her that he plans to marry her mother. Lolita seems distracted and not particularly interested—she has already forgotten about Humbert at camp. However, Humbert believes he will win her back after the wedding. He makes himself a drink and waits for Charlotte to return.

• Chapter 18

Charlotte and Humbert become lovers and start planning the wedding. Charlotte quizzes him on whether he’s a good Christian and says she will commit suicide if he isn’t. Charlotte enjoys the prestige of being engaged to Humbert and waits on him hand and foot. Humbert states that he actually enjoys some aspects of the affair and that it seems to improve Charlotte’s looks. Humbert tells himself that this helps him get as close as possible to Lolita. Charlotte responds to the engagement by becoming highly social and redecorating the house. Charlotte doesn’t have very many close friends besides John and Jean Farlow, whose niece, Rosaline, goes to school with Lolita.

• Chapter 19

Humbert describes Charlotte further and mentions that she is about to suffer a bad accident. Humbert finds Charlotte extremely jealous, as she asks him to confess all his previous relationships and mistresses. Humbert makes up some stories to satisfy her romantic notions. He grows used to Charlotte, but her constant criticism of Lolita still secretly upsets him.

• Chapter 20

Charlotte and Humbert go to the nearby lake in the last week of summer. Charlotte confesses that she wants to get a real maid and send Lolita off to boarding school. Humbert seethes quietly but, afraid of repeating his experience with Valeria, doesn’t want to intimidate her. He considers killing her there at the lake but cannot bring himself to do so. Jean and John Farlow join them, and Jean tells of seeing two young people embracing by the water. She starts to tell a story of Ivor Quilty’s nephew but gets interrupted.

• Chapter 21

Humbert tries the silent treatment on Charlotte, to no effect. However, when she decides they will go to England in the fall, Humbert argues against it, and she immediately becomes contrite for making plans without him. Regaining some control in the relationship pleases Humbert. Charlotte tries to be near him as much as possible and mentions going to stay at a hotel called the Enchanted Hunters. She wonders why he locks the small table in his study. Humbert teases her by saying it contains love letters. Later, Humbert worries whether the table’s key remains secure in its hiding place.

• Chapter 22

Charlotte informs Humbert that Lolita can only begin attending boarding school in January. Meanwhile, Humbert visits a doctor and pretends to have insomnia, in order to procure stronger sleeping pills to use on Lolita and Charlotte. When he returns from the appointment, he finds that Charlotte has broken into the table in his study and found the journal in which he details his lust for Lolita. Bitterly angry, she threatens to leave with Lolita, having already written some letters. Humbert goes into the kitchen to mix a drink and decides to tell Charlotte that the journal was merely part of a novel he’s working on. Just as he finishes the drink, the phone rings, and a man informs Humbert that Charlotte has been run over by a car.

• Chapter 23

After receiving the phone call, Humbert races outside to discover Charlotte dead. She had tripped on the wet cement and fallen into the path of a car, which was swerving to avoid hitting a dog. Humbert quietly retrieves the letters she had been planning to mail and tears them up. The Farlows arrive, and Humbert begins drinking. That night, Humbert reads the letters, one of which is addressed to Lolita, one to a reformatory school where Charlotte planned to send Lolita, and one to Humbert himself. Later, Humbert implies to John and Jean Farlow that he and Charlotte had an affair many years ago, when he was still married to Valeria. Jean rushes to the conclusion that Humbert is Lolita’s real father. Humbert asks them not to tell Lolita of her mother’s death, so as not to ruin her time at camp. He tells them of his plans to take her away on a trip.

• Chapter 24

The driver of the car that killed Charlotte, Mr. Frederick Beale, Jr., comes to apologize but states that Charlotte was at fault. Humbert agrees. In private, Humbert feels guilty over not having destroyed his journal, and weeps. The next day, as Humbert leaves to get Lolita, Jean, who has become very attracted to him, kisses him passionately.

• Chapter 25

Humbert muses on the coincidences that have brought him to Lolita but doesn’t allow himself to become too excited by the thought of being with her. Trying to plan how to steal Lolita away without looking suspicious, Humbert becomes plagued by doubts. He plans to take her out of the camp by claiming that her mother has fallen sick, but he can’t be sure that Lolita hasn’t already heard about Charlotte’s death. Unfortunately, Lolita has gone on a hike and won’t return for two days. Humbert buys Lolita many presents, including clothing, as he knows her measurements almost by heart. He also makes a reservation at a hotel called the Enchanted Hunters, which Charlotte had mentioned to him before her death.

• Chapter 26

Humbert, worn down by prison life, considers abandoning his account. He writes Lolita’s name out several times, and then commands the person who will eventually print his novel to keep repeating her name until the page is full.

• Chapter 27

When Humbert picks up Lolita from the camp, he thinks for a moment that he might want to simply be a good father to her. That moment passes, however, and he realizes he still loves her. Humbert tells Lolita that her mother is in the hospital, and they drive off. Lolita tells Humbert that she’s been unfaithful to him, but then she kisses him flirtatiously. In the midst of their kiss, a policeman stops them and asks after the whereabouts of a blue sedan, which Humbert and Lolita profess not to have seen. They arrive at the Enchanted Hunters and take room 342. Unable to get a cot for Lolita, Humbert realizes they will have to share a double bed. Lolita giggles and says that would be incest. In the room, Lolita shows Humbert how to kiss, but she soon loses interest in what they’re doing. Downstairs, in the dining room, Lolita spots someone who looks like Quilty, the celebrity she admires. Back in the room, Humbert gives Lolita a sleeping pill, and she soon becomes drowsy. As she falls asleep, she tells Humbert that she has been a disgusting girl, but Humbert tells her to tell him tomorrow. Humbert locks the door and goes downstairs.

• Chapter 28

Humbert eagerly anticipates caressing the unconscious Lolita. He claims that he hadn’t planned on taking Lolita’s innocence or purity but merely wanted to fondle her while she slept. He admits that it should have been clear to him then that Lolita and Annabel were not the same, and that if he had known what pain and trouble would follow, he would have done things differently. Downstairs, Humbert wanders through the hotel’s public rooms. On the terrace, he encounters a man who insinuatingly accuses him of behaving inappropriately with Lolita. Each time Humbert asks the man to repeat himself, however, the man feigns innocence and pretends to make idle chit-chat about the weather. The man, who remains half-hidden in the shadows, invites Humbert and Lolita to lunch the following day, but Humbert plans to be gone with Lolita by then.

• Chapter 29

Humbert returns to the hotel room to find Lolita half awake. He climbs into bed with her but doesn’t make any advances. Anxious and excited, Humbert stays awake all night. In the morning, Lolita wakes up and nuzzles him as he feigns sleep. She asks him if he ever had sex as a youth. When Humbert says no, Lolita has sex with him. Humbert states that, for her, sex was just another activity between children, unconnected to what adults do behind closed doors.

• Chapter 30

Humbert launches into a dreamy description of how he would repaint the Enchanted Hunters hotel in order to make the setting of his first encounter with Lolita a more natural, romantic one.

• Chapter 31

Humbert once again defends his actions as natural, using history as evidence. He notes that according to an old magazine in the prison library, a girl from the more temperate climates of America becomes mature in her twelfth year. He further reminds the reader, whom he calls his jury, that he wasn’t even Lolita’s first lover.

• Chapter 32

Lolita recounts her first sexual experiences. Astonished by Humbert’s naïveté, she tells him that many of her friends have already experimented sexually with one another. At summer camp, she used to stand guard while her friend Barbara and Charlie, the camp-mistress’s son, copulated in the bushes. Soon, Lolita’s curiosity led her to have sex with Charlie as well, and she and Barbara began taking turns with the boy. Lolita says it was fun but expresses contempt for Charlie’s manners and intelligence. Humbert gives Lolita the various presents he bought for her, and they prepare to leave the hotel. He warns Lolita not to talk to strangers. He later notices a man, about his age, staring at Lolita while she reads a movie magazine in an armchair. Humbert thinks the man resembles his Swiss uncle Gustave.

Humbert becomes upset by Lolita’s shifting moods and her seeming disinterest in him, and he worries about how to keep their new arrangement a secret. As they drive off, he tries to uncover what Lolita’s friends know about her sexuality, but Lolita is in a bad mood and irritated by Humbert’s touches. Humbert feels guilty but still desires her, and she remains confused and unhappy. Even as he tries to cheer her up, Lolita says that she was only an innocent girl and that she should tell the police that Humbert raped her. Humbert can’t tell if she’s joking or not. Lolita complains of pains and accuses Humbert of tearing something inside her. Lolita becomes angry and upset and demands to call her mother. Humbert tells her that her mother is dead.

• Chapter 33

Humbert buys Lolita many things in the town of Lepingville. In the hotel, they have separate rooms, and he can hear Lolita crying. Sometime in the night, she creeps into his bed because, as Humbert says, she has nowhere else to go.

• Chapter 1: The Cyclone

Dorothy lived on the great and desolate Kansas prairie with her Uncle Henry and her Aunt Em. They had a very small house and Dorothy had a little bed in the corner of the single room. There was a small hole in the floor that served as a cyclone cellar. Everywhere Dorothy looked was flat and gray. The sun and wind were harsh and turned the once pretty and young Aunt Em into a hardened old woman. Uncle Henry never smiled either, and when Dorothy laughed Aunt Em looked surprised.

What made Dorothy laugh was her little dog Toto; she was amused by him and they played all day long. There was no room for laughter this day, however. Uncle Henry cried out that there was a cyclone coming and ran to take care of the cows and horses. Aunt Em rushed into the cellar and screamed for Dorothy to follow, but the girl tried to get Toto out from under her bed.

Suddenly the house whirled around in the air and rose higher and higher until it was at the top of the cyclone. It was carried miles away and rocked Dorothy and Toto gently, although the darkness and wind were horrible to behold. Once Toto even fell out of the trap door, but the pressure kept him aloft and Dorothy was able to grab him back inside and shut the trapdoor. As the hours went by, she decided to wait to see what happened and not worry; she soon fell asleep. When Dorothy awoke she saw bright sunshine flooding the room. She was even more shocked by the beautiful land the house had settled in: there were stunning flowers, tall trees, a bubbling brook, and strange and colorful birds.

• Chapter 2:  The Council with the Munchkins

She observed three small men wearing bright blue clothing and a woman in white coming towards her. The men were no bigger than Dorothy despite being many years older. The woman - The Witch of the North - was also very old but spoke sweetly to Dorothy, welcoming her to the land of the Munchkins and expressing her gratitude for Dorothy's killing of the Wicked Witch of the East and setting her people free from slavery.

Dorothy was confused and said she did not recall killing anyone. The Witch of the North said it was her house that had landed on the Witch. From underneath the house a pair of legs and feet clad in silver shoes stuck out. The Witch of the North said that the little men, the Munchkins, were previously held in slavery. Although she was a witch herself, she was not powerful enough to stop the Witch of the East. Dorothy replied that she thought all witches were bad, but the Witch of the North explained that the Witches of the North and South were good and the Witches of the East and West were evil. The Witch of the North also mentioned wizards,  and whispered "Oz himself is the Great Wizard."

Before they could continue speaking, their attention was drawn to the disappearance of the Wicked Witch's feet. The sun dried up her body until only the silver shoes were left. The Witch of the North gave Dorothy the shoes, stating they belonged to her now. Dorothy inquired of her new friends how she could get back to Kansas. The Witch and Munchkins said it would be impossible to get there since the land was bordered by desert. Dorothy's tears startled and saddened the Witch, so she told her that the Wizard of Oz might know what to do.

• Chapter 3: How Dorothy Saved the Scarecrow

The Witch kissed Dorothy's forehead and said she would be safe from harm on her imminent journey. She told her that the road was paved in yellow brick and that she and Toto should follow it straight to Oz.

When Dorothy and Toto were left alone, she changed into a white and blue gingham dress and the silver slippers, and had a lunch of bread and fruit. They began their walk, and Dorothy noted the abundant fields and the lovely blue houses of the Munchkins. She passed by a gathering of many Munchkins and had a meal with them, being personally served by the richest Munchkin himself, Boq. She was a little worried when he told her that he did not know how far away the Emerald City was because most people knew to keep away from Oz unless they had business there.

As Dorothy continued her journey she came upon a Scarecrow in a field. She was surprised to see one of his eyes wink at her in a friendly way, and she helped him down from the pole that held him aloft in the field. They introduced themselves, and he asked if he could go to the Emerald City to ask Oz for brains, since "I do not want people to call me a fool, and if my head stays stuffed with straw instead of with brains, as yours is, how am I ever to know anything?" Dorothy agreed and the two set out on the yellow brick road.

• Chapter 4: The Road Through the Forest

The road became rougher but it did not hurt The Scarecrow, even when he fell. The country became more "dismal and lonesome." The travelers sat down for a meal (although only Dorothy ate of course) and he asked her to tell him about herself. She spoke of Kansas and he marveled why she would want to go back to such a dreary place. She asked him to tell her a story, and he said he was only made yesterday and did not know many.

Instead the Scarecrow spoke of how the farmer created him, painting his ears, then eyes, then his nose and mouth. The farmer and his friend left the Scarecrow alone in the field. Some birds were afraid of him but an old crow landed on him and was not fooled. The crow told him how important brains were and the Scarecrow resolved to try and find some.

Dorothy and the Scarecrow continued along their way until they came to a great forest. The road went into it and they knew it must come out, but they decided to stay in a cottage so as to not walk in the dark. Dorothy fell asleep on a little pile of leaves on the floor and the Scarecrow stood by, as he did not need to sleep.

• Chapter 5: The Rescue of the Tin Woodman

When Dorothy woke up she was thirsty so the travelers found a small stream for her to drink from and bathe in. Dorothy and The Scarecrow heard a groaning nearby and went to investigate. They discovered a man made completely of tin who stood motionless. Dorothy asked if he had groaned and he assented, saying he had been rusted for over a year. He told her to run to the cottage and get his oilcan.

When Dorothy returned she oiled all of his joints, which made him immensely happy. When he asked where they were going and they responded with the Emerald City, he wondered if he might accompany them to ask the Wizard of Oz for a heart. They readily agreed.

On their path The Tin Woodman proved useful as he skillfully axed thick branches in their path. Along the way, he told them his sad story: Once he had been a normal man with brains and a heart. He fell in love with a Munchkin girl and set about building a better house for her, but the old woman she lived with did not want her to marry and appealed to the Wicked Witch of the East to stop the marriage. The Witch made the Tin Woodman's axe slip and cut off all of his limbs one by one, but thankfully a tinner was able to provide limbs of tin for the Woodman. However, in the end the axe split him in half until all that was left of him was tin parts. Without flesh, he no longer had a heart and did not care for the Munchkin girl anymore. He had to oil himself frequently but got caught in a rainstorm over a year ago. He remembered how happy he was in love and decided he wanted a heart so he could go back and marry the maiden.

• Chapter 6:  The Cowardly Lion

The Scarecrow and the Tin Woodman debated what was more important: brains or a heart. Dorothy was not sure which was correct. The group continued to walk through the woods, which grew deeper and more frightening. They heard many noises. A large lion burst from the trees and pushed the Tin Woodman and the Scarecrow over. He lunged for Toto but Dorothy, "heedless of danger" and filled with worry for her dog, leapt at the lion and slapped his nose hard, admonishing him not to bite Toto.

The Cowardly Lion stopped and apologized and explained that he was a coward. He did not know why, but all the animals expected him to be King of Beasts, afraid of nothing. Therefore, to keep his cowardice secret, he roared loudly at anything in his path to scare it away. He also asked if he could join their party in order to ask Oz for courage, and they agreed. Toto and the Lion eventually became good friends.

Along their journey the Tin Woodman tried to be aware of the living things around him, and wept when he accidentally killed a beetle. He remarked that since he had no heart he had to be more careful.

• Chapter 7:  The Journey to the Great Oz

That night the travelers camped under a great tree. The Lion went out to look for food and the Scarecrow brought Dorothy back nuts to eat. The next day their path ended at a great ditch that separated the two sides of the forest and stretched from side to side further than the eye could see. After despairing, the Scarecrow realized the Lion could carry them one by one on his back.

The Lion said he was afraid of falling but nevertheless took them all over successfully. The forest on that side was "dark and gloomy" and the Lion whispered of the frightening Kalidahs, the beasts with bodies of bears and heads of tigers that inhabited that part of the forest. They reached another ditch that was so broad the Lion could not leap over. This time the Scarecrow realized that the Tin Woodman could cut down a tree and set it across the divide. Everyone began to cross the tree bridge when they saw two fearsome Kalidahs coming for them. The cowardly Lion roared at them, but they followed anyway. Thankfully the Tin Woodman used his axe to cut their bridge down and the monsters plunged into the deep crevasse.

The travelers were pleased when the yellow brick road finally led them to a beautiful country with green meadows, bright flowers, and delicious fruit hanging from trees. This country was on the other side of a great river, however, and the Scarecrow realized the Tin Woodman would need to build them a raft. While he worked Dorothy slept and dreamed of Emerald City.

• Chapter 8:  The Deadly Poppy Field

The Tin Woodman finished the raft and they were ready to start. The current became swifter as they reached the middle of the river, and they began to worry. The Scarecrow rowed, pushing hard on a pole. Suddenly, the pole got stuck in the mud and the Scarecrow was left clinging to it as the raft sailed away in the whirling water. The travelers could not stop. The Scarecrow called "Good bye!" to them and thought of how badly off he now was.

Without the pole, the Lion swam the raft valiantly to shore. They did not know what to do about the Scarecrow until a Storkcame along and volunteered to fetch their friend. After this adventure they walked along a verdant field with massive and bright flowers, the scent of which Dorothy happily breathed in.

Soon the only flowers present were red poppies, which had an overwhelming scent that made living creatures fall asleep. Dorothy and Toto succumbed, and the Scarecrow and Tin Woodman warned the Lion to run away as fast as he could to save himself. The Lion bounded away and the other two travelers made a chair with their hands and carried Dorothy and Toto out of the field. Along the way they saw their friend the Lion fast asleep, but they could do nothing for him as he was too heavy to carry. They laid Dorothy down in fresh air and waited for her to awaken.

• Chapter 9: The Queen of the Field Mice

The Tin Woodman and The Scarecrow were standing near the edge of the field when they spotted a yellow wildcat chasing a little gray field mouse across the grass. The Tin Woodman knew the mouse was outmatched, so he lifted his axe and swung it, lopping the beast's head off. The field mouse was grateful and told them she was the Queen of the Field Mice and in return for saving her life, her subjects would do anything the Tin Woodman wanted. The Tin Woodman asked if they could help get the Lion out of the field of poppies, and assured the mice that he was cowardly and would not eat them.

The Woodman made a truck from tree branches and the mice harnessed themselves to it with bits of string. The Cowardly Lion was finally pulled out of the field and Dorothy was glad, as "she had grown so fond of the big Lion." The mice told them to call if they ever needed anything again. The Lion awoke after a long sleep and they told him what had happened. They were now greatly refreshed and continued along their way along the smooth road in the beautiful country. The people watched them walk along the yellow brick road but did not talk to them. Everything was green in this land.

They were tired and hungry and stopped at a farmhouse, where the woman who lived there agreed to let them in. The travelers told the family that they were going to visit Oz, which surprised them greatly. The woman's husband said that Oz took on many forms and no one knew who the real Oz was. He said it might be hard to see him since he does not like to see anyone.

• Chapter 10:  The Guardian of the Gates

They slept and ate at the farmhouse and left the next morning, arriving at a great wall that surrounded the city. There was a massive gate studded with emeralds, and Dorothy pushed a bell that opened the gate and let them enter a high arched room that also sparkled with emeralds. A little man asked them what their purpose was and was perplexed when they said they wanted to see Oz since it had been many years since anyone asked to do that. He finally agreed to take them to Oz but told them to put on spectacles so the "brightness and glory of the Emerald City [does not] blind you." All of the travelers were fitted and followed the man inside the Emerald City.

Dorothy and her friends were dazzled by the beauty and wealth of the City, and the men, women, and children all clad in green with greenish skins. Everyone "seemed happy and contented and prosperous." They were brought into the Palace of Oz's gates and waited in a big room with green carpets and furniture. The soldier who led them there explained that they could only see Oz one at a time and one per day so they would have to spend the night.

This was agreeable, and all of the travelers were shown their rooms. Dorothy thought her room sweet and comfortable. A green girl told her in a friendly manner that she could wear any of the clothes in the wardrobe. The next morning Dorothy (and Toto) was summoned to Oz. They first passed a room where rich and idle men and women gathered and talked, but did not actually see Oz. The soldier informed Dorothy that the Wizard had almost not wanted to see Dorothy until he heard of her silver shoes and the mark on her forehead.

• Chapter 11:  The Emerald City of Oz

A bell rang and Dorothy was told to enter the Throne Room alone. She walked into a large room with an arched roof; everything was covered in emeralds. There was a large throne of green marble and upon it was a huge head that had no limbs or support of any kind. It had no hair but had eyes and a nose and a mouth. It spoke: "I am Oz, the Great and Terrible. Who are you, and why do you seek me?" Dorothy gave her name and Oz asked where she got her shoes and the mark on her forehead. She answered him and told him she wanted to go back to Kansas.

Oz replied that she had to do something for him if she wanted him to help her – kill the Wicked Witch of the West. Dorothy exclaimed that this was impossible and wept in despair. When she left the Throne Room she told her friends what had happened, and they were very sorry for her. The Scarecrow went in the next day. Oz appeared as a lovely lady upon the throne who had gorgeous wings growing from her shoulders. The Scarecrow told her he wanted brains and Oz replied that he also had to try to kill the Witch. It did not matter who killed her as long as it was done.

Dorothy and her friends were confused what to do, but they realized they had to try and kill the Witch. The Lion said he would go but was too much of a coward to kill her. The Tin Woodman said he had no heart to harm even a Witch but he would go. The Scarecrow said he would go but was too much of a fool to help. Thus their plan to travel to the land of the Winkies where the Witch ruled was resolved, and they spent one more night in the Emerald City.

• Chapter 12:   The Search for the Wicked Witch

The Guardian at the gate informed them there was no straight road to the land of the Winkies, and that the Wicked Witch of the West would find them and make them her slaves. He told them, once hearing that they were going to try and destroy her, to keep to the West where the sun sets.

As they walked the Witch noticed the strangers sleeping in her land with her one eye, which was as powerful as a telescope, and grew very angry. She called her pack of wolves and sent them after the interlopers, telling the leader of the wolves to tear them all to pieces.

The Scarecrow and Tin Woodman were awake and heard the wolves coming. The Tin Woodman picked up his axe, and since he could not be hurt, killed all forty of the wolves one after the other and piled their bodies in a heap. The next morning the Witch observed what had happened and became angrier. She called her pack of crows and told King Crow to peck all of their eyes out and tear them to pieces.

• Chapter 13:  The Rescue

The crows flew to where Dorothy and her friends were. Some of the crows were afraid of the Scarecrow, but the King was not deterred and went in for the stuffed man's eyes. The Scarecrow caught him and twisted his neck, then did the same to all of the other birds. This, of course, infuriated the Witch further and she told her swarm of black bees to sting the travelers to death. The bees were foiled when they wasted their stingers on the Scarecrow, who spread his straw over the rest of his friends to protect them.

The Witch then commanded her Winkies to go after them, but the people were afraid when The Cowardly Lion gave a great roar. At her wit's end, the Witch remembered the Golden Cap she possessed. It had a charm that allowed its owner to call three times upon the Winged Monkeys; she had used two already – one while enslaving the Winkies and the other while fighting against Oz and driving him out of the West. She knew this was the only way to bring Dorothy and her friends to her, so she spoke the special words and the crowd of winged monkeys flew to her.

She commanded them to destroy all except the Lion, whom she desired to enslave and harness like a horse. The Tin Woodman was dropped onto sharp rocks and the Scarecrow was scattered and his clothes placed in the top of a tall tree. But Dorothy was left alone because of the mark on her forehead that meant she was protected by the Power of Good. They brought the Lion and Dorothy and Toto to the Witch. She trembled at the silver shoes on Dorothy's feet but realized the girl did not know their power. Dorothy was forced to work in the castle kitchen. She resolved to starve the Lion until he agreed to work. Thankfully, Dorothy found a way to sneak food to him.

• Chapter 14:  The Winged Monkeys

Dorothy worked hard and her life grew sad. The Witch coveted her silver shoes because they were powerful, but she could not figure out how to pry them away from the girl. Dorothy wore them at all times except while bathing, but since the Witch was deathly afraid of water, she couldn't approach. She finally set up an invisible iron bar that Dorothy tripped over, making her lose one shoe.

Dorothy was so angry that, without thinking, she threw a bucket of water on the Witch, drenching her head to toe. The Witch screamed that she was going to melt away, and sure enough, every bit of her melted into oblivion. Dorothy ran out to find the Lion and tell him they were no longer prisoners. Dorothy freed the Lion and told the Winkies they were no longer slaves; they rejoiced heartily. The Winkies helped fix the Tin Woodman and put the Scarecrow back together after the Woodman cut down the tree in which the stuffed man's clothes were stuck.

The friends decided to head back to Oz to claim what the powerful Wizard had promised them, and tearfully said goodbye to the Winkies. Before they left, Dorothy noticed the Golden Cap and put it on her head because it fit nicely; she did not know about its magic properties.

• Chapter 15:  The Discovery of Oz, the Terrible

The travelers headed back toward the Emerald City but soon became miserably lost. They called the field mice for help. The Queen of the Field Mice noticed Dorothy's cap and told her that she could command the Winged Monkeys to take them the long distance to the City. Dorothy was amazed, and speaking the words of the charm, called the Winged Monkeys to her and gave them her first command.

Along the way to the City, the King of the Monkeys told Dorothy why they had to respond to the owner of the Golden Cap. Once they were a free people that lived happily in the forest. Sometimes they were playful and mischievous, but overall they were kind and carefree. There was a beautiful princess and sorceress named Gayelette who used her powers for good. She wanted a husband but could not find someone good enough. She finally found a worthy young man and used her magic to make him handsome and strong and perfect. His name was Quelala.

One day the monkeys played a joke at Quelala's expense when the man was out walking. They picked him up and dropped him in the river, wetting his clothes. Quelala was not angry but Gayelette was furious. She wanted to tie the Monkeys' wings and drop them in the river. The King of the Winged Monkeys knew this was a death sentence and Quelala intervened. Gayelette thought up a new punishment and created the curse of the Golden Cap. Quelala was the first owner and used his first command to order the monkeys to stay away so his wife would never see them again. Ultimately, the Cap passed to the Wicked Witch of the West, and now Dorothy.

• Chapter 16:   The Magic Art of the Great Humbug

The Guardian at the Gate was surprised to see the returning travelers and especially stunned to hear that the Wicked Witch of the West was dead. The people of Oz gathered around when they heard the news. Their former rooms were restored to them and they expected to see Oz very soon. However, he kept them waiting so long that the Scarecrow had to threaten him with calling the Winged Monkeys. At this, they were summoned to the Throne Room.

When they arrived the room was empty, but they heard a great voice. It asked what they wanted, and Dorothy explained that they had come to claim their promises. The voice said it must have time to think, but the Tin Woodman protested that it had been enough time already.

The Cowardly Lion roared to frighten the Wizard, which resulted in frightening Toto, who stumbled into a screen in the corner of the room. To the group's surprise, it revealed a little old man, bald of head and very wrinkled. The Tin Woodman asked who he was and he responded that he was Oz. This astonished everyone, especially when he explained that all those other guises were mere make-believe. The Scarecrow accused him of being a humbug, to which he assented in dismay. Oz said he had fooled everyone so long that he was secure of never being found out.

• Chapter 17:  How the Balloon Was Launched

Oz also explained how he had conceived of the head, woman, beast, and ball of fire. He told his own story: he was born in Omaha and became a ventriloquist and then a balloonist in the circus. One day the balloon was caught by a current of air that carried him miles away to this strange and beautiful land. The people thought he was a great wizard and he went along their misunderstanding, even commanding them to build the Emerald City. Oz even duped the citizens of Emerald City into thinking everything they saw was green; the goggles they wore colored the world. Despite his sway over the land, Oz feared the witches because they had real power, especially the two evil witches.

Dorothy told him he was a bad man, but he replied that he was not a bad man, just a bad Wizard. The Scarecrow, Tin Woodman, and Lion asked for their gifts, and when Oz told them they already had brains, a heart, and courage, respectively, they were not contented. He thus told them to return the next morning and he would give them what they asked. As for Dorothy, he said he needed two or three days to figure out how to get her home to Kansas. He asked in return for his secret to be kept, and they agreed. Dorothy believed she would forgive him if he got her home.

The next morning the Scarecrow visited Oz. Oz opened his head and placed within it bran mixed with pins and needles that was his new, glorious brain. The Scarecrow joyously said he felt very wise. For the Tin Woodman, he gave him a silk heart stuffed with sawdust; he opened the tin body, put the heart inside, and soldered it closed with a patch. For the Lion, he commanded him to drink the contents of a little vial poured into a gold dish. This was his courage.

• Chapter 18:  Away to the South

Dorothy's friends were happy but she waited sadly for news from Oz. He finally summoned her and told her his plan: he would fashion a balloon and sail across the desert and then figure out how to get to Kansas. He even said he would go with her because he was tired of being a humbug and wanted to be back in the circus.

Dorothy helped Oz sew the silk balloon. Once the basket was made, Oz wished his people goodbye, telling them he was going to visit his powerful brother wizard in the clouds. The Scarecrow, who was very wise, would rule over them in his stead.

The Wizard got into the balloon and called for Dorothy. Unfortunately, she was trying to grab Toto when the ropes on the balloon cracked and it rose into the air without her. That was the last anyone ever saw of the Wonderful Wizard of Oz, and the people grieved for him.

• Chapter 19:  Attacked by the Fighting Trees

Dorothy was sad to see Oz go but decided she was glad she did not go up in the balloon. Her friends wondered if she might want to live in the Emerald City, but she was sure she wanted to go back to Kansas.

She called upon the Winged Monkeys for the second time to see if they would take her over the desert, but they refused since they could not leave the country. Dorothy was extremely disappointed, but the soldier told her that she might try Glinda, the Good Witch of the South. She resolved upon this plan and all of her friends agreed to travel with her once more.

The next morning the group embarked, walking along in the best of spirits and talking gaily together. The second day they came to a great wood and had to enter because there was no way to go around it. The first trees tried to keep them out but the Tin Woodman cut them a path. They finally came to a high wall made of white china and realized they must climb over it.

• Chapter 20:  The Dainty China Country

The Tin Woodman created a ladder and one by one they ascended the china wall and sat on top. All were in awe of what they saw below: a tiny china town decked out in bright colors. Strangest of all were the little people that lived there; there were milkmaids and princesses and princes, all dressed brightly and no taller than Dorothy's knee.

They lowered themselves down into the china town. They trod carefully but nevertheless spooked a china cow that kicked over its stool and pail - and the milkmaid who was milking it. The milkmaid was furious, for her cow's leg was broken off and she yelled that she would have to have it glued back on again. Dorothy was upset at this and told her companions to be as careful as possible.

A little princess saw them coming and tried to run away. Dorothy followed after her but the little china girl screamed for them to not follow her because if she ran away she might fall and break herself. Then, she would have to be repaired and would likely be ugly. She pointed to Mr. Joker, a clown who had been broken innumerable times and was not as pretty.

• Chapter 21:  The Lion Becomes the King of Beasts

Mr. Joker made fun of Dorothy, calling her prim, and the princess scolded him for his disrespect. Dorothy suggested she take the china princess home with her. The china princess told Dorothy and her friends that they were happy in their china land because when they were taken out into the other world they stiffened up and could not move. Dorothy did not want to make her unhappy so the companions left as quickly as possible.

On the other side of the wall was a disagreeable country. It was wild and gloomy. They came upon an opening in the wood that was filled with hundreds of beasts of all different types. The Cowardly Lion realized they were having an animal meeting. The animals saw him and invited him into the circle.

The Lion asked what the trouble was, and they explained that there was a huge monster in the forest that resembled a massive spider. It was terrorizing the animals and there were no other lions left alive to help destroy it. The Lion asked if they would let him rule over them if he killed the beast, and they readily agreed.

• Chapter 22:  The Country of the Quadlings

The Lion walked through the trees to where the monster was sleeping. It was truly terrifying, but the Lion saw its thin neck and sprung upon it, snapping his head from its body. The animals were immensely pleased when he returned victorious. The Lion promised to return after he had helped Dorothy get home.

The travelers left the forest and came to a steep hill. They heard voices that forbade them from coming any further. These voices belonged to the Hammer-Heads, a strange people with stout bodies, no arms and heads that were flat on top. Their necks could extend, so they used their heads to forcefully bump The Scarecrow down the hill when he continued forward.

The same happened to the Lion, and they despaired at what to do. The Tin Woodman remembered the Winged Monkeys and Dorothy called upon them for her third and final command. They arrived and carried the companions away from the strange folk.

• Chapter 23:   Glinda The Good Witch Grants Dorothy's Wish

The country of the Quadlings was "rich and happy" and they found food and shelter at a farmhouse. Dorothy asked how far away Glinda's castle was, and they learned it was fairly close. They thus continued along their way until they reached the beautiful castle and asked to see Glinda.

After given time to wash up, Dorothy and her friends were admitted before the young and beautiful Witch of the South. Dorothy told the kindly Witch her story, and Glinda replied that she could help her but that she needed the Golden Cap in exchange. Dorothy was pleased to agree and handed it to her.

Glinda took the cap and said she would use the three commands thusly: the Monkeys would take the Scarecrow back to the Emerald City to rule, the Tin Woodman would be taken to the land of the Winkies to rule, and the Lion would be taken back to the forest to rule over the beasts. She would then give the Cap to the King of the Winged Monkeys so his people would be free.

• Chapter 24:  Home Again

Finally, she told Dorothy that the way to get back to Kansas was simply to knock the heels of her silver shoes together three times and she would be taken wherever she wanted to go in three steps. Dorothy was overjoyed, but she had tearful farewells with her dear friends. She picked up Toto, clapped her heels three times, and said "Take me home to Aunt Em!"

She whirled in the air and found herself rolling on the grass of the Kansas prairie. Before her was the new farmhouse her Uncle Henry had built. He was milking the cows and Toto ran joyously to him. Dorothy realized the shoes had fallen off on the journey and were lost forever in the desert.

Aunt Em came out of the house to water the cabbages and instead saw Dorothy. She exclaimed with joy and grasped the girl tightly, asking her where she had been. Dorothy replied that she had come from the Land of Oz but that she was glad to be home again.