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The Science of Deduction
Sherlock Holmes took his bottle from the corner of the mantel-piece and his hypodermic syringe from its neat morocco case. With his long, white, nervous fingers he adjusted the delicate needle and rolled back his left shirt-cuff. For some little time his eyes rested thoughtfully upon the sinewy forearm and wrist all dotted and scarred with innumerable puncture-marks. Finally he thrust the sharp point home, pressed down the tiny piston, and sank back into the velvet-lined arm-chair with a long sigh of satisfaction.
Three times a day for many months I had witnessed this performance, but custom had not reconciled my mind to it. On the contrary, from day to day I had become more irritable at the sight, and my conscience swelled nightly within me at the thought that I had lacked the courage to protest. Again and again I had registered a vow that I should deliver my soul upon the subject, but there was that in the cool, nonchalant air of my companion which made him the last man with whom one would care to take anything approaching to a liberty. His great powers, his masterly manner, and the experience which I had had of his many extraordinary qualities, all made me diffident and backward in crossing him.
The font and font size make the text as easy as possible to read.
Title
Chapter 1
1 drank gin ... to mortify a taste for vintages: gin was, at the time, a cheap alcohol, commonly drunk by the lower classes. Vintages are fine, expensive wines. Utterson is practising self-denial (mortifying his taste) by drinking the less pleasant drink.
1 approved: proven
1 Cain’s heresy: in Judeo-Christianity, in the Old Testament when God asks Cain where his murdered brother is, Cain denies his responsibility, replying ‘Am I my brother’s keeper?’ (Genesis 4:9)
1 chambers: the offices of a barrister or lawyer
2 catholicity: breadth; inclusiveness
2 Hence: from this; in consequence
3 distained: discoloured
4 Juggernaut: a destructive, unstoppable force. The meaning derives from the Hindu temple cars of Jagannath Temple in Puri, India, which were falsely understood by midnineteenth-century English writers such as Dickens and Stevenson to crush blindly devoted worshippers beneath their wheels.
4 gave a view halloa: a shout made by a hunter sighting prey
4 Sawbones: slang for a surgeon
4 apothecary: person who dispenses medicines, remedies and medical advice
5 harpies: in Greek and Roman mythology, harpies were dangerous monsters, half-woman, half-bird
5 cheque for the balance on Coutts’s: Coutts is a wellrespected private bank for wealthy clients, founded in 1692. Hyde appears to have been given a cheque for the money demanded of him by a wealthy, respectable person.
5 often printed: appearing frequently in newspapers and society columns about the rich and powerful
978-0-00-832592-3
978-0-00-832590-9
The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde 978-0-00-832593-0
The Sign of Four 978-0-00-832595-4
The glossary for each chapter of the book familiarises students with unfamiliar concepts and culturallyspecific references.
There is a short paragraph in Virginia Woolf’s fifth novel, To The Lighthouse (1927), which begins and ends with the same sentence: ‘Never did anybody look so sad.’1 It’s a description of one of the novel’s main characters, Mrs Ramsay, who has just measured a stocking she has knitted for the lighthouse keeper’s son and found it to be too short. This paragraph may seem quite trivial in passing, but it has taken on great significance in the reception of Woolf’s work. Why? It was picked out by the German literary historian Erich Auerbach in Mimesis (1946), a book that sought to trace the different ways in which poets and writers have tried to represent reality in their work, beginning with Homer’s Odyssey and running through to what was then more or less the present day. Auerbach comments: Who is speaking in this paragraph? Who is looking at Mrs Ramsay here, who concludes that never did anybody look so sad? Who is expressing these doubtful, obscure suppositions? […] The person speaking here, whoever it is, acts the part of one who has only an impression of Mrs Ramsay, who looks at her face and renders the impression received, but is doubtful of its proper interpretation.2 These kinds of question also arise when we try to understand Mrs Dalloway, a novel that explores character and relationships by moving in and out of different people’s minds, sometimes within the same scene. It calls for care on the part of the reader to recognise these shifts of perspective, which are often marked only by a change in the texture of language
Sample from Mrs Dalloway
The introduction situates the novel within its context and encourages students to think about different ways of interpreting the text.
12/10/2019 11:57:23 AM
Title
Dracula
Heart of Darkness
Hard Times
Dubliners
The Picture of Dorian Gray
Oliver Twist
The Great Gatsby
Mrs Dalloway
Persuasion
Wuthering Heights
978-0-00-846538-4
978-0-00-846542-1
978-0-00-846539-1
978-0-00-846540-7
978-0-00-846541-4
978-0-00-840043-9
978-0-00-837181-4
978-0-00-837184-5
978-0-00-837183-8 £2.00
978-0-00-837182-1 £2.00
The second scene deals mainly with the report of the battle in which the ‘Macbeth’ we have already heard about, and another man, Banquo, have excelled. However, the feeling of uncertainty is maintained, because the outcome of the battle is left in doubt by the Sergeant. He nevertheless presents Macbeth as the decisive factor, and Ross gives the same impression from his point of view when he provides the final news that the battle has been won. We get a remarkable picture of Macbeth as a kind of superman, a fearless, ferocious, almost untouchable champion of right against treachery.
The second scene deals mainly with the report of the battle in which the ‘Macbeth’ we have already heard about, and another man, Banquo, have excelled. However, the feeling of uncertainty is maintained, because the outcome of the battle is left in doubt by the Sergeant. He nevertheless presents Macbeth as the decisive factor, and Ross gives the same impression from his point of view when he provides the final news that the battle has been won. We get a remarkable picture of Macbeth a kind of superman, a fearless, ferocious, almost untouchable champion of right against treachery.
1–3. He can report … state He looks as though he has come, wounded, straight from the battle, and will be able to give us an upto-date report.
1–3. He can report … state He looks as though he has come, wounded, straight from the battle, and will be able to give us an upto-date report.
5. ’Gainst my captivity to save me from being captured. 6. knowledge of the broil news of the battle.
5. ’Gainst my captivity to save me from being captured.
6. knowledge of the broil news of the battle.
9. choke their art (the two exhausted swimmers) prevent each other from using their swimming skill.
9. choke their art (the two exhausted swimmers) prevent each other from using their swimming skill.
10. to that to that end, i.e. to show that he is without doubt a traitor.
10. to that to that end, i.e. to show that he is without doubt a traitor.
12. swarm upon him like lice.
12. swarm upon him like lice.
12. Western Isles islands to the west, including Ireland and the Hebrides.
12. Western Isles islands to the west, including Ireland and the Hebrides.
13. kerns and gallowglasses lightly-armed foot-soldiers and horsemen armed with axes.
13. kerns and gallowglasses lightly-armed foot-soldiers and horsemen armed with axes.
14–15. Fortune the Roman goddess Fortuna, regarded as highly unreliable. Macbeth ignores her (Disdaining Fortune, line 17) and takes his fate into his own hands, a trait we are to see repeated later in the play.
14–15. Fortune the Roman goddess Fortuna, regarded as highly unreliable. Macbeth ignores her (Disdaining Fortune, line 17) and takes his fate into his own hands, a trait we are to see repeated later in the play.
17–18. brandished steel … execution His sword steamed with the hot blood of those he had just killed.
17–18. brandished steel … execution His sword steamed with the hot blood of those he had just killed.
19. valour’s minion the favourite of Valour (personified in much the same way as Fortune). carv’d out his passage cut his way through the men on the battlefield.
19. valour’s minion the favourite of Valour (personified in much the same way as Fortune). carv’d out his passage cut his way through the men on the battlefield.
22–3. Till he unseam’d … he thrust his sword in at the navel (nave), ripped him open up to the jaws (chaps), then cut his head off and stuck it on the battlements.
22–3. Till he unseam’d … he thrust his sword in at the navel (nave), ripped him open up to the jaws (chaps), then cut his head off and stuck it on the battlements.
Sample from Macbeth
Each Shakespeare edition includes supportive notes for each page of the play.
A Midsummer Night’s Dream 978-0-00-840049-1
978-0-00-836360-4
Much Ado about Nothing
Romeo and Juliet
The Merchant of Venice
978-0-00-836362-8
978-0-00-836361-1
978-0-00-836363-5
Tempest 978-0-00-836365-9
978-0-00-840046-0
ACT ONE SCENE TWO Scene 2
A camp near Forres
A camp near Forres [Alarum within. Enter KING DUNCAN, MALCOLM, DONALBAIN, LENNOX with ATTENDANTS, meeting a bleeding SERGEANT.]
[Alarum within. Enter KING DUNCAN, MALCOLM, DONALBAIN, LENNOX with ATTENDANTS, meeting a bleeding SERGEANT.]
Duncan
Duncan
What bloody man is that? He can report, As seemeth by his plight, of the revolt The newest state.
What bloody man is that? He can report, As seemeth by his plight, of the revolt
The newest state.
Malcolm
Malcolm This is the sergeant Who like a good and hardy soldier fought ’Gainst my captivity. Hail, brave friend! 5 Say to the King the knowledge of the broil As thou didst leave it.
Sergeant
This is the sergeant
Who like a good and hardy soldier fought ’Gainst my captivity. Hail, brave friend! 5
Say to King the knowledge of the broil
As thou didst leave it.
Sergeant
Doubtful it stood,
Doubtful it stood,
As two spent swimmers that do cling together
As two spent swimmers that do cling together And choke their art. The merciless Macdonwald –Worthy to be a rebel, for to that 10
And choke their art. The merciless Macdonwald –Worthy to be a rebel, for to that 10
The multiplying villainies of nature
The multiplying villainies of nature
Do swarm upon him – from the Western Isles
Do swarm upon him – from the Western Isles
Of kerns and gallowglasses is supplied; And Fortune, on his damned quarrel smiling, Show’d like a rebel’s whore. But all’s too weak; 15
For brave Macbeth – well he deserves that name –
Of kerns and gallowglasses is supplied; And Fortune, on his damned quarrel smiling, Show’d like a rebel’s whore. But all’s too weak; 15 For brave Macbeth – well he deserves that name –
Disdaining Fortune, with his brandish’d steel
Disdaining Fortune, with his brandish’d steel
Which smok’d with bloody execution,
Like valour’s minion, carv’d out his passage
Which smok’d with bloody execution, Like valour’s minion, carv’d out his passage
Till he fac’d the slave; 20
Till he fac’d the slave; 20
Which ne’er shook hands, nor bade farewell to him, Till he unseam’d him from the nave to th’ chaps,
And fix’d his head upon our battlements.
Which ne’er shook hands, nor bade farewell to him, Till he unseam’d him from the nave to th’ chaps, And fix’d his head upon our battlements.
39
King Lear
978-0-00-840047-7 £2.00 Hamlet
978-0-00-840048-4 £2.00
The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes
The War of the Worlds
978-0-00-840044-6
978-0-00-846830-9
978-0-00-840045-3
978-0-00-832596-1
The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde 978-0-00-832593-0
Jane Eyre
Pride and Prejudice
978-0-00-832591-6
978-0-00-832594-7
The Sign of Four 978-0-00-832595-4
Hard Times
The Picture of Dorian Gray
The Great Gatsby
Mrs Dalloway
Persuasion
Wuthering Heights
978-0-00-846539-1
978-0-00-846540-7
978-0-00-846541-4
978-0-00-840043-9
978-0-00-837181-4
978-0-00-837184-5
978-0-00-837183-8
978-0-00-837182-1
978-0-00-836365-9
978-0-00-840046-0