This companion is an invaluable aid to modern readers in understanding Dickens's book, as it examines both specific details and the broader context of the story. To discover the meaning of a difficult detail or idea, the reader needs only find the appropriate chapter in DEGREESIThe Companion DEGREESR, look for the italicized phrase that identifies the relevant paragraph, and then read the discussion of the word or passage in question, which will be marked in bold. The book is the result of extensive original research and will appeal to both scholars, secondary school students and amateur Dickens enthusiasts. From details about food, costume, and transport to the political and social concerns of the day, DEGREESIThe Companion DEGREESR will open up Dickens's world in an accessible, fascinating way.

This is the sixth volume to be published in "The Dickens Companions" series. Information is arranged in the form of notes presented for convenient use with any edition of "Hard Times". Short notes supply historical data on a variety of topics. Longer, discursive notes assemble facts and contextual information which students need in order to understand issues central to the novel. Thus, for example, details about food, costume and transport appear alongside notes about the political and social concerns of the day. To help readers find annotated material from the novel's text, "The Companion" provides in italics the opening phrase of the paragraph to which the annotation refers, followed in bold by the words or passage to be annotated and then the explanatory note. Readers of the novel in search of more information about a note or phrase have only to find the appropriate chapter in "The Companion", looking for the italicized phrase that identifies the paragraph and then the bold entry. This format makes accessible to any reader allusions that may seem otherwise dense or puzzling, as well as providing dependable factual information about the novel's historical and cultural background, especially helpful to students. Each book is the result of extensive research, making the series useful to the community of scholars interested both in Dickens and in all aspects of Victorian Britain.

Mary Tudor and Elizabeth Tudor race for the English Crown.
Bloodshed and betrayal is on the way… Two princesses are born seventeen years apart to the same father – but different mothers. Their father, King Henry VIII, swears that no woman shall ever wear the English crown.
But when their brother, Edward, dies naming another woman as his successor, the two women take action – in opposing ways. Forced by her father and brother to publicly renounce her beloved religion, Mary Tudor has a heavy cross to bear.
Determined to restore England to the true Church, she decides to take matters into her own hands. Bright, beautiful and beloved at court, Elizabeth decides to lie low when Lady Jane Grey is declared Queen.
But must she lie even lower if Mary gets her way? One great conflict. Two great stories.

Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: CHAPTER IV THE TRYST IN THE FOREST In the shadowy glades of the forest there was a great silence. True, there was to be heard the sleepy twitter of the birds, the low hum of insect-life, the quiet dropping of a withered leaf upon the mossy ground, but these subdued sounds seemed but to intensify rather than to break the stillness. Upon all around it would appear there had fallen the hush of the Sabbath afternoon. Even the distant murmur of a rippling stream fell upon the ear like a mere dream of music, while the stately trees, entering into the spirit of the hour, bent their proud heads in majestic acknowledgment of the greeting of the autumn wind, and held counsel with each other in whispers. Under the wide-spreading branches of a great chestnut sat Azerole Montoux. In an attitude of utter listlessness, her dark eyes gazing moodily in front of her, she waited immovable as a statue. The minutes passed, but at last her listening ears caught the sound of coming footsteps, and, springing to her feet, she stood expectant. A few moments more and her face lighted up at sight of her brother, who, pushing the brushwood aside, made his way to her through a thicket of saplings and undergrowth. " Le'on, L6on " she cried, holding out both her hands. "I feared something had hindered you, and that you were not coming to the tryst to-day." " If Michel Roussier had his way, vraiment, something should always hinder. His ingenuity in that line is little short of genius." Apparently Azerole had not heard. She did not ask what the delay had been, stranger still, she failed to notice the shadow on her brother's brow. Wearily she sat down again, and, drawing him down beside her, let her head fall on his shoulder with a long sigh, half of contentment half of pain. For a few minutes ...

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