Curiosity: Annotated Bibliography

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The Old Curiosity Shop Information about Project Gutenberg Information prepared by the Project Gutenberg legal advisor CHAPTER 1 CHAPTER 1 CHAPTER 2 CHAPTER 2 CHAPTER 3 CHAPTER 3 CHAPTER 4 CHAPTER 4 CHAPTER 5 CHAPTER 5 CHAPTER 6 CHAPTER 6 CHAPTER 7 CHAPTER 7 CHAPTER 8 CHAPTER 8 CHAPTER 9 CHAPTER 9 CHAPTER 10 CHAPTER 10 CHAPTER 11 CHAPTER 11 CHAPTER 12

2 CHAPTER 12 CHAPTER 13 CHAPTER 13 CHAPTER 14 CHAPTER 14 CHAPTER 15 CHAPTER 15 CHAPTER 16 CHAPTER 16 CHAPTER 17 CHAPTER 17 CHAPTER 18 CHAPTER 18 CHAPTER 19 CHAPTER 19 CHAPTER 20 CHAPTER 20 CHAPTER 21 CHAPTER 21 CHAPTER 22 CHAPTER 22 CHAPTER 23 CHAPTER 23 CHAPTER 24 CHAPTER 24 CHAPTER 25 CHAPTER 25 CHAPTER 26 CHAPTER 26 CHAPTER 27 CHAPTER 27 CHAPTER 28 CHAPTER 28 CHAPTER 29 CHAPTER 29…show more content…
In the summer I often leave home early in the morning, and roam about fields and lanes all day, or even escape for days or weeks together; but, saving in the country, I seldom go out until after dark, though, Heaven be thanked, I love its light and feel the cheerfulness it sheds upon the earth, as much as any creature living. I have fallen insensibly into this habit, both because it favours my infirmity and because it affords me greater opportunity of speculating on the characters and occupations of those who fill the streets. The glare and hurry of broad noon are not adapted to idle pursuits like mine; a glimpse of passing faces caught by the light of a street-lamp or a shop window is often better for my purpose than their full revelation in the daylight; and, if I must add the truth, night is kinder in this respect than day, which too often destroys an air-built castle at the moment of its completion, without the least ceremony or remorse. That constant pacing to and fro, that never-ending restlessness, that incessant tread of feet wearing the rough stones smooth and glossy--is it not a wonder how the dwellers in narrows ways can bear to hear it! Think of a sick man in such a place as Saint Martin's Court, listening to the footsteps, and in the midst of pain and weariness obliged, despite himself (as though it were a task he must perform) to detect the child's step from the man's, the slipshod beggar from the booted exquisite, the lounging from the busy, the dull heel of the sauntering outcast from the quick tread of an expectant pleasure-seeker--think of the hum and noise always being present to his sense, and of the stream of life that will not stop, pouring on, on, on, through all his restless dreams, as if he were condemned to lie, dead but conscious, in a noisy churchyard, and had no hope of rest for centuries to come. Then, the crowds for ever passing and repassing on the bridges (on those which are free of toil at