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The Newcomes: Memoirs of a Most Respectable Family

Thackeray, William Makepeace · Public domain text

362,032 words · about 25 h 21 min to read

About this edition

The text of The Newcomes: Memoirs of a Most Respectable Family comes from Project Gutenberg e-text #7467. It is public domain in the United States. Project Gutenberg’s header and license text are removed, and RedLectern sets the text out for reading on screen; no words of the book are rewritten or summarized. More formats (EPUB, Kindle) · How RedLectern is built

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About this book

Author
William Makepeace Thackeray (1811–1863)
Language
English
Subjects
Domestic fiction, Families › England › Fiction
Length
362,032 words · about 25 h 21 min
Sections
82 reader sections · Table of contents
Contents (82)
  1. Opening about 3 min
  2. I. The Overture—After which the Curtain rises upon a Drinking Chorus about 22 min
  3. II. Colonel Newcome’s Wild Oats about 25 min
  4. III. Colonel Newcome’s Letter-box about 16 min
  5. IV. In which the Author and the Hero resume their Acquaintance about 15 min
  6. V. Clive’s Uncles about 30 min
  7. VI. Newcome Brothers about 18 min
  8. VII. In which Mr. Clive’s School-days are over about 14 min
  9. VIII. Mrs. Newcome at Home (a Small Early Party) about 28 min
  10. IX. Miss Honeyman’s about 25 min
  11. X. Ethel and her Relations about 21 min
  12. XI. At Mrs. Ridley’s about 27 min
  13. XII. In which everybody is asked to Dinner about 13 min
  14. XIII. In which Thomas Newcome sings his Last Song about 13 min
  15. XIV. Park Lane about 21 min
  16. XV. The Old Ladies about 18 min
  17. XVI. In which Mr. Sherrick lets his House in Fitzroy Square about 10 min
  18. XVII. A School of Art about 16 min
  19. XVIII. New Companions about 10 min
  20. XIX. The Colonel at Home about 14 min
  21. XX. Contains more Particulars of the Colonel and his Brethren about 18 min
  22. XXI. Is Sentimental, but Short about 16 min
  23. XXII. Describes a Visit to Paris; with Accidents and Incidents in London about 26 min
  24. XXIII. In which we hear a Soprano and a Contralto about 24 min
  25. XXIV. In which the Newcome Brothers once more meet together in Unity about 25 min
  26. XXV. Is passed in a Public-house about 21 min
  27. XXVI. In which Colonel Newcome’s Horses are sold about 20 min
  28. XXVII. Youth and Sunshine about 17 min
  29. XXVIII. In which Clive begins to see the World about 37 min
  30. XXIX. In which Barnes comes a-wooing about 17 min
  31. XXX. A Retreat about 28 min
  32. XXXI. Madame la Duchesse about 22 min
  33. XXXII. Barnes’s Courtship about 15 min
  34. XXXIII. Lady Kew at the Congress about 17 min
  35. XXXIV. The End of the Congress of Baden about 33 min
  36. XXXV. Across the Alps about 16 min
  37. XXXVI. In which M. de Florac is promoted about 22 min
  38. XXXVII. Returns to Lord Kew about 13 min
  39. XXXVIII. In which Lady Kew leaves his Lordship quite convalescent about 22 min
  40. XXXIX. Amongst the Painters about 24 min
  41. XL. Returns from Rome to Pall Mall about 15 min
  42. XLI. An Old Story about 25 min
  43. XLII. Injured Innocence about 23 min
  44. XLIII. Returns to some Old Friends about 19 min
  45. XLIV. In which Mr. Charles Honeyman appears in an Amiable Light about 23 min
  46. XLV. A Stag of Ten about 13 min
  47. XLVI. The Hotel de Florac about 20 min
  48. XLVII. Contains two or three Acts of a Little Comedy about 11 min
  49. Scene II about 22 min
  50. XLVIII. In which Benedick is a Married Man about 18 min
  51. XLIX. Contains at least six more Courses and two Desserts about 15 min
  52. L. Clive in New Quarters about 14 min
  53. LI. An Old Friend about 16 min
  54. LII. Family Secrets about 20 min
  55. LIII. In which Kinsmen fall out about 33 min
  56. LIV. Has a Tragical Ending about 12 min
  57. LV. Barnes’s Skeleton Closet about 17 min
  58. LVI. Rosa quo locorum sera moratur about 13 min
  59. LVII. Rosebury and Newcome about 35 min
  60. LVIII. “One more Unfortunate” about 12 min
  61. LIX. In which Achilles loses Briseis about 37 min
  62. LX. In which we write to the Colonel about 8 min
  63. LXI. In which we are introduced to a New Newcome about 9 min
  64. LXII. Mr. and Mrs. Clive Newcome about 16 min
  65. LXIII. Mrs. Clive at Home about 16 min
  66. LXIV. Absit Omen about 11 min
  67. LXV. In which Mrs. Clive comes into her Fortune about 21 min
  68. LXVI. In which the Colonel and the Newcome Athenæum are both lectured about 18 min
  69. LXVII. Newcome and Liberty about 13 min
  70. LXVIII. A Letter and a Reconciliation about 11 min
  71. LXIX. The Election about 22 min
  72. LXX. Chiltern Hundreds about 13 min
  73. LXXI. In which Mrs. Clive Newcome’s Carriage is ordered about 20 min
  74. LXXII. Belisarius about 13 min
  75. LXXIII. In which Belisarius returns from Exile about 16 min
  76. LXXIV. In which Clive begins the World about 17 min
  77. LXXV. Founder’s Day at the Grey Friars about 20 min
  78. LXXVI. Christmas at Rosebury about 14 min
  79. LXXVII. The Shortest and Happiest in the Whole History about 4 min
  80. LXXVIII. In which the Author goes on a Pleasant Errand about 15 min
  81. LXXIX. In which Old Friends come together about 22 min
  82. LXXX. In which the Colonel says “Adsum” when his Name is called about 20 min

The opening of I. The Overture—After which the Curtain rises upon a Drinking Chorus

A crow, who had flown away with a cheese from a dairy-window, sate perched on a tree looking down at a great big frog in a pool underneath him. The frog’s hideous large eyes were goggling out of his head in a manner which appeared quite ridiculous to the old blackamoor, who watched the splay-footed slimy wretch with that peculiar grim humour belonging to crows. Not far from the frog a fat ox was browsing; whilst a few lambs frisked about the meadow, or nibbled the grass and buttercups there.

Who should come in to the farther end of the field but a wolf? He was so cunningly dressed up in sheep’s clothing, that the very lambs did not know Master Wolf; nay, one of them, whose dam the wolf had just eaten, after which he had thrown her skin over his shoulders, ran up innocently towards the devouring monster, mistaking him for her mamma.

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