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The Dwarf is about human jealousy and envy. Aimee realized too late that Ralph is a cruel man who would not hesitate to destroy another person for his own pleasure. Does the dwarf manage to kill himself in the end?

Denude: stripped, made bare

The psychology of the characters and their dynamics makes it very interesting. Magnus has a hold on Dick, and Dick cannot resist his allure. Vita, Dick’s wife, seems to be aware of this and is jealous of how much attention her husband give to his professor friend.

Magnus and Dick discover that while in the other time period, they can understand everything that is spoken, no matter if it’s Cornish or Medieval French.

Indolence - laziness

Lassitude - lethargy

Stultifying - inhibiting energy or enthusiasm

Timorous - showing fear from lack of confidence

Diffidence - shyness to speak from lacking self-confidence
Volubility - ability to talk incessantly

“But Dauphin’s genuine love for his hard-hearted , bristling mother was a trailing whisper at the end of every sentence he spoke.”

The constant interruptions with “later on, she would remember that day…” is kind of annoying. I wish she would just tell the story when it’s at a crucial moment.

John’s probably suspects that William is not his son. That’s why he’s so cruel and hates him so much. He seems to love Edmond and Richard, his younger sons. He doesn’t even love the twins.

"I have known as fascination since: I have seen the mysterious Shores, the Stillwater, the lands of brown nations, we are stealthy Nemesis lies in wait, pursues, overtakes so many of the conquering race, who are proud of their wisdom, of their knowledge, of their strength."

Who or what is the nemesis?

"My men dropped the orders and fell off the towards as of dead. … A current ripple softly. The scent of security of the shore was grouped into vast masses, a density of colossal clumps of vegetation… And after foot, the semicircle of a beach gleaned faintly like an illusion. There was not a light, not a stir, not a sound. The mysterious east faced me, perfumed like a flower, silent, like death, dark like a grave."

"I did site in the afternoon, the upper sales of a ship far away, but said nothing, and by men did not notice her. You see I was afraid she might be homeward bound, and I had no mind to turn back from the portals of the east. I was staring for Java – another blessed name – like Bangkok, you know. I steered many days."

Even Charlie Marlow was behaving so irrationally, putting the lives and safety of them all at risk.

"At daylight, she was only a charred shell, floating, still under a cloud of smoke and bearing a glowing massive cold within.

"Then the words were got out, and the boats forming in a line moved around her, remains as if in procession – the long boat leading. As we pulled across the stern slim start a fire shot out viciously at us, and suddenly she went down, headfirst, and a great hits of steam."

"The surrender of her weary goes to the keeping of stars and see, was stirring, like the sight of a glorious triumph."

"A high, clear flame, an immense and lonely flame, ascended from the ocean, and from its summit, the black smoke poured continuously at the sky. She burned furiously, mournful, and imposing, like a funeral pile kindled in the night, surrounded by the sea, watched over by the stars. A magnificent death had come like a grace, like a gift, like a reward to that old ship at the end of her laborious days."

It becomes clear that the reason why the captain doesn't want to abandon the ship is because he wants to salvage as much gear as possible to reduce the cost of the damage. "It was part of our duty to save for the underwriters as much as we could of the ship gear."

Capt. Beard is being very stubborn. His ship is burning, causing a great danger to the safety of his sailors, and instead of receiving the help that is offered, he insists on continuing with the journey. The sailors thought the captain would finally give up and let them board the steamer headed to Singapore. And at the refusal from Capt. Beard, they "quietly" dropped their bags bec. they have to obey the command.

"There was a completeness in it, something solid like a principle, and masterful like an instinct – a disclosure of something secret - of that hidden something, that gift, of good or evil that makes racial difference, that shapes the fate of nations."

“The coal-dust suspended in the air of the hold had glowed dull red at the moment of the explosion. In the twinkling of an eye, in an infinitesimal fraction of a second since the first tilt of the bench, I was sprawling full length on the cargo. I picked myself up and scrambled out. It was quick like a rebound. The deck was a wilderness of smashed timber, lying crosswise, like trees in the wood after a hurricane…

“And she crawled on, do or die, in the serene weather. The sky was a miracle of purity, a miracle of azure. The sea was polished, was blue, was lucid, was sparkling like a precious stone, extending on all sides, all around to the horizon – as if the whole terrestrial globe had been one jewel, one colossal, sapphire, a single gem fashioned into a planet. And on the lustre of the great calm waters…“

“And she crawled on, do or die, in the serene weather. The sky was a miracle of purity, a miracle of azure. The sea was polished, was blue, was lucid, was sparkling, like a precious stone, extending on all sides, all around to the horizon – as if the whole terrestrial globe had been one jewel, one colossal sapphire, a single gem fashioned into a planet. And on the lustre of the great calm waters…“

Just finished reading about compatible ism, and I know it has to do with trying to figure out where we stop holding people responsible for their actions because of the choices that they make in the circumstances that forced them into those choices. Still don’t really understand what it is though.

Insouciant - nonchalant; casual

Fenland - marshy meadows

New words: verdant - full of greenery, like meadows
Sylvan - full of wood, like rural countryside

His anger at their spoiling seems to unsheath itself and stretch out from him, like a rapier. […] It is cutting, sharp, unpredictable.”

“It is unaccountably soft, like the brush of river weed against his legs when he swims on hot days.”

At this point, the reader is introduced to Margaret
Prior’s sordid past. She supposedly had done something that would’ve made her deserving of being incarcerated, but there are no clues as to what this is. We do know that she wrote a book about her experiences, so I expect we will hear about it again later.