Mardi Volume 2 Chapters LXXXV - LXXXVII

Apple-Tree Table, and Other Sketches Story 1 - The Apple Tree Table Part 2

In which the narrator recounts an eerie nocturnal ticking emanating from an antique apple-tree table, which upon investigation reveals a most curious creature struggling to emerge from the wood itself. The tale unfolds with a blend of scientific inquiry and domestic superstition, culminating in a reflection on the marvelous mysteries hidden within the commonplace things of life.

Apple-Tree Table, and Other Sketches Story 1 - The Apple Tree Table Part 1

In which a peculiar old apple-tree table, discovered in a long-forgotten garret reputed to be haunted, is brought into the family’s daily life amid curious tickings and uneasy suspicions. The narrator’s contemplation of a dusty tome and the eerie sounds emanating from the humble table provoke a mixture of scientific wonder and supernatural dread within the quiet domestic sphere.

Redburn Chapters LX - LXII

In which the weary voyagers at last behold the longed-for shores of America, undergoing the rites and rituals of arrival with a mixture of joy, weariness, and the stern necessities imposed by quarantine and custom. And in the bustling harbours and streets of New York, the freshness of freedom is mingled with the sober reckonings of wage and friendship, as one comrade fades into the wider currents of a strange city and an uncertain fate.

Redburn Chapters LVI - LIX

In which the delicate airs of a forsaken songster briefly charm the rough spirits of the seamen, and the confidences of two dislocated souls unfold beneath the lee of the long-boat, while further westward, the emigrants aboard the Highlander endure the grim scourges of famine and fever in the steerage’s dark and fetid hold. Amidst tempest and pestilence, the ship toils onward toward the promised shores, but not without the sharp pang of loss and the somber reckoning with the frailty of mortal frames at sea.

Redburn Chapters L - LV

In which the hapless Harry Bolton enters upon a sailor’s life only to confront the merciless rigours and jeering contempt of seafaring brethren, his gentle nature and nervous frailty ill-suited to the hardships above the bulwarks. Meanwhile, the ship carries a motley crew of emigrants whose simple hopes and petty quarrels unfold beneath the watchful eye of the captain, while the sailors wrestle with the pangs of tobacco scarcity and the looming shadow of one Jackson’s decline.