Short passages for reading, drawn from history, legend, poetry and fiction.
© Adrian Platt, Geogaph. Licence: CC BY-SA 2.0.
Alice was set a poetical test of wits by the kindly (but like all the other characters, utterly maddening) White Queen.
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From the National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne, via Wikimedia Commons. Licence: Public domain.
A young Jewish girl is chosen as the Queen of Persia, but quickly finds she has enemies.
© Gordon Elliott, Geograph. Licence: CC-BY-SA 2.0.
Jane Eyre meets a not very handsome stranger, and likes him all the better for it.
© Derek Harper, Geograph. Licence: CC-BY-SA 2.0.
Marianne Dashwood sprains an ankle, but help is at hand.
Wikimedia Commons. Licence: CC BY-SA 3.0.
John Kapodistrias had an instinct for how a long-oppressed people might think.
© Colin Davis (CSIRO), Wikimedia Commons. Licence: CC BY-SA 3.0.
Samuel Sidney, a Victorian expert on Australian matters, explained how cutting tax and regulation on Britain’s global trade made everyone better off.