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Read The Man Who Was Thursday in English — and understand every line.

Read “The Man Who Was Thursday” by G. K. Chesterton in English. Tap any word for its meaning, hear how it sounds, and save it to a memory-driven review schedule.

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Author
G. K. Chesterton
Level
C1
Chapters
15
Length
~59k words
Reading time
~5 h
Translation
Built-in dictionary
read.langorbit.com / se-man-who-was-thursday
The Man Who Was ThursdayG. K. Chesterton · C1
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DICTIONARY

cherish
verb

TRANSLATION

apreciar, atesorar

to feel warm affection for; to hold something dear.

She cherishes the memory of her grandmother.
Atesora el recuerdo de su abuela.

Tap a word for its translation and part of speech — then save it to your list.

The opening

How “The Man Who Was Thursday” begins

The suburb of Saffron Park lay on the sunset side of London, as red and ragged as a cloud of sunset.

It was built of a bright brick throughout; its skyline was fantastic, and even its ground plan was wild.

It had been the outburst of a speculative builder, faintly tinged with art, who called its architecture sometimes Elizabethan and sometimes Queen Anne, apparently under the impression that the two sovereigns were identical.

It was described with some justice as an artistic colony, though it never in any definable way produced any art.

Public domain — the whole book is yours to read in the app.

Vocabulary

Words to know before you start

The 30 words you will meet most often in “The Man Who Was Thursday” at level B2 and above, with how many times each one appears.

  • strike B2 · ×44
  • sword C1 · ×43
  • stare B2 · ×37
  • council B2 · ×27
  • mere C1 · ×24
  • shadow B2 · ×21
  • somewhat B2 · ×21
  • fellow B2 · ×21
  • devil C1 · ×21
  • merely C1 · ×19
  • swear B2 · ×19
  • resume C1 · ×18
  • gesture B2 · ×17
  • leap C1 · ×16
  • balloon B2 · ×16
  • afterwards B2 · ×16
  • soul B2 · ×15
  • swing C1 · ×15
  • heaven B2 · ×15
  • carriage C1 · ×15
  • queer B2 · ×15
  • darkness B2 · ×14
  • companion C1 · ×14
  • broad B2 · ×13
  • somehow B2 · ×13
  • pursue B2 · ×13
  • pause B2 · ×13
  • deny B2 · ×12
  • lean B2 · ×12
  • universe B2 · ×12

The meanings here are the everyday ones. In the reader, tap a word to see the sense this sentence uses.

Grammar

Grammar you will meet in “The Man Who Was Thursday”

How much of each kind of grammar “The Man Who Was Thursday” uses, counted in the sentences the Reader marks: per 10,000 words, compared with the other books in the library.

  • Relative clauses 72 per 10,000 words
  • Perfect tenses 49 per 10,000 words
  • Phrasal verbs 43 per 10,000 words
  • Modal verbs 35 per 10,000 words
  • Passive voice 35 per 10,000 words
  • -ing forms and to-infinitives 26 per 10,000 words
  • Reported speech 21 per 10,000 words
  • Conditionals 11 per 10,000 words

Constructions to look for

  • Past participle clause C1 · 67 sentences That is what tries the nerves, abstraction combined with cruelty.
  • Phrasal verb with 'up' and preposition B2 · 48 sentences The Professor was descending the stairs, but his voice came up from below.
  • Subject relative clause with who/that/which B1 · 260 sentences His head had a stoop that was hardly human, like the stoop of an ox.

Counted the way the Reader shows it: one card per construction in a sentence. Open the book in the Reader and tap a highlighted phrase to see the rule.

Library

What you get while you read

  • Tap to translate

    Tap any word to see what it means in this exact sentence — with pronunciation and a clear example.

  • Save what matters

    Add a word and it comes back on a spaced-repetition schedule timed to how memory actually works.

  • Grammar in context

    Notable structures light up in the text, with a short explanation tied to the sentence you're reading.

About the book

Why The Man Who Was Thursday is a great book to read in English

On LangOrbit you read “The Man Who Was Thursday” with a safety net: the translation is one tap away when a sentence runs long, every word opens its meaning in context and can be saved for spaced-repetition review, and the grammar behind the trickier lines is explained right where you meet it.

The Man Who Was Thursday

Read “The Man Who Was Thursday” by G. K. Chesterton in English. Tap any word for its meaning, hear how it sounds, and save it to a memory-driven review schedule.

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