[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":-1},["ShallowReactive",2],{"detail-sidebar-cat-0-en-105":3,"doc-seo-330442-105":59,"doc-detail-330442-en":130},{"code":4,"msg":5,"data":6},0,"success",[7,13,18,23,28,33,38,43,48,51,55],{"id":8,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":10,"show_sort_weight":11,"slug":12},1,"Document","Story & Novel",90,"story-novel",{"id":14,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":15,"show_sort_weight":16,"slug":17},2,"Literature",80,"literature",{"id":19,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":20,"show_sort_weight":21,"slug":22},4,"Exam",70,"exam",{"id":24,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":25,"show_sort_weight":26,"slug":27},5,"Comic",60,"comic",{"id":29,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":30,"show_sort_weight":31,"slug":32},6,"Technology",50,"technology",{"id":34,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":35,"show_sort_weight":36,"slug":37},7,"Healthcare",40,"healthcare",{"id":39,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":40,"show_sort_weight":41,"slug":42},8,"Research & Report",30,"research-report",{"id":44,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":45,"show_sort_weight":46,"slug":47},9,"Religion & Spirituality",20,"religion-spirituality",{"id":46,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":49,"show_sort_weight":46,"slug":50},"World Cup","world-cup",{"id":52,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":53,"show_sort_weight":52,"slug":54},10,"Lifestyle","lifestyle",{"id":56,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":57,"show_sort_weight":24,"slug":58},19,"General","general",{"code":4,"msg":60,"data":61},"ok",{"site_id":62,"language":63,"slug":64,"title":65,"keywords":66,"description":67,"schema_data":68,"social_meta":123,"head_meta":125,"extra_data":127,"updated_unix":129},105,"en","the-old-curiosity-shop-chapter-1-night-is-generally-my-time-for-walking","The Old Curiosity Shop - Chapter 1 - Night is generally my time for walking","","Night frames the opening of Charles Dickens’s The Old Curiosity Shop, as the narrator describes habitual evening walks through fields, lanes, and crowded streets. Observations of people’s lives and sounds at night replace the harsh exposure of day, shaping reflective mood and social detail. The chapter introduces a turning point when the narrator encounters a frightened young girl who asks directions to a distant street, prompting him to accompany her.",{"@graph":69,"@context":122},[70,84,105],{"@type":71,"itemListElement":72},"BreadcrumbList",[73,77,79,82],{"item":74,"name":75,"@type":76,"position":8},"https://docshare.wps.com","Home","ListItem",{"item":78,"name":9,"@type":76,"position":14},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/",{"item":80,"name":10,"@type":76,"position":81},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/story-novel/",3,{"item":83,"name":65,"@type":76,"position":19},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/the-old-curiosity-shop-chapter-1-night-is-generally-my-time-for-walking/330442/",{"url":83,"name":65,"@type":85,"image":86,"author":91,"headline":65,"publisher":94,"fileFormat":97,"inLanguage":63,"description":67,"dateModified":98,"datePublished":99,"encodingFormat":97,"isAccessibleForFree":100,"interactionStatistic":101},"DigitalDocument",{"url":87,"@type":88,"width":89,"height":90},"https://docshare.wps.com/thumbnails/the-old-curiosity-shop-chapter-1-night-is-generally-my-time-for-walking/330442.png","ImageObject",300,407,{"name":92,"@type":93},"Genevieve","Person",{"url":74,"name":95,"@type":96},"DocShare","Organization","application/pdf","2026-11-03","2026-09-21",true,{"@type":102,"interactionType":103,"userInteractionCount":44},"InteractionCounter",{"@type":104},"ViewAction",{"@type":106,"mainEntity":107},"FAQPage",[108,114,118],{"name":109,"@type":110,"acceptedAnswer":111},"What sets the mood at the beginning of Chapter 1?","Question",{"text":112,"@type":113},"The narrator explains that night is generally his time for walking, when his habits and observations feel especially suited to his pace and eyesight.","Answer",{"name":115,"@type":110,"acceptedAnswer":116},"Why is the narrator’s walking at night different from walking during the day?",{"text":117,"@type":113},"He says the glare of broad noon is not adapted to his idle pursuits, while night reveals passing faces more subtly through lamp or shop-window light.",{"name":119,"@type":110,"acceptedAnswer":120},"What happens after the narrator is addressed by a soft voice?",{"text":121,"@type":113},"He turns and finds a little girl asking to be directed to a distant street, and he decides to take her there.","https://schema.org",{"og:url":83,"og:type":124,"og:title":65,"og:site_name":95,"og:description":67},"article",{"robots":126,"canonical":83},"index,follow",{"doc_id":128,"site_id":62},330442,1790192679,{"code":4,"msg":5,"data":131},{"doc_id":128,"user_id":132,"nickname":92,"user_avatar":133,"doc_module":4,"category_id":8,"category_name":10,"doc_title":65,"doc_description":67,"doc_content":134,"file_id":135,"file_url":136,"file_type":137,"file_size":138,"view_count":44,"is_deleted":4,"is_public":8,"is_downloadable":8,"audit_status":8,"page_count":139,"language":140,"language_code":63,"site_id":62,"html_lang":63,"table_of_contents":141,"faqs":142,"seo_title":143,"seo_description":67,"update_tm":144,"read_time":145},1374391974585,"https://ap-avatar.wpscdn.com/davatar_276721f389ce27ea32af1340a28f341c","The Old Curiosity Shop  \n***  \nCharles Dickens  \n[epubBooks.com](epubBooks.com)  \nStrictly Not for Commercial Use .  \nThis EPUB eBook is released under a Creative Commons (BY-NC-ND/3.0) Licence. ([http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by](http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by)nc-nd/3.0/)  \nSource text and images taken from the Public Domain.  \nThis eBook is provided for free by  \n[www.epubbooks.com](www.epubbooks.com)  \nSupport epubBooks [and make a donation by visiting:](and make a donation by visiting: www.epubbooks.com/donations)[ ](and make a donation by visiting: www.epubbooks.com/donations)[www.epubbooks.com/donations](and make a donation by visiting: www.epubbooks.com/donations) .  \nCHAPTER 1  \nNight is generally my time for walking. In the summer I often leave home early in the morning, and roam about fields and lanes all day, or even escape for days or weeks together; but, saving in the country, I seldom go out until after dark, though, Heaven be thanked, I love its light and feel the cheerfulness it sheds upon the earth, as much as any creature living.  \nI have fallen insensibly into this habit, both because it favours my infirmity and because it affords me greater opportunity of speculating on the characters and occupations of those who fill the streets. The glare and hurry of broad noon are not adapted to idle pursuits like mine; a glimpse of passing faces caught by the light of a street–lamp or a shop window is often better for my purpose than their full revelation in the daylight; and, if I must add the truth, night is kinder in this respect than day, which too often destroys an air–built castle at the moment of its completion, without the least ceremony or remorse.  \nThat constant pacing to and fro, that never–ending restlessness, that incessant tread of feet wearing the rough stones smooth and glossy—is it not a wonder how the dwellers in narrows ways can bear to hear it! Think of a sick man in such a place as Saint Martin's Court, listening to the footsteps, and in the midst of pain and weariness obliged, despite himself (as though it were a task he must perform) to detect the child's step from the man's, the slipshod beggar from the booted exquisite, the lounging from the busy, the dull heel of the sauntering outcast from the quick tread of an expectant pleasure–seeker—think of the hum and noise always being present to his sense, and of the stream of life that will not stop, pouring on, on, on, through all his restless dreams, as if he were condemned to lie, dead but conscious, in a noisy churchyard, and had no hope of rest for centuries to come.  \nThen, the crowds for ever passing and repassing on the bridges (on those which are free of toil at last), where many stop on fine evenings looking listlessly down upon the water with some vague idea that by and by it runs between green banks which grow wider and wider until at last it joins the broad vast sea—where some halt to rest from heavy loads and think as they look over the parapet that to smoke and lounge away one's life, and lie sleeping in the sun upon a hot tarpaulin, in a dull, slow, sluggish barge, must be happiness unalloyed—and where some, and a very different class, pause with heaver loads than they, remembering to have heard or read in old time that drowning was not a hard death, but ofall means of suicide the easiest and best.  \nCovent Garden Market at sunrise too, in the spring or summer, when the fragrance of sweet flowers is in the air, over–powering even the unwholesome streams of last night's debauchery, and driving the dusky thrust, whose cage has hung outside a garret window all night long, half mad with joy! Poor bird! the only neighbouring thing at all akin to the other little captives, some of whom, shrinking from the hot hands of drunken purchasers, lie drooping on the path already, while others, soddened by close contact, await the time when they shall be watered and freshened up to please more sober company, and make old clerks who pas","cbCaibrWm73EjM3N","https://ap.wps.com/l/cbCaibrWm73EjM3N","pdf",1982186,456,"English","# Chapter 1\n## Night walks and city observation\n## The meeting with a frightened little girl\n## The narrator agrees to escort her","[{\"question\":\"What sets the mood at the beginning of Chapter 1?\",\"answer\":\"The narrator explains that night is generally his time for walking, when his habits and observations feel especially suited to his pace and eyesight.\"},{\"question\":\"Why is the narrator’s walking at night different from walking during the day?\",\"answer\":\"He says the glare of broad noon is not adapted to his idle pursuits, while night reveals passing faces more subtly through lamp or shop-window light.\"},{\"question\":\"What happens after the narrator is addressed by a soft voice?\",\"answer\":\"He turns and finds a little girl asking to be directed to a distant street, and he decides to take her there.\"}]","The Old Curiosity Shop - Chapter 1 - Night is generally my time for walking | PDF",1789988944,702]