Go Set a Watchman: Part 3

by Harper Lee
This novel was author Harper Lee's first attempt at telling the story of Jean Louise Finch and her Southern childhood. After receiving feedback from her editor, Lee reworked the story into the widely beloved To Kill a Mockingbird. More than half a century after that novel's worldwide success, readers have a chance to see how it all began.

Here are links to our lists for the novel: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5, Part 6, Part 7

Here is a link to our lists for To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee.
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Full list of words from this list:

words only definitions & notes
  1. revel
    take delight in
    From long and close association (in her solitary teens Dr. Finch had tried to make a scholar of her) Jean Louise had developed enough understanding of his subjects to follow him most of the time, and she reveled in his conversation.
  2. incisive
    suitable for cutting or piercing
    All the Finches had straight incisive eyebrows and heavy-lidded eyes; when they looked slant-wise, up, or straight ahead, a disinterested observer would catch a glimpse of what Maycomb called Family Resemblance.
  3. quell
    suppress or crush completely
    Jean Louise made a sincere effort to listen to what Mr. Stone’s watchman saw, but in spite of her efforts to quell it, she felt amusement turning into indignant displeasure and she stared straight at Herbert Jemson throughout the service.
  4. epidermis
    the outer layer of skin covering the body surface
    With the same suddenness that a barbarous boy yanks the larva of an ant lion from its hole to leave it struggling in the sun, Jean Louise was snatched from her quiet realm and left alone to protect her sensitive epidermis as best she could, on a humid Sunday afternoon at precisely 2:28 P.M.
  5. regale
    occupy in an agreeable, entertaining or pleasant fashion
    After dinner, at which time Jean Louise regaled her household with Dr. Finch’s observations on stylish hymn-singing, Atticus sat in his corner of the livingroom reading the Sunday papers, and Jean Louise was looking forward to an afternoon’s hilarity with her uncle, complete with teacakes and the strongest coffee in Maycomb.
  6. salacious
    suggestive of or tending to moral looseness
    Jean Louise said, “It’s just that I never knew you went in for salacious reading material, Aunty.”
  7. apprehensive
    in fear or dread of possible evil or harm
    When Jean Louise felt apprehensive, expectant, or on edge, especially when confronting her aunt, her brain clicked to the meter of Gilbertian tomfoolery.
  8. preposterous
    inviting ridicule
    Three sprightly figures whirled madly in her head—hours filled with Uncle Jack and Dill dancing to preposterous measures blacked out the coming of tomorrow with tomorrow’s troubles.
  9. fatuous
    devoid of intelligence
    “Citizens’ council? In Maycomb?” Jean Louise heard herself repeating fatuously.
  10. loiter
    linger, remain, or wait around for no apparent reason
    When she went up the courthouse steps she missed the elderly men who loitered there, she missed the water cooler that stood inside the door, missed the cane-bottom chairs in the hallway; she did not miss the dank urine-sweet odor of sunless county cubbyholes.
  11. probate
    act or process of proving that a will was properly executed
    She walked past the offices of the tax collector, tax assessor, county clerk, registrar, judge of probate, up old unpainted stairs to the courtroom floor, up a small covered stairway to the Colored balcony, walked out into it, and took her old place in the corner of the front row, where she and her brother had sat when they went to court to watch their father.
  12. acquittal
    a judgment of not guilty
    Atticus took his career in his hands, made good use of a careless indictment, took his stand before a jury, and accomplished what was never before or afterwards done in Maycomb County: he won an acquittal for a colored boy on a rape charge.
  13. indict
    accuse formally of a crime
    Atticus had two weighty advantages: although the white girl was fourteen years of age the defendant was not indicted for statutory rape, therefore Atticus could and did prove consent.
  14. condone
    excuse, overlook, or make allowances for
    She knew little of the affairs of men, but she knew that her father’s presence at the table with a man who spewed filth from his mouth—did that make it less filthy? No. It condoned.
  15. betray
    disappoint, abandon, or prove undependable to
    The one human being she had ever fully and wholeheartedly trusted had failed her; the only man she had ever known to whom she could point and say with expert knowledge, “He is a gentleman, in his heart he is a gentleman,” had betrayed her, publicly, grossly, and shamelessly.
  16. integrity
    moral soundness
    Integrity, humor, and patience were the three words for Atticus Finch.
  17. complex
    complicated in structure
    Atticus Finch’s secret of living was so simple it was deeply complex: where most men had codes and tried to live up to them, Atticus lived his to the letter with no fuss, no fanfare, and no soul-searching.
  18. earnestly
    in a sincere and serious manner
    It is doubtful that he ever sought for meanings; he merely reared his children as best he could, and in terms of the affection his children felt for him, his best was indeed good: he was never too tired to play Keep-Away; he was never too busy to invent marvelous stories; he was never too absorbed in his own problems to listen earnestly to a tale of woe; every night he read aloud to them until his voice cracked.
  19. erudition
    profound scholarly knowledge
    Atticus killed several birds with one stone when he read to his children, and would probably have caused a child psychologist considerable dismay: he read to Jem and Jean Louise whatever he happened to be reading, and the children grew up possessed of an obscure erudition.
  20. reckless
    marked by defiant disregard for danger or consequences
    It had never fully occurred to Jean Louise that she was a girl: her life had been one of reckless, pummeling activity; fighting, football, climbing, keeping up with Jem, and besting anyone her own age in any contest requiring physical prowess.
  21. malignant
    dangerous to health
    The two aging men saw her through her loneliest and most difficult hours, through the malignant limbo of turning from a howling tomboy into a young woman.
  22. potent
    having great influence
    She did not stand alone, but what stood behind her, the most potent moral force in her life, was the love of her father.
  23. ineffective
    lacking the ability or skill to perform well
    she felt sorry for persons who called their fathers My Old Man, denoting that they were raffish, probably boozy ineffective creatures who had disappointed their children dreadfully and unforgivably somewhere along the line.
  24. complacent
    contented to a fault with oneself or one's actions
    She was extravagant with her pity, and complacent in her snug world.
  25. insular
    narrowly restricted in outlook or scope
    Had she insight, could she have pierced the barriers of her highly selective, insular world, she may have discovered that all her life she had been with a visual defect which had gone unnoticed and neglected by herself and by those closest to her: she was born color blind.
Created on Sun Sep 20 16:04:55 EDT 2015 (updated Wed Sep 12 14:15:46 EDT 2018)

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