Why solitary (ipsorelative)?
Brothers and sisters had he none. Yet that man’s father was his grandfather’s son.
Why mutable (aliorelative)?
From infancy to maturity he had resembled his maternal procreatrix. From maturity to senility he would increasingly resemble his paternal procreator.
What final visual impression was communicated to him by the mirror?
The optical reflection of several inverted volumes improperly arranged and not in the order of their common letters with scintillating titles on the two bookshelves opposite.
Catalogue these books.
Thom’s Dublin Post Office Directory , 1886 . Denis Florence M’Carthy’s Poetical Works (copper beechleaf bookmark at p. 5). Shakespeare’s Works (dark crimson morocco, goldtooled). The Useful Ready Reckoner (brown cloth). The Secret History of the Court of Charles II (red cloth, tooled binding). The Child’s Guide (blue cloth). When We Were Boys by William O’Brien M. P. (green cloth, slightly faded, envelope bookmark at p. 217). Thoughts from Spinoza (maroon leather). The Story of the Heavens by Sir Robert Ball (blue cloth). Ellis’s Three Trips to Madagascar (brown cloth, title obliterated). The Stark-Munro Letters by A. Conan Doyle, property of the City of Dublin Public Library, 106 Capel Street, lent 21 May