Reading Groups

The Political and the Domestic: Dickens and Contemporaries with Amanda Hollander

Seven Sessions Thursdays, 6:00 pm EDT - 7:30 pm EDT March 28 to June 27, 2024

The Center for Fiction

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The ‘With Books’ option includes all titles required for this group at an additional 10% discount from our Bookstore.

Meeting Dates:
3/28, 4/11, 4/25, 5/9, 5/23, 6/13, 6/27
In Person at The Center

The idea of the British domestic novel became increasingly complicated during the age of the empire on which the sun never set. In this course, we’ll be reading novels from the middle of the 19th century, beginning with Dickens’s Our Mutual Friend. From the detailed lives of city and bureaucracy, to the focus on interiority in Brontë’s Villette and Gaskell’s Wives and Daughters, we will then finish with A Tale of Two Cities and how the individual appears in the scope of the politically grand.

In preparation for the first class, please read Volume 1 of Our Mutual Friend.

What to expect from this reading group: This is a conversational course with supplemental information supplied as needed. Reading groups are loosely structured to adapt as needed to meeting participants’ interests.

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Led by

  • Amanda-Hollander-scaled Medium

    Amanda Hollander

    Amanda Hollander

    Amanda Hollander holds a doctorate in Victorian and children’s literature from UCLA. She currently is a contributor to a forthcoming art book edition of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland. In addition to academic work, Hollander is a published writer and opera librettist.

About this series

Reading Groups

Whether you’re looking to catch up on great novels or you’re interested in exploring a new writer or literary period, our reading groups offer high-level literary discussion led by experts in the field.

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