North (1975) Seamus Heaney
“North”, published in 1975 is divided into two parts. The first contains poems which are more symbolic in nature, taking themes such as the myth of Hercules and Antaeus, the bog bodies of Northern Europe, the Vikings and other historical … More details …
Early Dickens – Sketches by Boz
Sketches by Boz were the first published sketches by Charles Dickens. This course will look at a range of these sketches over three weeks and consider what themes are raised, discuss them in the wider context of the Dickens canon and … More details …
More Chekhov Short Stories
Chekhov wrote and sold short stories and vignettes of Russian life from 1880 to 1903, the year before his death from tuberculosis aged forty-four. During those twenty-three years, while he was also studying and practicing medicine, he produced at least … More details …
More Trolloping – Orley Farm
This stand-alone novel, Orley Farm, by prolific nineteenth-century novelist Anthony Trollope is a tale of family relationships, inheritance and suspected property fraud. It provides us with a window into Victorian society and the ideas that underpinned it.
More details ...Vikram Seth’s The Golden Gate
Vikram Seth is the global bestselling author of A Suitable Boy and An Equal Music. His first novel is an unrivalled triumph of both imagination and craft: an eloquent, thrilling soap opera set in 1980s San Francisco, featuring a politicised … More details …
Discussing four stories from The Penguin Book of the British Short Story, Volume 1
Many of the Nineteenth Century writers we now consider classic novelists were regularly producing short fiction. We’ll discuss how these suit reading tastes today, as well as considering a little of the recent history of short fiction. The earliest of … More details …