A Serial Reading of Middlemarch

Published on by Steven J. Venturino

A Newberry Library Adult Education Seminar  

This Newberry Seminar is now concluded. It was held in the fall of 2019. 

To celebrate the author’s bicentenary, this seminar explores George Eliot’s Victorian masterpiece Middlemarch in manageable weekly installments for serial reading and discussion—with no spoilers! The result is an engaging in-depth look at Eliot’s literary technique as well as her insights into culture, science, art, and psychology. Weekly discussions will be supplemented with slides and film clips. Nine sessions. 

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A Serial Reading of Adam Bede

Published on by Steven J. Venturino

This Newberry Seminar is now concluded. It was held in the fall of 2018. 

To celebrate George Eliot’s bicentennial year, this seminar presents the author’s first full-length novel in manageable weekly installments for serial reading and discussion—no spoilers. Published in 1859 (twelve years before her celebrated Middlemarch) and widely acclaimed in its time, Adam Bede explores challenging issues of maturity, hypocrisy, sexuality, and the need for a humanistic view of religion, all performed in Eliot’s virtuosic prose. Weekly discussions will be supplemented with slides and film clips. Seven sessions.

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