ALWAYS CURRENT: CHARLES DICKENS' "BLEAK HOUSE" in our Age (In-Person 6-week course)
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Dickens published Bleak House serially beginning soon after the Great Exposition of 1851 which presented Great Britain as a world on the move in the full flowering of the Industrial Revolution. Dickens, successful and established in London, knew the story was a lot more complicated–and bleaker.
Ruth intends to supplement the reading and discussion of Bleak House with information about the actual times and some thoughtful critical responses (such as George Orwell’s wonderful take on Dickens as a revolutionary). The class will read chunks at a time together as I’ll hope to approximate what it was like for readers of Household Words in which Bleak House appeared, a couple of chapters at a time. And there will be discussion and more discussion.
Any version of Bleak House will do for the primary text. Dig out your battered copy 0f Bleak House! Or call your local library or bookstores to see if you can find the books, or order online in a paperback version, e-reader, or audio version
Ruth will supply other bits of texts.
Class will be held at a new location: UMA-Bangor campus, Eastport Hall Room 136 10:30-12:30. Parking is very convenient.
More details coming
In kindness and consideration of our instructors and participants, Penobscot Valley Senior College expects that each student be up to date with vaccination against Covid-19 when attending in-person classes. PVSC will comply with Covid/masking policies of each location where we hold in-person classes and events. Masks will be available at all in-person classes.
Instructor: RUTH NADELHAFT
Since 2018 Ruth and her husband have been living full-time in their Bangor house after they sold their NY apartment where they had been spending half the year since taking early retirement from UMaine. Recent studies of Dickens, especially of the centrality of Bleak House to his work, reminded Ruth that she began her teaching career as a graduate assistant teaching Bleak House, knowing little or nothing to prepare her. Ruth says that now seems a good time for her–and other like-minded readers–to return to Bleak House, reading it over an extended period and finding its current relevance.