Canberra English Literature Reading Club

This group is for those interested in reading - in a social, relaxed, friendly environment - some of the major texts of the English Literature, i.e. classic texts originally composed in the English language.

The idea is to establish a small group of social readers regularly meeting on a weekly basis.

Each meeting will require, other than a specific interest in the text being read, a commitment to focus a bit for just a couple of hours.

While ideally the reading load will be shared as equally as possible, each member is free to choose their level of participation: should anyone wish to listen more than read, thy are welcome to do so.

Tentatively, an ideal number of participants for each meeting may be between three and six.

Meetings are open to everyone, provided they are fluent in English and interested in English Literature. Minors intending to participate are very much welcome - but need to be accompanied by an adult and supervised at all times.

Joining and attending are free and costless: "free" means that there are no fees; "costless" means there are no hidden costs.

Gold coin donations are welcome to cover meetup account costs.

This is not a literature circle or a book discussion club: time allotted for comments, analyses or discussions are kept to a bare minimum, where essential for comprehension, or in very few cases when a reader is so overwhelmingly inspired by a text that the compulsion to share an idea or emotion is irresistible, irrepressible, uncontainable… It can happen, it will happen, it is bound to happen - we will be reading very beautiful and inspiring texts - but please let's keep comments to a minimum, let's let the author speak.

This group is not for those whose main goal is learning English or socialising - the main goal will be the actual experience of co-reading and co-listening to the words that great authors had the urge to convey to the posterity.

***

Here is a lengthy if very incomplete list of suitable candidates for our reading meetings:

• Pearl/Gawain Poet: Pearl (late XIV century), translated in modern English in 1906 by George Coulton (1858 - 1947)

• Pearl/Gawain Poet: Pearl (late XIV century), translated in modern English in 1908 by Sophie Jewett (1861 - 1909)

• Geoffrey Chaucer (c. 1343–1400): The Canterbury Tales (1387/1400) - Prologue (excerpts from)

• Christopher Marlowe (1564–1593): The Tragical History of the Life and Death of Doctor Faustus (1592)

• William Shakespeare (1564–1616): Romeo and Juliet (1594/1595) [¡READ!]

• William Shakespeare (1564–1616): A Midsummer Night's Dream (1595)

• William Shakespeare (1564–1616): The Merry Wives of Windsor (1597)

• William Shakespeare (1564–1616): Much Ado About Nothing (1598/1599)

• William Shakespeare (1564–1616): Julius Caesar (1599)

• William Shakespeare (1564–1616): Hamlet (1600/1601) [¡READ!]

• William Shakespeare (1564–1616): Othello (1603/1604) [¡READ!]

• William Shakespeare (1564–1616): King Lear (1605/1606)

• William Shakespeare (1564–1616): Macbeth (1606)

• William Shakespeare (1564–1616): Antony and Cleopatra (1606)

• Ben Jonson (1572–1637): The Alchemist (1610)

• John Milton (1608–1674): Paradise Lost (1667) - First Book

• William Blake (1757–1827): Songs of Experience (1794)

• William Blake (1757–1827): Songs of Innocence (1789)

• Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1772–1834): The Rime of the Ancient Mariner (1798) [¡SCHEDULED!]

• Jane Austen (1775–1817): Persuasion (1818)

• Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley (1797–1851): Frankenstein (1818)

• John William Polidori (1795–1821): The Vampyre (1819)

• Washington Irving (1783–1859): Rip Van Winkle (1819)

• Washington Irving (1783–1859): The Spectre Bridegroom (1819)

• Washington Irving (1783–1859): The Legend of Sleepy Hollow (1820)

• Washington Irving (1783–1859): The Devil and Tom Walker (1824)

• Nathaniel Hawthorne (1804–1864): An Old Woman's Tale (1830)

• Nathaniel Hawthorne (1805–1864): My Kinsman, Major Molineux (1832)

• Nathaniel Hawthorne (1805–1864): The Minister's Black Veil (1832)

• Edgar Allan Poe (1808–1849): The Assignation (1834)

• Nathaniel Hawthorne (1805–1864): The Haunted Mind (1835)

• Nathaniel Hawthorne (1805–1864): Young Goodman Brown (1835)

• Nathaniel Hawthorne (1805–1864): The G