The Leeds Nineteenth Century Reading Group

We are happy to announce that The Leeds Nineteenth Century Reading Group is starting again for the new academic year. We will meet once a month to discuss a variety of texts written during the long nineteenth century. Each member of the group has the opportunity to suggest a text for discussion. We welcome anyone who has an interest in the literature of the period, including undergraduates, postgraduates, staff and real people (members of the public). The Reading Group provides members with the opportunity to discuss their ideas in a relaxed and informal atmosphere. Also, as we will discuss a different text each month, there is no obligation to come to every meeting.

Our first meeting will take place on Tuesday 12^th October, at 5.15pm in the School of English (Seminar Room 5). With the recent successful returns of Sherlock Holmes to the big and small screens we thought that it would be timely and interesting to revisit the original material. The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, published in October 1892, was the third book to recount the exploits of the Great Detective. The collection of short stories, which appeared in the Strand Magazine over the preceding year, was incredibly popular with the public. It so impressed Robert Louis Stevenson that he pronounced it:

‘the class of literature that I like when I have the toothache. As a matter of fact, it was pleurisy I was enjoying when I took the volume up; and it will interest you [...] to know that the cure was for the moment effectual’.

We will be specifically discussing three of the short stories in The Adventures, namely The Man with the Twisted Lip, The Speckled Band, and The Copper Beeches. They are all fairly fast paced and are incredibly quick reads.

There are several copies of the book in the Edward Boyle Library (combined with The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes), and the Brotherton houses a copy of the Annotated Sherlock Holmes, as well as The Complete Sherlock Holmes. It is also available on Project Gutenberg, here http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/1661. Please bear in mind that, while Stevenson claims that toothache and pleurisy add to the reading experience, it will not be necessary to develop either to properly participate in the reading group. We will not think any less of you. 

Also, the group budget is now, alas, depleted, so if you would like to bring something to eat or drink (alcoholic or otherwise) then please feel free to do so! We hope to see you on the 12^th.

For those requiring a map: click on the map on the following URL. The School is number 76. http://www.leeds.ac.uk/campus_map/

 f anyone has a query, please email David and Amber at leeds19creadinggroup@gmail.com.

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