The Conversatio


We are literature amateurs (Latin: amators), meaning we love to read a book more that we love to analyze it. (Though it's still fun to do some literary analysis -we just don't want that to take over!) We get together online to simply enjoy literature together. It is not a class, and the only requirement for participation is to have read at least a chapter or more of the designated reading! We like to point out passages that have stirred us and find out what the others think the main themes are, etc. That's about it.


Reading Schedule

See the calendar below for the date and time of our next meeting.


Reading for June 2014: Brideshead Revisited by Evelyn Waugh
[Here's a one minute video clip of me starting our June reading and saying good morning to my kids: MorningDeckMay24]

A list of details you don't really need to know about Waugh are found here at The Guardian site.

For our next meeting on June 23rd, read as much as possible of the novel, Brideshead Revisited. This is on Modern Library's list of the "100 Best Novels of the 20th Century."
Questions and Topics of Discussion (from the back of the book): Some consider this to be a novel about love, some think it is about family, and others the waning powers of the British aristocracy. Evelyn Waugh considered it to be a book about religion. Do you think it is only one of these things, or could it be about all of them?
Why does Sebastian carry a Teddy Bear with him wherever he goes? Find quotes which may illuminate this issue.


Reading for Spring 2014: Canterbury Tales by Chaucer
Great website on Canterbury Tales here.
(Modern Library edition with the new translation by Burton Raffel) ISBN-13: 978-0812978452
For the first meeting in March, we will have the Prologue and Knight's Tale read.


You can find a great audio book of this very translation here at Audible.

April 21st: "General prologue" and "The Knight's Tale"
May 26th: "Wife of Bath's Tale" and "Clerk's Tale"
n.b. By the above, we don't mean that this is all you should read! Just that, at a minimum, we will discuss the above. Please let me know if you have a favorite that you would like us to add! But ideally, yes--do read the whole book.

The introduction in the book above has plenty of background info for us; but if you like to have even more resources, you can read about it here at The Wikipedia Entry.
Or here!
The Canterbury Tales Project, a site maintained by researchers of The University of Birmingham, in the heart of England.

To Read About Our Past Selections:

Reading for Winter 2014: Anna Karenina
Reading for Fall 2013: Ovid's Metamorphoses






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