| Status: | Active, open to new members |
| Facilitator: | |
| When: | Monthly on Monday mornings 10:00 am-11:30 am 2nd and 4th Mondays in the month |
| Venue: | Member's home |
Page last updated:
Are there great works of literature that you feel you should read and might get round to one day, but never seem to find the time? That was the main reason for starting our U3A group 'Exploring Literature'.
A well-established group, we have read and discussed a wide variety of literature, all chosen by members of the group, ranging from Homer and Virgil to Conrad, Joyce, Beckett, Jane Austen and Mark Twain.
We meet in person at a member's home and also by Zoom - if you have a terrible cold , you can still join the meeting from the comfort of your own home!
Next meetings
13th and 27th April . We are reading ‘Mrs Dalloway’ by Virginia Woolf. Once this is completed, we will be reading 'The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie', by Muriel Spark . The recently published biography 'Electric Spark' by Frances Wilson gives much context to Muriel Spark's writing, including her years in Rhodesia, and London .
The current book
Mrs Dalloway is a novel by Virginia Woolf published on 14 May 1925. It details a day in the life of Clarissa Dalloway, a fictional upper-class woman in post-First World War England.
The book describes Clarissa's preparations for a party she will host in the evening and the ensuing party. With an interior perspective, the story travels forwards and backwards in time to construct an image of Clarissa's life and the inter-war social structure. The novel addresses the nature of time in personal experience through multiple interwoven stories, using a stream of consciousness narration style.
Souce: Wikipedia
The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie is a novel by Muriel Spark, the best known of her works. It was first published in The New Yorker magazine and was published as a book by Macmillan in 1961. The character of Miss Jean Brodie brought Spark international fame and brought her into the first rank of contemporary Scottish literature. In 2005, the novel was chosen by Time magazine as one of the 100 best English-language novels from 1923 to present. In 1998, the Modern Library ranked The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie No. 76 on its list of the 100 best English-language novels of the 20th century.
In 1930s Edinburgh, six 10-year-old girls, Sandy, Rose, Mary, Jenny, Monica, and Eunice, are assigned Miss Jean Brodie, who describes herself as being "in my prime," as their teacher. Miss Brodie, determined that they shall receive an education in the original sense of the Latin verb educere, "to lead out", gives her students lessons about her personal love life and travels, promoting art history, classical studies, and fascism. Under her mentorship, these six girls whom Brodie singles out as the elite group among her students—known as the "Brodie set"—begin to stand out from the rest of the school. Now read on . . .
Souce: Wikipedia
Previous books
December 2024 - Personal favourites
On Monday members met at Anne's house. Brian zoomed in from Glasgow. No Iliad this time to read aloud, but personal favourites. Not necessarily any connection to Christmas, although there were a few. Brian and David started with a dialogue, based on happenings in Bethlehem's stable and Heather chose a funny Christmas-play-story from Alan Titchmarsh.
- ‘The Task’ by William Cowper.
- 'The Great Gatsby' by F. Scott Fitzgerald
- Homer's 'Iliad', as translated by Emily Wilson
- 'The Sorrows of Young Wurther' by Goethe
- Stories by Anton Chekhov, including 'The Lady with the Little Dog‘ and others.
- ‘Dr Zhivago’ by Boris Pasternak – in translation of course!
- ‘The Old Wives’ Tale’ by Arnold Bennet.
- Homer's 'Odyssey', in the new translation by Emily Wilson.