DR JOHNSON'S READING CIRCLE
Bi-monthly meetings, 6.30 - 7.45pm (doors open at 6.15pm)
Dr Johnson’s House cordially invites you to join Dr Johnson’s Reading Circle- an intimate after-hours reading group led by a prominent eighteenth-century academic in the former home of Dr Samuel Johnson.
The Reading Circle will meet in the unique surroundings of 17 Gough Square to read and discuss fiction and non-fiction from, and about, the time in which Johnson lived. Dr Jane Darcy of University College London will lead the bi-monthly meetings, which aim to encourage a convivial atmosphere and lively conversation on the themes of pre-selected texts.
The next meeting will take place on Tuesday 7 June, 6.30 - 7.45pm (doors open at 6.15pm) and will discuss Fanny Burney's popular novel, Evelina.
For each meeting, a book will be chosen from a wide range of fiction and non-fiction, both eighteenth-century and modern, including Roy Porter's seminal text, Enlightenment and of course James Boswell's monumental biography, The Life of Samuel Johnson, LL.D.
A summer outing to Dr Johnson’s birthplace in Lichfield is envisaged.
Do take a look at our new blog to read about our recent meetings and related reviews by members of the Circle.
The Reading Circle is open to all, though booking is required
Tickets: £10 per session or £50 for six sessions (tickets include a complimentary glass of wine)
Please note that refunds are offered only in exceptional circumstances.
Dates of upcoming meetings and provisional reading list:
Tuesday 13 October, 6.30pm
(Beryl Bainbridge, According to Queeney)
Tuesday 8 December, 6.30pm
(Extracts from James Boswell’s Life of Johnson (from his birth to the death of his wife: 1709-1752.) Suggested edition: Oxford World’s Classics, edited RW Chapman
Tuesday 19 January, 6.30pm
(Roy Porter, Enlightenment: Britain and the Creation of the Modern World)
Suggested edition: Penguin (2001)
Tuesday 8 March, 6.30pm
(Jane Austen, Juvenilia)
Suggested editions: Peter Sabor (ed.), The Cambridge Edition of the Works of Jane Austen: Juvenilia (Cambridge, 2013)
Margaret Anne Doody and Douglas Murray (eds.), Catharine and Other Writings (Oxford World's Classics, 2009)
Christine Alexander (ed.), Love and Friendship: And Other Youthful Writings (Penguin Clothbound Classics, 2014)
Please avoid all print-on-demand editions which have no named editor and which are often full of errors.
Tuesday 17 May, 6.30pm
(Extracts from Boswell’s Life of Johnson (from Boswell meeting Johnson in 1763 to the end of 1769)
Suggested edition: Oxford World’s Classics, edited RW Chapman
Tuesday 7 June, 6.30pm (Fanny Burney, Evelina)
Most books can be purchased from Dr Johnson's House shop at each meeting and we are pleased to offer a 10% discount to attendees of the Reading Circle.
Jane Darcy is an honorary lecturer in the Department of English at UCL where she previously held a British Academy postdoctoral fellowship and a teaching fellowship. Her research interests are in the literature and culture of the eighteenth century and Romantic period. She has a particular interest in Jane Austen and is currently writing a book entitled ‘Jane Austen & Melancholy’ in which she considers, amongst other topics, Austen’s great love for Dr Johnson. Jane has lectured several times at Dr Johnson’s House and in 2015 set up Dr Johnson’s Reading Circle, now in its second year. Her 2013 book, Melancholy and Literary Biography, 1640-1816, takes Johnson as its central focus.
