The Tenant of Wildfell Hall

To any of you who have not yet started the book, i'm warning you now, the language in which it is written is quite difficult. The more you read on the more you will understand it but if you did'nt quite understand what happened on the page you just read, read it again! I had to read the same page about 3 times.

happy reading!

One week extra!

I know that several of you are having trouble getting hold of the book quickly. I also know that some of you are still in the process of registering with the site.

I want us to get off to an impressive start with this Book Group, and so I have decided to give you an extra week to complete the first task.

The deadline for JOINING the blog is now Friday 22nd September.
The deadline for READING the first 5 chapters is now Friday 29th September.

I will not change these deadlines again. Any problems, let me know a.s.a.p.

And remember: if you're joining this group, I will EXPECT complete commitment, and regular posts. Only those who show they are FULLY taking part will be considered for the residential next summer.

Lastly, I am happy to help students purchase the three books if necessary. However, if you need financial assistance, you need to contact me as soon as possible.

Mr Savage

Week One

We will begin our journey through the literary world of the Bronte sisters with THE TENANT OF WILDFELL HALL by Anne Bronte. As I said on my previous post, until you manage to get hold of your own copy of the book (and please hurry up and do so - the edition pictured here is only £1!), you can access the whole text online by clicking on the book title above. Then just scroll down past all the publishing info etc. and past the 'Author's Preface' until you find the beginning of Chapter 1.

Anyway, by NEXT weekend (i.e. 23rd September), I would like us all to have read the first 5 chapters (that's Chapters 1-5), and we can discuss them next Saturday and Sunday online.

Just a tip: you might find it useful to get yourself a little notebook too, in which to jot down your thoughts/ideas/questions whilst you are reading: this might make it easier for you when you come to the BLOG at the end of the week, and is often a good idea anyway.

Happy reading!

Getting started...

Firstly, welcome to the Book Group BLOG. If you are reading this, the chances are you have registered with the BLOG (or at least tried to do so) and want to be a part of the Book Group this year.

And what is the Book Group? Well, it is, as the name suggests, a group of people who will get together this year to chat about books - THREE books in particular - which they will read in the SAME order, at the SAME speed, by the SAME deadlines. The difference with this Book Group, however, (unlike hundreds of similar groups which meet on evenings and weekends in libraries across the land), is that this group takes place entirely ONLINE.

Every week, I will set you the chapters I would like you to read, together with the date by which you must have read them. Then I will post my own response to what we read during that week, and the rest of you are free EITHER to respond to mine OR simply write your own (or both!). It's completely up to you.

Blog entries here give you an opportunity to talk about anything you like to do with the book we are reading, and to ask questions of the other members about the book too. You might want to think about:

• Plot/storyline: what has happened? is there anything you don't understand? what is interesting about how the author has created the narrative? what do you think might happen next? what was your 'best bit'? etc.
• Setting: what are your impressions of the places where the book is set? how are they described? what effect are they supposed to have on the reader? how do they differ from each other? what do we learn about the social/cultural setting? how were things different when the story was set?etc.
• Characters: which characters have you most enjoyed? which are the most important characters? do any of the characters fit any of Propp's archetypes? with whom do you sympathise? what have we learnt about the characters so far?
• Themes: what is the novel ABOUT? what are the key themes explored by the author? does the novel offer us any morals or messages about life? what does it appear to be saying about life/love/relationships/society? etc.
• Style: what do you notice about the way in which the story is written? what do you find difficult about the writer's style? what sort of narrator is used? what do you like about the way the author writes? etc.
• Quotations: are there any words or phrases from the novel you found particularly memorable/important/entertaining/effective etc.? what quotations strike you as especially useful for discussing the novel in more depth? etc.
• or ANYTHING ELSE YOU FIND INTERESTING about the novel, and the chapters you have read.

When I come to select those students who will come on the Bronte Weekend in West Yorkshire next summer, the main criterion I will use will be how often you have published a post or a comment on this site - so use it prolifically if you want to come.

Lastly, you will need to get hold of your own copies of the three books we will be reading this year:
The Tenant of Wildfell Hall by Anne Bronte
Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte
Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte
All of these are available for FREE from your local library, or from around £1 from your local bookshop. If you want to buy your own copy, but you or your family has financial difficulties, please come and speak to me in confidence and I will arrange for the school to buy them for you.

In the meantime, if you want to get started reading BEFORE you have got hold of the books, click on the book title above, and you will be directed to an online version of each one: very awkward on which to read the whole book, but just about OK for the first few chapters...

Follow this link as you go to find out useful web resources for the Brontes in general.

Look out for the next post for details of your first reading task...

Mr Savage