The Big Three Reading Group will spend nine months reading three big novels by three big English writers, beginning with Middlemarch, by George Eliot, followed by Elizabeth Gaskell’s North and South and finishing the year with Bleak House by Charles Dickens.

All three books focus on a period of great change in English social history and culture; they concern themselves with big themes and big ideas: the shift from an agricultural to an industrial economy, the migration of workers to urban centers from the countryside, the rise of capital, labor unrest, advances in medicine, public health and disease, religious fundamentalism and hypocrisy. Big ideas but embodied in living and vital human stories:

No one in Middlemarch likes Bulstrode much; he’s a humorless, rigid, puritanical man, but one day a stranger comes to town who seems to have known him in his youth. The stranger knows a secret which is dangerous to Bulstrode’s success and reputation: what will Bulstrode do?

The workers in the textile mills organize and strike; the mill owners respond. Mill owner John Thornton is a good man who wants to do the right thing, but an angry mob gathers at his house: what will happen?

A poor young London crossing sweeper named Jo becomes afraid when he is innocently caught up in a murder investigation and seeks refuge in the “black dilapidated street” called Tom-All-Alone’s where he contracts smallpox. Jo’s friend Esther takes him in and cares for him, only to contract smallpox herself. Will Esther survive her generous impulse?

And so many love stories! The forbidden love of Dorothea and Will, the love of a good woman that challenges Fred to change his life, the misunderstandings and misconceptions that cause John Thornton and Margaret to almost lose their chance for love, John Jarndyce’s love for his ward, the young Esther Summerson, and many more.

If you’ve always wanted to read (or re-read) Middlemarch, or you think you should explore Dickens beyond David Copperfield; if you’ve heard somewhere of Elizabeth Gaskell and want to know more about her, “The Big 3” is the reading group for you.

The group will meet virtually.

The Big Three reading group will meet on the third Wednesday of the month, 5:30-7pm, over Zoom.

Note: All three novels are widely available in bookstores and libraries in many different editions, as well as online in various formats, so choose the format that is most convenient for you. Each month’s reading will include an optional essay about the novel.

Wed, September 21
Middlemarch, the Prologue, Books I-III

Wed, October 19
Middlemarch, Books 1V-VI

Wed, November 16
Middlemarch, Books VII-the Finale

Wed, December 21
North and South, Part I
Note: North and South is (relatively) short, so the group may choose to modify the schedule in December

Wed, January 18
North and South, Part II

Wed, February 15
North and South, Part III (catch-up meeting)

Wed, March 15
Bleak House, Parts I-VII

Wed, April 19
Bleak House, Parts VIII -XIII

Wed, May 17
Bleak House, Parts XIV-XIX

Mare Davis loves to read big books. She majored in English literature in college, eventually focusing on the history of the novel and the 19th century novelists, and wrote her PhD dissertation on Daniel Deronda, by George Eliot. Since then, she has read all of the novels of Dickens, Eliot, and Emile Zola, and Victor Hugo, as well as Louise Penny and Dan Simmons.

Mare taught English at Johnson & Wales University for over 20 years; since retiring from full time teaching, she enjoys teaching just one class. She is fluent in French and is interested in translation, both theory and practice. She has recently published Alice and Fay: A Fairy Adventure, her first book for children, and is busy writing another one.

This is her third Reading Group for the Athenæum.