Western Classics Book Club Sydney

I (Dale) will be going along to see an adaptation of The Lady Vanishes on Sunday July 20, at 4.30pm, at the Genesian Theatre in Rozelle.

If you would like to meet up, please buy your own ticket and let me know you are going along! We can chat about the play afterwards at several nice local pubs.

The Lady Vanishes is a comedy thriller adapted by Derek Webb, from the novel by Ethel Lina White, on which the classic Hitchcock film was based.

More info about the play can be found at https://genesiantheatre.com.au/events/the-lady-vanishes/

You can buy tickets at https://genesian.sales.ticketsearch.com/sales/salesevent/141385

We will be meeting at 7.00pm, at the usual place, upstairs at the Shakespeare Hotel, 200 Devonshire Street, Surry Hills, Sydney, on Thursday August 7. We will be discussing *Candide (*1759) by the famous Enlightenment French philosopher, Voltaire.

This is a very funny and philosophical story that follows a young man’s journey through a chaotic and often absurd world.

It explores optimism, human suffering and general silliness.

The Shakespeare Hotel is a lively pub in Sydney’s inner west, but the semi-private rooms upstairs are conducive to conversation. We will be meeting upstairs in the Two Tables room (look for the sign or ask at the bar). Getting to the room requires walking up two small flights of stairs.

The Shakespeare is a 10 min walk from Central train station, almost opposite Surry Hills Light Rail, and local parking is reasonable.

The format of the meeting is that we talk about the book for 50 mins in a fairly focused way. All books have been suggested by the group. After that, the meeting is formally closed. Almost everyone stays back to talk more about the book, or other books, or anything else! A $5 donation is requested to cover the horrendous fees charged by MeetUp. First-timers and those of limited means don't have to contribute. I am not keeping tabs.

Meeting at the usual place, The Shakespeare Hotel, 200 Devonshire Street, Surry Hills, at 7.00pm on Thursday September 4, we will be discussing Jane Austen's Northanger Abbey (1817).

The novel is a playful exploration of how young women dealt with the social expectations of England at the time. The main character, Catherine, is bookish 17-year-old whose obsession with Gothic novels leads her to see the world through the eyes of such novels. Sometimes, she gets a bit carried away with her imagination. One novel in particular, The Mysteries of Udolpho, leads her to misunderstand the world around her. As Catherine navigates the polite society of the city of Bath (in England) and the shadowy halls of Northanger Abbey, Austen satirises gender and class relations.

Bonus reading!

It's possible to read Northanger Abbey as a stand-alone novel of about 260 pages because we all get the basic idea of what a Gothic story is: think crumbling castles, the virtuous young woman in peril, the tyrannical villain, locked rooms, veiled objects, dark passageways, secret doors, underground spaces. All followed by a final, rational, explanation. Just imagine the old cartoon series, Scooby-Doo.

This Gothic genre, however, was established by an earlier novel, that Austen was satrirising. That earlier novel was The Mysteries of Udolpho (1794) by Ann Radcliffe. That novel is much longer (about 600 pages) and is now known as the birth of 'Gothic literature.'

In short, we will discuss Northanger Abbey. But if you have the time, The Mysteries of Udolpho is great fun. As classics, there are numerous library and free online copies, from sites such as https://www.gutenberg.org/