The Readers Review: Literature from 1714 to 1910 discussion
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As We Near the End of the Dickens Project
I LOVE the idea of a Trollope Project. I've read all the Pallisers and some of the Barsets, but they were terrific so I'd happily reread for the project. Thanks for asking. :) (As an alternative, I'd also be interested in doing the complete Gallsworthy cycle that starts with A Man of Property. The whole Forsyte Saga might be fun. We did the couple of books a while back. I think it's the first this I read with RR.)
P. S. It's somehow nice timing that we're ending TDP in the spring, just around the time that it was started.
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The last time I read Trollope was in the 70's. It would be like reading them for the first time.
FYI--most of the Forsyte saga was written after 1910. I have read them all and some of them were good, others were very dated.
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I wish I had been here for the earlier parts of the Dickens project. I read all his books a few years ago (my job involves going to different parts of Prague each day, and I take public transportation, so I do get a lot of reading time in each day), but I would have loved to discuss them with someone! Actually, my husband read David Copperfield and Nicholas Nickleby, which really impressed me as he's not a native English speaker!
Yeay - glad to hear people so far like the idea of Trollope - I have to admit, I'm rooting for Trollope. But again, open to all ideas.
Trollope sounds interesting. I have a few books of his, but not yet read anything of him. So that might be interesting.BTW, I will need to catch up with OMF next week - sorry, guys.
And with regards to The Mystery of Edwin Drood. I would rather like to start with it in the middle or end of April, as I will be so busy and not have much time to read. :-(
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We started the Dickens initiative just before his 200th birthday. At the time I had suggested to my Unitarian church that we get an expert university speaker on Dickens, since he had some connections with the Unitarians of the time. That never happened, but this year I decided I am now enough of an expert, so I am delivering a program to at least 2 groups this year.
We started a Zola initiative with Zulfiya, but the number of books was rather overwhelming and some were difficult to find. We seem to have stopped before getting to the better-known works. With Trollope's 2 main series, we are looking at a similar number of books to what we did with Dickens, and I'm sure they are available through libraries and as free e-books.
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I wish I had been here for the earlier parts of the Dickens project. I read all his books a few years ago (my job involves going to different parts of..."
Hi Lori, our discussions on all the Dickens books should show up somewhere in the archives of this site if you'd like see what we thought. Reading them in installments has made for much better discussion than if we read the whole thing and then spent just a day discussing it, the way most book clubs do.
Hedi - we can wait until the middle of April to start Edwin Drood. Once we finish with OMF, I'll put up a reading schedule.Robin - the Trollope books are easy to find either in hardcopy or ebooks. Plus, most libraries have his books.
I'm having a brain blip. I can't remember if I was here for the start or if I came in just afterwards during Oliver Twist. But it was near the beginning. And yes, all the discussions on each book should be in the archives.
The Trollope can be found in free ebook versions online and most have free audiobook versions through Librivox.
Lynnm wrote: "Yeay - glad to hear people so far like the idea of Trollope - I have to admit, I'm rooting for Trollope. But again, open to all ideas."I do love Trollope, but why only those series? Why not complete if we do him?
Another real possibility, somewhat fewer books so a bit less time, would be Hardy.
BTW, for Trollope lovers, there is a very active Trollope group on Yahoo, with some genuine experts in it. https://groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/t...
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I do love Trollope, but why only those series?..."
I just checked and he wrote 47 novels. Considering we took 5 years to do Dickens, some of us may not live long enough for the complete Trollope! I think the 12 books are a good initiative. Even though Trollope didn't write in serial form, I hope we are going to read the same way, 50-100 pages a week at most, so that we can discuss in detail and still have time for other reading.
Regrettably, I've missed out on this group, but I hope I'll be able to join you for Drood. I'll be interested to learn what you choose to delve into after that.
Eman,As Robin said, there are far too many Trollope books to do them all - it would take years. We can, however, add 2-3 books on to the project, books not part of the two series.
And we're hoping to continue these types of projects. For example, I would eventually like to do a Twain project, if folks are interested.
Mary Lou wrote: "Regrettably, I've missed out on this group, but I hope I'll be able to join you for Drood. I'll be interested to learn what you choose to delve into after that."I'm looking forward to Edwin Drood - it's different from his other novels.
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We don't have the same number of people as when the Dickens Project starte..."
I've been in this group sinceThe Old Curiosity Shop and there were definitely discussions around a Trollope read-in fact I think when I tried to nominate one it was put off as there was a plan to do the series later. I would really love to do the Barsetshire series and would be willing to lead at least some of the discussions
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Frances wrote: "Would we only do the actual Dickens part of The Mystery of Edwin Drood or a completed version? Is there a "definitive" completion?"There isn't a definitive completion. He was very close to the end so it just stops rather abruptly.
As Lori said, there are other books written that speculate on a possible ending, but in the regular book, there is no ending.
Rosemarie wrote: "Hi, Lynnm, it would be fun to do an American writer of the period, someone like Mark Twain or Nathaniel Hawthorne. For Trollope the Barsetshire novels are generally shorter than the Palliser series..."I think so too. It seems from this discussion that people are excited about Trollope so we'll start there.
And then when that ends...sadly, quite some time from now...we can consider Twain or another American writer.
I had thought of doing them together, but I don't think we have enough people to have two projects going and the regular monthly reads.
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I can see the Robert Louis Stevenson
Emily Dickinson
Thomas Hardy
Leo Tolstoy
Jon, great list. I would especially like to do a Tolstoy project. Or Dostoevsky. Or both.
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(As an alternative,..."
I think we did the whole The Forsyte Saga in 2013-I certainly remember reading the whole thing.
No. There was more. We read the first, oldest, most well-known part of the saga. And that was quite a bit, but it continues with the lives of the children as they grown up and get married.
Sorry. I should be calling it the Forsyte Chronicles, which is all 9 books (plus the novellas in between). Apparently "Saga" refers to the first 3 books (plus novellas). I just loved the Saga and have since meant to go back and finish the Chronicles. Perhaps as a side read.
From GoodReads:
"The Forsyte Chronicles includes 9 novels and several interludes. It is divided into three trilogies:
1. The Forsyte Saga (The Man of Property, In Chancery and To Let)
2. A Modern Comedy (The White Monkey, The Silver Spoon and Swan Song)
3. End of the Chapter (Maid in Waiting, Flowering Wilderness and One More River)"
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I had no idea that there were all those additional books in the Forstye series. I only thought it was the first three: the Forsyte Saga.Unfortunately, I couldn't take part in our Forstye Saga read so I've been meaning to read it on my own. Now, I'll have to select a time when I can read all of them.
As for the Forstye Chronicles being a project, as Deborah said, we just did the Forstye Saga a couple of years ago.
Oddly, we have never read any of the books in either of Trollope series. In fact, I don't think we've ever read a Trollope book. But I could be wrong.
Right now, it seems that people like Trollope but there have also been a number of Hardy votes. My issue with Hardy is the same as the Forstye Chronicles...we've read a number of Hardy novels.
We definitely have time so we can wait to see what others think as well. Since so many people have come here, I don't think that it is necessary to open a thread in the General Discussion area.
Do you think we should put it to a vote? Or just decide here amongst ourselves? The only reason I'm concerned about a vote is that people who might not join in the actual project will vote; the people here seem to be folks who will join in in the project reads when possible.
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I think a vote along the lines of "we're planning a Trollope read, would you be interested in participating" might be a way of testing broader interest.
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I think a vote along the lines of "we're planning a Trollope read, would you be interested in participating" might be a way of testing broader interest."
Lynn you can always include the request to vote only if you plan on partcipating
That's true, Deborah.But in seeing the last comments, I'm not sure we need a vote. The vast majority here seem in favor of Trollope.
I'm going to call it - TROLLOPE IT IS!!!
And we'll go in alphabetical order: Chronicles of Barsetshire series first, and Palliser series immediately following.
The only thing left to decide is when to start. We'll finish Edwin Drood mid-May.
June 5 start date? It's the first Sunday in June.
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June 5 works for me.
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Why not June 6 which, as this crowd knows, is the D-Day anniversary? Actually, the 5th is fine.Although Trollope was not my choice (and I've never read any of the books), I'm going to belly up to the bar, order my diet tonic with lots of lime, and start off with the group.
Jon wrote: "Why not June 6 which, as this crowd knows, is the D-Day anniversary? Actually, the 5th is fine.Although Trollope was not my choice (and I've never read any of the books), I'm going to belly up to..."
I'll probably add a drop of refreshing gin to mine, but I'll be there! I've never read any Trollope either, but I'd only read a couple of Dickenses before I joined this group. I'm not as good a contributor as I should be because once I get in to a book my self-discipline goes out the window and I race ahead of the schedule. And obviously, I forget to take notes... The discussions are fabulous though, as I'm sure you've discovered :-)
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I've been lurking on this group reading the discussions. I will jump in on The Mystery of Edwin Drood and continue with Trollope. Save me a seat!
I've been watching the discussion to see what you'd all choose! I started the Barsetshire series a couple of years ago and for some reason stalled with Framley Parsonage. I can add my two cents from what I remember from the earlier books in the series, and then join in when you catch up!
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I stopped after Framley as well, though I liked it. The one that really slowed me down was Doctor Thorne.
Just a caveat - the first book, The Warden, is rather slight and largely a satire on specific people and institutions of the time. So if you're not impressed with it, don't be discouraged, as the later books have a larger canvas and more varied characters and themes.
The Readers Review: Literature from 1714 to 1910
Books mentioned in this topic
A Tale of Two Cities (other topics)David Copperfield (other topics)
Bleak House (other topics)
The Warden (other topics)
Framley Parsonage (other topics)
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We don't have the same number of people as when the Dickens Project started, but we do still have a number of dedicated posters.
The Mystery of Edwin Drood is very short so it will only take a month to read. I figure we can start that the first week of April and we'll be done by the end of April.
Question for all (and after I hear from some of you, I will post another thread for the entire forum): which author would you like to read as a project next?
I was thinking Trollope; we could do both the Chronicles of Barsetshire series and the Palliser series.
What say you? Trollope or someone else?
I think that you all should have the first say since many of you have started at the beginning of the Dickens Project and are here near the end of the Dickens Project.