The Portrait of a Lady - Reading Schedule

[Silver]

Oct.1-7: Ch. 1-7
Oct.8-14: Ch. 8-14
Oct.15-21: Ch. 15-21
Oct.22-s8: Ch. 22-28
Oct.29-Nov.5: Ch. 29-35
Nov.6-12: Ch.36-42
Nov.13-19: Ch.43-49
Nov.20-27: Ch. 50-55

[Renee]

Thank you for the schedule, Silver. I have wanted to read this for some time!

[Robin P, Moderator]

I'm excited because my offline book group recently chose to read this for November so I'll get two for one.

[Lily]

Robin wrote: "I'm excited because my offline book group recently chose to read this for November so I'll get two for one."

Robin -- how long did your offline group allow for reading it? I'm curious, because I have been trying to figure out if I dare champion it with my f2f group. (We do a book per month and seldom do the members read more than during that current month.)

[Robin P, Moderator]

We read a book a month but we announced this one ahead of time. My group is composed of big readers and most of them are retired now. The weird thing is that one edition shows 336 pages and another shows over 600! so I'm not sure what to expect.

[Casceil]

I have a paperback copy that is 500 pages.

[Juanita]

I just happened upon this group and it is exactly what I need. Love Henry James! Thank you.

[Everyman]

The discussion action in House of the Seven Gables really died -- maybe because the discussion threads were all posted up front so there wasn't much to come to as the schedule advanced?

[Casceil]

I disagree that the House of Seven Gables discussion died. All but one of the people who commented on the opening thread also commented on the end of the book. We may not have had as much to say about the end, but I think that, in the nature of things, people make more comments early on when we are meeting the characters and figuring out the set-up. Also, that first thread had a lot of extraneous comments, such as, for example, about how literature is taught in high schools.

[Everyman]

Casceil wrote: "I disagree that the House of Seven Gables discussion died. ..."

What I was referring to, in part, is that although the book was scheduled for the period August 22 through September 30, there have been no posts made about it since September 18, so there have been almost two weeks of the scheduled discussion with no postings whatever.

[Casceil]

I think it ended when it did because everyone who read the book had said what they had to say, and we had all finished the book before the end of the scheduled discussion. I don't see that as a bad thing. People read books at their own pace. I would be very annoyed if I were told "follow the schedule precisely" or "no reading ahead."

[M.umai]

Thank you, friends. It gives an opportunity to take a great book off the shelf. I look forward to joining the fun of reading together.

[Ami]

Casceil wrote: "I disagree that the House of Seven Gables discussion died. All but one of the people who commented on the opening thread also commented on the end of the book. We may not have had as much to say ..."

I wouldn't say it died either, there was a loss of interest in the book early on...that may have had something to do with it. I agree with you, the first week's thread was full of extraneous commentary and not nearly enough about the book itself.

Casceil wrote: "I think it ended when it did because everyone who read the book had said what they had to say, and we had all finished the book before the end of the scheduled discussion. I don't see that as a ba..."

No, I don't think it ended when it did because there was nothing more to be said. It's hard to read with a group when all the threads are open. I was afraid of joining late, but I caught up and still felt rushed to finish because everybody was ahead of the reading schedule. Maybe this particular piece by Hawthorne didn't need the allotted time, perhaps it should have been scheduled for a shorter period of time?

Everyman wrote: "Casceil wrote: "I disagree that the House of Seven Gables discussion died. ..."

What I was referring to, in part, is that although the book was scheduled for the period August 22 through September..."

You have a point in regards to opening up all the sections at once, it doesn't really promote a very cohesive reading process, but I also think the presence of a moderator has a great impact on the quality of a discussion too. It's key to continuously engage to keep up with the variety of reading paces as best as possible...Even if it's just a few who do this. If you've perused through the threads, you'll notice very few engaged, with one another and everybody else was on their own journey-it was a free frawl, essentially, but those of us who wanted to "discuss" and "talk" about the book...We made it work, hopefully?

[Madge UK]

The Portrait of a Lady discussion went well and Jeremy was an excellent Moderator.

[Lily]

Madge wrote: "The Portrait of a Lady discussion went well and Jeremy was an excellent Moderator."

I agree. But has he told us if he ever got to view the movie? Jeremy promised us his reactions.