Please join us as Mark J. Schenker of Yale College returns to Wilton Library to give four lectures on a quartet of great novels published during the reign of Queen Victoria (1837-1901). He will discuss these classic books in the order of their publication, focusing on both their style and structure as works of literary art, and the social and intellectual issues they engage. Among the latter are: the status of women: the tensions between optimism and anxiety, and between religion and science; the changing perceptions of children and childhood; and the centrality of the themes of class, sex, criminality and moral earnestness.

Attendees are not expected to read or reread all or even any of the novels, but a familiarity with them will of course make the lectures more meaningful. Here are the novels for each week:

• June 3 ^-  Jane Eyre (1847) - Charlotte Brontë (1816-1865)
• June 10 - Great Expectations (1861) - Charles Dickens (1812-1870)
• June 17 - Middlemarch (1871) - George Eliot (1819-1880)
• June 24 - Tess of the D’Urbervilles (1891) - Thomas Hardy (1840-1928)

No charge for the program. This lecture is made possible with the support of the Literary Series in Memory of Amy Quigley. Advance registration required. Register online in order to receive the Zoom session invitation link. Please note: you will automatically be registered for all four sessions in the series. Please email Michael Bellacosa at mbellacosa@wiltonlibrary.org with any questions.