This course will start with A Christmas Carol and Wuthering Heights, then consider Jane Eyre, The Haunted Man, and David Copperfield. Appearing between 1843 and 1850, these stories portray the social realities of a tumultuous decade. Dickens and the Brontes in particular blend realism and romance, point up the sometime surreal conjunction of actual and imagined life, unexamined present time and cherished memory. Ghosts walk, phantoms point, and, as Charlotte Bronte puts it, the world can be full of “signs, sympathies, and presentiments.”
Because there will be assigned material from the critical editions as well as from material I will send you electronically, please note the specific editions of the class texts, whether buying new or used ones. Registered students will receive more information about course expectations by early summer.

Texts:

• Charles Dickens. A Christmas Carol and Other Christmas Writings, ed. Michael Slater. Penguin. [9780140439052]
• Emily Bronte. Wuthering Heights Fourth Edition. Norton, ed Richard Dunn, 2003. [9780393978896]
• Charlotte Bronte. Jane Eyre Third Edition. Norton, ed. Richard Dunn, 2001. [9780393975420]
• Charles Dickens. David Copperfield ed. Jeremy Tambling. Penguin. [9780140439441]