The Jane Austen Book Club that was started in Bluffton SC in 2014, meets every other month, but not through the summer months, in member homes. We have followed the Montreal Plan, and now re-read one Austen title every year, along with other classics. This is the current schedule for 2021 – scroll below for our reading lists from the beginning. We also have movie gatherings. Please contact me if you are interested; and please visit our facebook page: “Reading Jane Austen in South Carolina” https://www.facebook.com/groups/1353020064734960/

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Schedule 2023-24: all Tuesdays, meet at 3pm
+ Zoom discussion same day at 6pm

Sept 26, 2023: Cecilia, by Frances Burney (1782) – Mary H

Nov 14, 2023: Pride and Prejudice, by Jane Austen (1813) – Carol Li
NOTE: zoom discussion will be on Nov 15 at 6pm

Dec 5, 2023: Jan 9, 2024: Queen Lucia, by E. F. Benson (1920) – the first in the series – we can read more if we want to and discuss [see list below] – Johanna R

Feb 6, 2024: Cousin Bette, by Honoré de Balzac (1846) – Carol Lo

Apr 2, 2024: April 30, 2024: My Cousin Rachel, by Daphne du Maurier (1951) – Deb

June 4, 2024: The Lady of the Camellias, by Alexandre Dumas, fils [we should all read the same translation if possible – Caroline suggests Liesl Schillinger, Penguin 2013] – Caroline K

[Sept 2024: Lady Chatterley’s Lover, by D. H. Lawrence (1928, 1932, 1959, 1960 – what a history!)]
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E. F. Benson titles in the Mapp and Lucia series in order:

1. Queen Lucia (1920)
2. Miss Mapp (1922)
3. Lucia in London (1927)
4. Mapp and Lucia (1931)
5. Lucia’s Progress (1935) (published in the U.S. as The Worshipful Lucia)
6. Trouble for Lucia (1939)

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Schedule 2014 – present:

2014:

• March 24, 2014: Pride & Prejudice / setting up the group
• April 29, 2014: Sense & Sensibility
• June 17, 2014: Pride & Prejudice
• Sept 23, 2014: Mansfield Park
• Nov 18, 2014: Northanger Abbey

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2015:

• Jan 20, 2015: Emma
• Mar 3, 2015: Persuasion
• April 21, 2015: Lady Susan
• June 23, 2015: Sanditon
• Sept 15, 2015: The Watsons
• Nov 10, 2015: North and South, by Elizabeth Gaskell [Nov. 14, 2015: North & South movie

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2016: 

• May 3, 2016: A festival of Georgette Heyer. read one or more of Heyer’s Regency romances – we will each give a short “book report” and tell what we loved about them (or not!) -our fluff read for the year!
• Sept 20, 2016. House of Mirth, by Edith Wharton
• Nov 15, 2016. Emma, by Jane Austen (following the JASNA AGM on Emma)  
• Dec 2016: Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Bronte + Afternoon Tea

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Revised schedule, 2017:

• Movie date! Jan 26, 2017, 1:00 pm: Jane Eyre (with Toby Stephens and Ruth Wilson, 2006 – a BBC production – it runs nearly 4 hours)
• Feb 7, 2017: by Jane Austen. The Juvenilia – or certain titles (see below)
• April 4, 2017: Far from the Madding Crowd by Thomas Hardy / Movie: April 25, 2017
• May 9, 2017: inspired by JA. Virginia Woolf. Mrs. Dalloway
• Sept 25, 2017: popular culture. Stephanie Barron. Jane and the Unpleasantness at Scargrave Manor: Being the First Jane Austen Mystery
• Nov 14, 2017: by Jane Austen, Sense & Sensibility.  [also read William Deresiewicz. A Jane Austen Education: How Six Novels Taught Me About Love, Friendship, and the Things That Really Matter. – read Emma and S&S chapters]
• Dec 12, 2017: tis the season: A Christmas Carol, by Charles Dickens – a Christmas Feast at Cathy S’s home

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2018:

• Feb 27, 2018 (Tues): Fay Weldon. Letters to Alice on First Reading Jane Austen. (1984)
• April 10, 2018 (Tues): Frances Burney. Evelina, or the History of a Young Lady’s Entrance into the World (1778)
• May 8, 2018 (Tues): Anne Bronte. The Tenant of Wildfell Hall (1848) – Carol L. will talk about horses in JA’s time – also a great movie of this with Toby Stephen (Maggie Smith’s son)
• June-Sept – no meetings, sorry to say – you can all decide to read George Eliot’s Middlemarch over the break because: 1) you don’t want to lose your Victorian literature reading abilities; 2) it is considered the finest novel in the English language; and 3) because we are going to choose this eventually so you might as well get a start on it…!
• Oct 16, 2018 (Tues): Jane Austen. Persuasion (1818) [also read: chapter 5 in A Jane Austen Education (W. Deresiewicz): “Persuasion: True Friends”]
• Dec 4 (Tues): Daphne du Maurier. Rebecca (1938) [will discuss similarities to Jane Eyre] – figure out movie date

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2019:

• January 15, 2019 (Tues): Frankenstein, by Mary Shelley; also plan annual schedule
• February 26, 2019 (Tues): Vanity Fair, by William Makepeace Thackeray; will also start discussing The Letters
• March 26, 2019 (Tues): Remains of the Day, by Kazuo Ishiguro
• May 7, 2019 (Tues): The Moonstone, by Wilkie Collins
• September 24, 2019 (Tues): The Mysteries of Udolpho, by Ann Radcliffe (this is long, so take the summer to read it!)
• October 22, 2019 (Tues):Northanger Abbey, by Jane Austen (yay!)
• November 19, 2019 (Tues): Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott
• December 10, 2019 (Tues): Book Group Tea – will discuss the schedule for 2020

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Schedule for 2020:

• January 14, 2020: Cranford, by Elizabeth Gaskell
• March 10, 2020: The Age of Innocence, by Edith Wharton
• Due to the COVID-19 virus, our regular group gatherings have ceased for now. We have been doing slow reads / email discussion extended over a few weeks, followed by a zoom session wrap-up. Here’s what we have read, and what’s upcoming:
• April – May, 2020: Mansfield Park, by Jane Austen /  Lovers’ Vows, adapted by Elizabeth Inchbald
• May – June, 2020: Lady Audley’s Secret, by Mary Elizabeth Braddon
• June – July, 2020: Sherlock Holmes – first two novels: A Study in Scarlet and The Sign of the Four, by Arthur Conan Doyle
• August, 2020: The Dead Secret, by Wilkie Collins
• September 2020: The Other Bennet Sister, by Janice Harlow
• October, 2020: break [or join Deb doing Tess of the d’Urbervilles by Thomas Hardy at the USCB OLLI program]
• November, 2020: A Pair of Blue Eyes, by Thomas Hardy

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Schedule for 2021:

• Due to the COVID-19 virus, our regular in-person group gatherings have ceased for now. We have been doing slow reads / email discussion extended over a few weeks, followed by a zoom session wrap-up. Here’s what we have read, and what’s upcoming for 2021:
• February 5, 12, 2021: The French Lieutenant’s Woman, by John Fowles [book and film]
• March 12, 2021: The Uncommon Reader, by Alan Bennett
• May 3, 2021: The Go-Between, by L. P. Hartley (1953)
• June 14, 2021: I Capture the Castle, by Dodie Smith
• July/August: break [read Middlemarch over the summer]
• September – October, 2021: Middlemarch, by George Eliot
• December 1, 2021: Diary of a Provincial Lady, by E. M. Delafield

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Schedule Sept 2021 – June 2022:

• September 13-October 11, 2021: Middlemarch, by George Eliot
• December 1, 2021: Diary of a Provincial Lady, by E. M. Delafield
• February 2, 2022: Ivanhoe by Walter Scott;
• April 5, 2022: Enchanted April, by Elizabeth von Arnim (fitting for April after all)
• June 7, 2022: Adam Bede, by George Eliot [Moll Flanders by Daniel Defoe has been set aside yet again…] – IN-PERSON!!

We will do zoom discussions unless meeting in person becomes the norm (wouldn’t that be nice!) – we can do an email discussion as well is anyone is so inclined. If anyone wants to lead any one of these discussions, please let me know!

Schedule Sept 2022 – June 2023

• Sept. 13, 2022: Sense & Sensibility, by Jane Austen (1811) [Deb will host and facilitate]
• Nov. 15, 2022: cancelled
• Dec. 13, 2022: Holiday Tea with Lewis Carroll: Alice in Wonderland (1865) and Through the Looking Glass (1872) [Carol L will host and facilitate]
• Jan. 10, 2023: The American Senator, by Anthony Trollope (1875) – Lynn T will host and facilitate
• Mar. 14, 2023: The Custom of the Country, by Edith Wharton (1913)
• May 9, 2023: The Italian, by Ann Radcliffe (1796)
• June 13, 2023: The Turn of the Screw, by Henry James (1898) [very short!] + a gathering to choose books for next year

c2022 Jane Austen in Vermont