All Program Dates
April 23, 2026 | 7:30pm - 9:00pm ET
April 30, 2026 | 7:30pm - 9:00pm ET
May 7, 2026 | 7:30pm - 9:00pm ET
May 14, 2026 | 7:30pm - 9:00pm ET
May 21, 2026 | 7:30pm - 9:00pm ET
May 28, 2026 | 7:30pm - 9:00pm ET
Registration
Tuition for this course is $330. Members receive exclusive discounts on our programs and courses. Not a member? Learn more.
Please check your spam folder for your email confirmation. If you have questions, please call (215) 732-1600 or email rsvp@rosenbach.org.
This program is for those 18 and older.
Registration opens for Delancey Society members on Friday, November 14, for Rosenbach members on Friday, November 21, and for the general public on Wednesday, November 26.
Description
Bleak House can be called the quintessential Dickens novel. It has everything you could wish for in one: class-defying love affairs, interminable will readings, menacing lawyers, eccentric spinsters, oblivious baronets, sycophantic hypocrites, well-meaning legal guardians, boisterous middle-aged couples, cockney couriers, supercilious philanthropists, timid law clerks, chipper orphans, sickly orphans, nasty moneylenders, and a mysterious detective. If Bleak House appears to be bursting at the seams, that’s because it is. There are innumerable characters. There are two narrators. At one point, a man spontaneously combusts.
For all it packs in, Bleak House isn’t overwhelmed by itself as much as it presents a completely comprehensive and immersive world. Written between 12 March 1852 and 12 September 1853, and published in twenty installments, it is a tremendous achievement, a towering and gripping episodic story seeping atmosphere and pathos. In addition to discussing the novel, in our sessions, we will look at contemporary influences and inspirations, as well as some of the debates and controversies sparked by the novel.
Our course will take place across six sessions, with two weeks between each course, to guarantee ample reading time.
Sponsors
The Rosenbach’s Reading Bleak House with Olivia Rutigliano program is sponsored by Maureen Gibney.
Instructor
Olivia Rutigliano is a writer and cultural critic. Since 2019, she has worked as an editor at the online publication Lit Hub and its vertical CrimeReads, as well as a book editor at its parent company, the publishing house, Grove Atlantic. Her essays have appeared in Vanity Fair, New York Magazine/Vulture, Lapham's Quarterly, Los Angeles Review of Books, Public Books, The Baffler, Bright Wall/Dark Room, Politics/Letters, The Toast, Truly Adventurous, and others. She is a specialist in the history of mass entertainment (especially detectives) from the late-19th through the 20th centuries and has a PhD from the departments of English/Comparative Literature and Theatre at Columbia University, where she was the Marion E. Ponsford fellow. Currently, she is teaching a course in social justice and literature at CUNY’s John Jay College. She is the host of the new podcast “Culture Schlock” on Lit Hub Radio, and lives in New York City with her husband John Buffalo Mailer. For the Rosenbach, Olivia has been a cohost on Sherlock Monthly and previously led a course on Victorian Female Detectives.