Course | Reading Virginia Woolf’s Mrs. Dalloway with Sean Hughes | Virtual
In this course, we'll explore this stylistic and psychological masterpiece. Each session will include some relevant background, but our discussions will be guided by the interests of our participants. Likely topics will include gender, history, cities, war, time, trauma, power, sexuality, and family.
Course | Melville’s America with Jennifer Greiman | Virtual
As Melville moved between historical fictions of the late-18th century and portraits of America in the 1850s, he fictionalized figures like Benjamin Franklin, rewrote the memoirs of sea captains and frontier lawmen, and captured with brutal precision and irony, elements of the American character that endure to this day. In the first three sessions of this course, we will cover one short work per week, reserving the last two sessions for the raucous satire of The Confidence-man, which Philip Roth described in 2016 as “the darkly pessimistic, daringly inventive novel” that speaks most directly to America today.
Course | The Art of Literary Biography with Carl Rollyson | Virtual
Readings from British Biography: A Reader will inform course discussion on what makes a biography comparable in some ways to the novel and in others to works of history and literary criticism.
Course | Reading Johnson and Boswell with Jack Lynch | Virtual
Over the course of four biweekly meetings we’ll read some of Johnson’s most important works—essays, poems, fiction, travel narratives, biography—and selections from Boswell’s Life. The focus will always be on the humanity of the man behind the works.
Course | Reading Philip Pullman’s His Dark Materials with Kristen Poole | Virtual
This is the adventure of Philip Pullman’s His Dark Materials trilogy—The Golden Compass (UK title: Northern Lights), The Subtle Knife, and The Amber Spyglass. These books are not only international bestsellers, they have been adapted for film, stage, graphic novels, and other media. In this course, we will read these books in community, following their many paths and considering their literary inheritance.
Course | Ulysses Weekly with Robert Berry | Virtual
This immersive weekly course will help readers explore (and enjoy) the intricacies, enigmas, and hilarities of Ulysses. First-time readers of the novel will find many resources for understanding this challenging work. For those returning to the novel, this will be a great way to delve into a book whose depths never seem to end.
Course | Reading The Charterhouse of Parma with Liesl Schillinger | Virtual
This book is more than a romance, more than a slice of history brought to life— it’s a detailed demonstration of how individuals of art and wit can preserve their agency in eras when it’s under attack from oppressive societal forces. In close reading, we will explore the lasting power of Stendhal’s vision and the legacy of The Charterhouse of Parma.
Course | Shakespeare’s Green Worlds with Sir Jonathan Bate | Virtual
This course will explore this theme in three plays: the perfectly formed comedy As You Like It, the searing tragedy King Lear, and the graceful romance The Winter’s Tale. Along the way, we will discover that the virtues of the green world speak especially powerfully to us today in a time of division and disruption in both the social and the natural environments.
Course | Brief Wonders: Latin American Short Fiction with Luciano Martinez | Virtual
Beginning with Edgar Allan Poe’s influence on Horacio Quiroga—who adapted Poe’s gothic intensity and psychological suspense to the jungles and borderlands of the River Plate and Misiones—this course traces the evolution of the contemporary Latin American short story in English translation. We’ll read pivotal writers—Borges, Rulfo, Fuentes, García Márquez—and spotlight the vital contributions of women writers, including Rosario Ferré and Mariana Enríquez.
Course | The Medieval T.S. Eliot with Mary Alcaro | Virtual
In this five-session course, we will uncover some of the medieval influences upon Eliot’s most famous work, including selections from The Wasteland, Four Quartets, and Murder in the Cathedral. Along the way, we’ll investigate how and where he draws upon the Arthurian Grail cycle, Christian mysticism, and The Canterbury Tales.
Course | Reading Bleak House with Olivia Rutigliano | Virtual
Our course will take place across six sessions, with one week between each meeting.
Course | Reading Anne Brontë with Claire O’Callaghan | Virtual
This five-week course offers an in-depth exploration of Anne Brontë’s life and works. The youngest of the Brontës, Anne is sometimes overshadowed by her elder sisters, whose works have achieved greater prominence in literature and culture. Yet Anne’s writing is no less powerful or profound, offering a unique voice unafraid to confront and represent the darker, more uncomfortable aspects of 19th-century culture. Through close reading, discussion, and consideration of the historical context of her two published novels, Agnes Grey (1847) and The Tenant of Wildfell Hall (1848), this course will explore what Anne had to say about morality, gender, class, religion and the struggle for independence. We will give particular attention to how and why Anne wanted to interrogate and challenge Victorian social conventions with clarity and courage.
Course | Reading Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice with Louise Curran | Virtual
Capping off our year of Jane Austen seminars to commemorate the author’s 250th birthday, we’ll finish with her most beloved novel, Pride and Prejudice, led by Louise Curran from the University of Birmingham, UK.
We will read and discuss Pride and Prejudice in all its simple and complicated glory, thinking about its depiction of courtship and marriage, its structure as the archetypal romantic comedy, and its place within Austen’s literary career.
Course | Birthright Citizenship and the U.S. Constitution with Paul Finkelman, PhD | Virtual
This seminar will examine the history of birthright citizenship (dating from at least 1608),the regulation of immigration from the adoption of the Constitution to the Civil War, and the debates over the citizenship clause in the 14th Amendment.
Course | Music Stories with Wesley Stace | Virtual
Musician and novelist Wesley Stace presents a unique seminar experience, an opportunity to read works of literature that attempt to capture, on the page, the essence of music.
Course | Reading Kurt Vonnegut with Christina Jarvis | Virtual
Best known for his wildly imaginative fiction, accessible style, and unflinching critiques of American culture, Kurt Vonnegut was one of the most beloved and prescient writers of the late-20th century. Focusing on Cat’s Cradle (1963) and his anti-war masterpiece, Slaughterhouse-Five (1969), this four-session course will explore Kurt Vonnegut’s signature literary techniques (dark humor, satire, and innovative, often time-bending narrative structures) along with his examinations of 1960s America.
![[SOLD OUT, RECORDING ONLY AVAILABLE] Course | Reading Dickens’s Oliver Twist with Edward G Pettit | Virtual](https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/66fb68a83ed38c0c99c762f9/1755202479446-P1FM322Y8NUGPCTPEZE8/Oliver+Twist.jpg)
[SOLD OUT, RECORDING ONLY AVAILABLE] Course | Reading Dickens’s Oliver Twist with Edward G Pettit | Virtual
“Oliver Twist has asked for more!” Edward G. Pettit will lead a seminar on one of Charles Dickens’s most popular novels. Oliver is the first child protagonist of any novel, and Dickens recounts Oliver’s adventures from a Poor Workhouse to a dangerous den of London criminals.
Course | Reading King Lear with Jim Casey | Virtual
In this course, we will explore the complexity and depth of this extraordinary text, with close attention to issues related to language, kingship, old age, gender, and more.
Course | Constitutionalism in the Black Freedom Tradition with Joshua Kopin | Virtual
This course examines how African American artists, activists, and thinkers have utilized American Constitutionalism as a basis for arguments in support of Black freedom, from the U.S. founding to abolition and from emancipation to the Civil Rights Movement.
Course | Reading The Great Gatsby with Anne Margaret Daniel | Virtual
Fitzgerald's third novel was published in April 1925. When Fitzgerald first began writing The Great Gatsby in the summer of 1921, he told his editor at Scribner, Max Perkins, "I want to write something new—something extraordinary and beautiful and simple + intricately patterned." We will learn about the genesis of The Great Gatsby, its critical reception when it appeared, its changing afterlife, the rise of its immense global popularity, and versions of Gatsby on stage and film as we read the novel together.
Course | James Joyce’s “Lying Autobiographies”: Stephen Hero and A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man with Vicki Mahaffey | Virtual
What is published as Stephen Hero is a manuscript fragment of the first version of James Joyce’s A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, which once ran to around 1,000 pages and was rejected by many publishers. We will read what remains of Stephen Hero (edited by Theodore Spencer, John J. Slocum, and Herbert Cahoon) and then A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man. Relevant extracts will be provided from Ovid’s Metamorphoses.
![[SOLD OUT, RECORDING ONLY AVAILABLE] Course | Reading Don Quixote with Marina Brownlee | Virtual](https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/66fb68a83ed38c0c99c762f9/1755186024955-R8ZIHRO8IHRFW8J0IYV4/Quixote+Course+1954.0672.003+engraving+001+bright.png)
[SOLD OUT, RECORDING ONLY AVAILABLE] Course | Reading Don Quixote with Marina Brownlee | Virtual
Since 1605 Cervantes’s Don Quixote has been read as an icon of idealistic and misguided desire and as a meme of human experience, modernity, the novel, and more. Close readings and cultural contexts will enable us to enjoy Cervantes’s experimental creation and to consider why it continues to captivate its readers.
The Rosenbach holds a significant Cervantes collection, and we will share images of this collection during the seminar.
Course | Modernism Across Media: Joyce, Stravinsky, Picasso | Virtual
This class explores what we call “modernism” through cross-disciplinary analyses of works made by Irish writer James Joyce, Spanish artist Pablo Picasso, and Russian composer Igor Stravinsky in the early twentieth century.
Biblioventures | Sherlock Monthly | Virtual
Our new season of Sherlock Monthly continues our exploration of the Sherlockian canon. Every month, we’ll focus on one Sherlock Holmes adventure in the order they were first published. We begin this season with “The Adventure of the Golden Pince-Nez.” Joining host Edward G. Pettit are some new cohosts and some old friends. You can watch the livestream on Saturday afternoons or the replays on our YouTube channel.
Course | Reading J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings with Professor Michael D. C. Drout | Virtual
In this eight-session course (Wednesdays, 8/13, 8/27, 9/10, 9/24, 10/8, 10/22, 11/5, 11/19) we will try to identify the qualities that make Tolkien’s works emotionally and intellectually engaging while seeking to better understand their significance. In exploring the rich complexity of Middle-earth, the phonesthetic beauty of Tolkien’s languages, the intricacy of the narrative, and the sophistication of the moral vision, we will seek to understand not merely his works’ popularity, cultural influence, and artistic success, but the personal significance they hold for many readers.
Course | Reading Austen’s Mansfield Park with Juliette Wells | Virtual
In this four-week course (Wednesdays, July 16, 23, 30, August 6), we will read and discuss Mansfield Park in relation to key artifacts and documents that shed light on its place in Austen’s literary career.
Biblioventures | Sherlock Monthly | Virtual
November 16, 2025 | 2:00 pm - 4:00 pm
December 14, 2025 | 2:00 pm - 4:00 pm
January 11, 2025 | 2:00 pm - 4:00 pm
February 15, 2025 | 2:00 pm - 4:00 pm
March 15, 2025 | 2:00 pm - 4:00 pm
April 19, 2025 | 2:00 pm - 4:00 pm
May 17, 2025 | 2:00 pm - 4:00 pm
June 21, 2025 | 2:00 pm - 4:00 pm
Our Sherlock Mondays Biblioventure was such a success, we’ve decided to continue exploring the Sherlockian canon with Sherlock Monthly. Every month, we’ll focus on one Sherlock Holmes adventure in the order they were first published.
The Rosenbach Presents | The Annual Rosenbach Bloomsday Virtual Talk: The Joyce of Everyday Life with Vicki Mahaffey | Virtual
Acclaimed Joyce scholar Vicki Mahaffey will lead our annual Bloomsday virtual discussion on her new book, The Joyce of Everyday Life.
Biblioventures | Sherlock Monthly | Virtual
November 16, 2025 | 2:00 pm - 4:00 pm
December 14, 2025 | 2:00 pm - 4:00 pm
January 11, 2025 | 2:00 pm - 4:00 pm
February 15, 2025 | 2:00 pm - 4:00 pm
March 15, 2025 | 2:00 pm - 4:00 pm
April 19, 2025 | 2:00 pm - 4:00 pm
May 17, 2025 | 2:00 pm - 4:00 pm
June 21, 2025 | 2:00 pm - 4:00 pm
Our Sherlock Mondays Biblioventure was such a success, we’ve decided to continue exploring the Sherlockian canon with Sherlock Monthly. Every month, we’ll focus on one Sherlock Holmes adventure in the order they were first published.
Course | Reading Emily Bronte’s Wuthering Heights with Claire O’Callaghan | Virtual
In this four-week course, we’ll journey into the pages of Wuthering Heights, the beloved novel written and published by Emily Brontë in 1847.
Course | Reading The Mystery of Edwin Drood serially with Edward G. Pettit | Virtual
The Rosenbach holds in its collection the original serial parts of The Mystery of Edwin Drood. Throughout this course, we’ll read the existing six serial parts as the first readers did, one part at a time for six sessions, then we’ll spend a final session discussing the many ways Dickens could have unspooled his final mystery, perhaps even solving the mystery of Edwin Drood itself.
Course | Reading Jane Austen’s Persuasion with Paula Byrne | Virtual
Persuasion is often considered Austen’s autumnal novel, her most mature work, and a farewell to her life as a fiction writer. In this course, we will examine the many ways in which she deploys her satire, and we will explore the novel’s themes of heartbreak, hope, personal growth, and second-chance love.
Biblioventures | Sherlock Monthly | Virtual
November 16, 2025 | 2:00 pm - 4:00 pm
December 14, 2025 | 2:00 pm - 4:00 pm
January 11, 2025 | 2:00 pm - 4:00 pm
February 15, 2025 | 2:00 pm - 4:00 pm
March 15, 2025 | 2:00 pm - 4:00 pm
April 19, 2025 | 2:00 pm - 4:00 pm
May 17, 2025 | 2:00 pm - 4:00 pm
June 21, 2025 | 2:00 pm - 4:00 pm
Our Sherlock Mondays Biblioventure was such a success, we’ve decided to continue exploring the Sherlockian canon with Sherlock Monthly. Every month, we’ll focus on one Sherlock Holmes adventure in the order they were first published.
Course | Victorian Female Detectives with Olivia Rutigliano | Virtual
For modern readers, the great secret of the Victorian cultural world is that lady detective characters were among the most popular in the literature of the time. In this course, we will explore many of the most popular of these characters and interrogate how they reflected the spectrum of Victorian attitudes about women and how they both played into and resisted conventional Victorian conceptions of (and anxieties about) female ability, acumen, psychology, and labor.
Course | Reading A Midsummer Night’s Dream with Jim Casey | Virtual
This course on Midsummer Night’s Dream will be an interactive experience and will rely on your participation, enthusiasm, and free-flowing conversations. Each time we meet, we will practice a variety of reading techniques that will enable you to begin experiencing Midsummer (and eventually all of Shakespeare’s plays) more deeply and effectively on your own.
Course | Reading Faulkner’s Light in August with Carl Rollyson | Virtual
Faulkner’s Light in August dives into the darkest corners of American history: religious fanaticism, racism, the horror of the Civil War, and the brutal legacy of lynching. In this bold masterpiece, Faulkner plays with time’s unbreakable grip.
Biblioventures | Sherlock Monthly | Virtual
November 16, 2025 | 2:00 pm - 4:00 pm
December 14, 2025 | 2:00 pm - 4:00 pm
January 11, 2025 | 2:00 pm - 4:00 pm
February 15, 2025 | 2:00 pm - 4:00 pm
March 15, 2025 | 2:00 pm - 4:00 pm
April 19, 2025 | 2:00 pm - 4:00 pm
May 17, 2025 | 2:00 pm - 4:00 pm
June 21, 2025 | 2:00 pm - 4:00 pm
Our Sherlock Mondays Biblioventure was such a success, we’ve decided to continue exploring the Sherlockian canon with Sherlock Monthly. Every month, we’ll focus on one Sherlock Holmes adventure in the order they were first published.
Course | The Sonnet in English with Sean Hughes | Virtual Program
In this course, we’ll explore how great poets across the centuries have used the sonnet. Authors will likely include William Shakespeare, Gwendolyn Brooks, John Keats, Christina Rosetti, John Donne, Gerard Manley Hopkins, Terrance Hayes, Elizabeth Barrett Browning, Wanda Coleman, William Butler Yeats, and Percy Shelley. This course will be enjoyable for both people who are new to reading poetry and aficionados alike.
![[SOLD OUT] Course | Ulysses Weekly with Robert Berry | Virtual Program](https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/66fb68a83ed38c0c99c762f9/1739663006621-SKYKMABRWAGNMLU3CP1K/Ulysses-Weekly-graphic.jpg)
[SOLD OUT] Course | Ulysses Weekly with Robert Berry | Virtual Program
February 20, 2025 | 6:00 pm - 7:30 pm
February 27, 2025 | 6:00 pm - 7:30 pm
March 6, 2025 | 6:00 pm - 7:30 pm
March 13, 2025 | 6:00 pm - 7:30 pm
March 20, 2025 | 6:00 pm - 7:30 pm
March 27, 2025 | 6:00 pm - 7:30 pm
April 3, 2025 | 6:00 pm - 7:30 pm
April 10, 2025 | 6:00 pm - 7:30 pm
April 17, 2025 | 6:00 pm - 7:30 pm
April 24, 2025 | 6:00 pm - 7:30 pm
May 1, 2025 | 6:00 pm - 7:30 pm
May 8, 2025 | 6:00 pm - 7:30 pm
May 15, 2025 | 6:00 pm - 7:30 pm
May 22, 2025 | 6:00 pm - 7:30 pm
May 29, 2025 | 6:00 pm - 7:30 pm
June 5, 2025 | 6:00 pm - 7:30 pm
This immersive weekly course will help readers explore (and enjoy) the intricacies, enigmas and hilarities of Ulysses. First time readers of the novel will find many resources for understanding this challenging work.
![[SOLD OUT] Course | Huck and James: Reading Mark Twain’s Adventures of Huckleberry Finn and Percival Everett’s James with Edward Whitley | Virtual](https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/66fb68a83ed38c0c99c762f9/1739657552210-485BV110BPRMDRBHLDKF/HuckJames-Course-Graphic.png)
[SOLD OUT] Course | Huck and James: Reading Mark Twain’s Adventures of Huckleberry Finn and Percival Everett’s James with Edward Whitley | Virtual
In this five-week online class, we will spend the first two weeks reading Huckleberry Finn. For our third meeting, we will explore the legacy of Huck and Jim in African American culture with a series of short readings from authors such as Toni Morrison, Ralph Ellison, and John Keene. We will spend the final two weeks reading Everett’s James.
Biblioventures | The Picture of Dorian Gray | Virtual
February 24, 2025 | 7:00 pm - 9:00 pm
March 3, 2025 | 7:00 pm - 9:00 pm
March 10, 2025 | 7:00 pm - 9:00 pm
March 17, 2025 | 7:00 pm - 9:00 pm
March 24, 2025 | 7:00 pm - 9:00 pm
Join us on a new Biblioventure with a special subscription-only show on Oscar Wilde’s The Picture of Dorian Gray
Biblioventures | Sherlock Monthly | Virtual
November 16, 2025 | 2:00 pm - 4:00 pm
December 14, 2025 | 2:00 pm - 4:00 pm
January 11, 2025 | 2:00 pm - 4:00 pm
February 15, 2025 | 2:00 pm - 4:00 pm
March 15, 2025 | 2:00 pm - 4:00 pm
April 19, 2025 | 2:00 pm - 4:00 pm
May 17, 2025 | 2:00 pm - 4:00 pm
June 21, 2025 | 2:00 pm - 4:00 pm
Our Sherlock Mondays Biblioventure was such a success, we’ve decided to continue exploring the Sherlockian canon with Sherlock Monthly. Every month, we’ll focus on one Sherlock Holmes adventure in the order they were first published.