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Henry James / Paul Cézanne: Literary Seminar with Mark Scarbrough

Henry James / Paul Cézanne: Literary Seminar with Mark Scarbrough In-Person / Online

This series will meet on Tuesdays, January 21st through March 11th.

The Scoville Library offers this seminar in a hybrid format: in person and via zoom simutaneously. When you register, you will receive a confirmation email with the Zoom link. The Zoom  link will also be sent to you by email one week before then first seminar date.  

In disconnected yet overlapping lives and complementary art forms, Henry James and Paul Cézanne traced the move from form to chaos, from structure to entropy, from certainty to uncertainty that marked the West’s entrance into the modern world. As we read an early, a mid-phase, and late novel from Henry James, we’ll use Cézanne’s art from roughly the same time periods to help us understand this fundamental shift: from sturdy optimism to exuberant pessimism, from the hopes of empire to the loss of all we know in the mud of Somme.

Please see the note about recommended editions of James's novels, below.

The Scoville Library will offer this seminar in a hybrid format: in person and via zoom simutaneously. Registration is required.

Please consider attending in-person. Zoom access will be limited, and there will be cookies for the in-person break!

Reading Schedule

January 21    Henry James, THE AMERICAN (1879), chapters 1 - 13
January 28    Henry James, THE AMERICAN (1879), chapters 14 - 26
February 4    Henry James, THE PORTRAIT OF A LADY (1882), chapters 1 - 19
February 11  Henry James, THE PORTRAIT OF A LADY (1882), chapters 20 - 39
February 18  Henry James, THE PORTRAIT OF A LADY (1882), chapters 40 - 55
February 25  Henry James, THE AMBASSADORS (1909), Books First – Fourth
March 4        Henry James, THE AMBASSADORS (1909), Books Fifth – Ninth
March 11      Henry James, THE AMBASSADORS (1909), Books Tenth – Twelfth and the Preface

Texts 

James was an assiduous (pernicious?) reviser; his texts are tough to pin down. For our purposes, look for the 1879 version of THE AMERICAN, the 1881, 1882, or 1883 version of THE PORTRAIT OF A LADY, and the 1909 “New York” edition of THE AMBASSADORS—all found in the Penguin Classic editions, the Norton Critical editions, or the Library of America volumes. Steer clear of the Oxford University Press edition of THE AMERICAN and THE PORTRAIT OF A LADY; both contain late, heavily revised versions of the original novels. I’ll use the Penguin editions in class.

SML will have a limited number of books for borrowing each month before the discussion group meets. (Please note: these copies will come from Interlibrary Loan, and we cannot guarantee that all copies will be the recommended editions.) 

This series is made possible by the generous support of the Friends of the Scoville Library.

Dates & Times:
10:30 AM - 12:30 PM, Tuesday, January 21, 2025
10:30 AM - 12:30 PM, Tuesday, January 28, 2025
10:30 AM - 12:30 PM, Tuesday, February 4, 2025
10:30 AM - 12:30 PM, Tuesday, February 11, 2025
10:30 AM - 12:30 PM, Tuesday, February 18, 2025
10:30 AM - 12:30 PM, Tuesday, February 25, 2025
10:30 AM - 12:30 PM, Tuesday, March 4, 2025
10:30 AM - 12:30 PM, Tuesday, March 11, 2025
Time Zone:
Eastern Time - US & Canada (change)
Location:
Wardell Room
Audience:
  Adults  
Categories:
  Adult Program  

Registration is required. There are no in-person seats available but a waiting list is available. There are 17 online seats available.