Victorians! discussion

Reading schedule

Different editions seem to be divided into different Book numbers. However, with the exception of the Prologue, I am calling my divisions “sections” which may or may not equate to Book numbers in your edition. For each section I am detailing the chapter names to make things absolutely clear-ish.
Using the Penguin Classics edition as a guide, I’ve added the number of pages for each section. I’ve tried to spread the novel as equally as possible over June and July without interrupting logical narrative breaks, and this is why sections are of different lengths.

In order to get things going as quickly as possible, I’ve opened the Prologue thread now and will open subsequent threads every Saturday. The Prologue is shorter than the other sections, so I thought we could fit it in between now and this coming Saturday.

Tues June 9th – Saturday June 13th
Prologue (The Travellers, The Solid Side of Scotch Character, The Wreck of the Timber Ship)
44 pages


Saturday June 13th
Section 1 (The Mystery of Ozias Midwinter, The Man Revealed, Day and Night, The Shadow of the Past, The Shadow of the Future)
101 pages

Saturday June 20th
Section 2 (Lurking Mischief, Allan as a Landed Gentleman, The Claims of Society, The March of Events, Mother Oldershaw on Her Guard, Midwinter in Disguise, The Plot Thickens)
88 pages

Saturday June 27th
Section 3 (The Norfolk Broads, Fate or Chance?, The Housemaid's Face, Miss Gwilt Among the Quicksands, The Clouding of the Sky, Exit)
65 pages

Saturday July 4th
Section 4 (Mrs. Milroy, The Man is Found, The Brink of Discovery, Allan at Bay, Pedgift's Remedy, Pedgift's Postscript, The Martyrdom of Miss Gwilt , She Comes Between Them, She Knows the Truth)
115 pages

Saturday July 11th
Section 5 (Miss Gwilt's Diary, Love and Law, A Scandal at the Station, An Old Man's Heart, Miss Gwilt's Diary (yes, there are two), Wedding Day
117 pages

Saturday July 18th
Section 6 (Miss Gwilt's Diary (make that three), The Diary Continued, The Diary Broken Off)
70 pages

Saturday July 25th
Section 7 - Book the Last and Epilogue (At the Terminus, In the House, The Purple Flask, News from Norfolk , Midwinter)
61 pages

For those of you reading the Penguin Classics edition, here are the page numbers which Deborah sent to me.

Book the First
The Travellers - pg. 37
The Solid Side of Scotch... - pg 45
The Wreck of the Timber Ship - pg. 51

Book the Second
The Mystery of Ozias Midwinter - pg. 81
The Man Revealed - pg. 117
Day and Night - pg. 138
The Shadow of the Past - pg. 152
The Shadow of the Future - pg. 169

Book the Third
Lurking Mischief - pg. 182
Allan as a Landed Gentlemen - pg. 198
The Claims of Society - pg. 211
The March of Events - pg. 223
Mother Oldershaw on Her Guard - pg. 237
Midwinter in Disguise - pg. 248
The Plot Thickens - pg. 255
The Norfolk Broads - pg. 270
Fate or Chance? - pg. 284
The Housemaid's Face - pg. 296
Miss Gwilt Among the Quicksands - pg. 309
The Clouding of the Sky - pg. 320
Exit - pg. 326

Book the Fourth
Mrs. Milroy - pg. 335
The Man is Found - pg. 348
The Brink of Discovery - pg. 356
Allan at Bay - pg. 370
Pedgift's Remedy - pg. 385
Pedgift's Postscript - pg. 397
The Martyrdom of Miss Gwilt - pg. 402
She Comes Between Them - pg. 417
She Knows the Truth - pg. 426
Miss Gwilt's Diary - pg. 450
Love and Law - pg. 480
A Scandal at the Station - pg. 488
An Old Man's Heart - pg 496
Miss Gwilt's Diary (yes there are two) - pg. 512
Wedding Day - pg. 542

Book the Fifth
Miss Gwilt's Diary (make that three) - pg. 567
The Diary Continued - pg. 580
The Diary Broken Off - pg. 600

The Book Last
At the Terminus - pg. 637
In the House - pg. 644
The Purple Flask - pg. 654

Epilogue
New from Norfolk - pg. 690
Midwinter - pg. 698

The amount of pages per division seems really doable. I was a little nervous about keeping up since I'm typically a slow reader, but this seems like something I can do :).

Rachel wrote: "The amount of pages per division seems really doable. I was a little nervous about keeping up since I'm typically a slow reader, but this seems like something I can do :)."

Yeah! I read slowly for book club too

Pip wrote: "For those of you reading the Penguin Classics edition, here are the page numbers which Deborah sent to me.

Book the First
The Travellers - pg. 37
The Solid Side of Scotch... - pg 45
The Wreck of t..."

Just one note. This from an ebook, Nook edition, Peguin Classic

Thanks for this. I'm going to use an ereader until my Penguin edition arrives from a warehouse somewhere in the USA.

Rachel wrote: "The amount of pages per division seems really doable. I was a little nervous about keeping up since I'm typically a slow reader, but this seems like something I can do :)."

Hooray! Though you'll probably find that you can't put this one down once you've got into it :-)

Peter wrote: "Thanks for this. I'm going to use an ereader until my Penguin edition arrives from a warehouse somewhere in the USA."

I'm going to be over in the UK at the end of June and I think I'll pick up a paper copy while I'm there, if my luggage allowance will stretch to it ;-)

Pip wrote: "Peter wrote: "Thanks for this. I'm going to use an ereader until my Penguin edition arrives from a warehouse somewhere in the USA."

I'm going to be over in the UK at the end of June and I think I..."

Pip, we are going to miss each other. I will be in London on 7/18 :(

Oh, I'd forgotten your visit to Madgeland! I won't actually be in London though - just a quick trip from Bilbao to Bristol to my parents' in Devon. The UK is tiny by your standards, but it's not that tiny ;-))

Pip wrote: "Oh, I'd forgotten your visit to Madgeland! I won't actually be in London though - just a quick trip from Bilbao to Bristol to my parents' in Devon. The UK is tiny by your standards, but it's not th..."

Tiny is relative. East Coast states are tiny. California, Virginia, Pennsylvania nit do much :)

I have been sick lately, I am better now...that is why I had not been around these days. But I am thrilled we are reading Armadale! Wilkie Collins was in my list for this year, I was hoping the group wil read something by him so I had the chance!

Rut wrote: "I have been sick lately, I am better now...that is why I had not been around these days. But I am thrilled we are reading Armadale! Wilkie Collins was in my list for this year, I was hoping the gro..."

Welcome back. Glad to hear your feeling better.

Thank you Deborah!

Does anyone know if there is a free downloadable audio version of this book? Im finding my schedule lately hasnt allowed me to sit and read much, so if I had an audio version I could catch up while listening and staying busy at the same time.

Rachel-
I've been listening to the Librivox version. www.librivox.org
It's free from the website. There are several readers but all so far are decent and some exceptional.

Thanks so much! :) I really appreciate it. I have so many books to read but barely time lately.

You're welcome. I totally get it. Audiobooks have been a lifesaver where my reading life is concerned.

Just to endorse Renee's point; I also began with the Librivox recording for the Preface, and it gave me a really good headstart. I then went over to e-book, and the problem has been more one of not being able to stop than one of keeping going :-)

Either way, Rachel, the threads are open forever and every time someone posts, they'll go to the top of the list again - so you will definitely get responses to your contributions, no matter how "old" they are.

Sigh, dealing with craziness here. I'm soo far behind :(

Thanks Pip, I've never heard of that site until today, and I will definitely be utilizing it! My library has alot of audio books but not Armadale, so this will come in handy.

I'm going to make a small adjustment to the schedule, partly because I've realised I've broken one section up rather strangely, and partly to spread the next chapters out a bit more and give people a chance to catch up.

So...

For our next Section (Section 4) we will read up to and including "She Comes Between Them".

Section 5 will begin with "She Knows The Truth".

Section 6 will begin with "Wedding Day" (I know it is the penultimate chapter of a "Book", but it works.)

And the remainder, as per originally published schedule.

Hope that's ok and you don't spend too long shifting your page markers around ;-)

Pip wrote: "I'm going to make a small adjustment to the schedule, partly because I've realised I've broken one section up rather strangely, and partly to spread the next chapters out a bit more and give people..."

Yeah. My house guest leaves today so I should get some reading time in within the next few days.