Scarsdale Adult School Catalog Fall/Winter 2024-25
Book Discussion: The Rainbow (1915) by D.H. Lawrence, a Modernist Family Saga
D. H. Lawrence’s The Rainbow (1915) chronicles three generations of an English Midlands family, the Brangwens, taking them from the Victorian age through changes in economic and belief systems to the modern era. The novel culminates in the saga of granddaughter Ursula Brangwen, a brilliant young woman who challenges convention of education, family, and English identity. Melding modernist innovation with the traditional narrative pleasures of the family, The Rainbow is an enjoyable and stimulating read. NICHOLAS BIRNS is an adjunct instructor at NYU, has taught at several other institutions in the New York area, and has lectured abroad in Sweden, Australia, and China. He covers classic and contemporary fiction as well as the major works of Western and world literature, on which he has written many books and articles, most recently co-editing The Cambridge Companion to the Australian Novel (Cambridge University
Press) and authoring The Hyperlocal In Eighteenth and Nineteenth-Century Literary Space (Lexington). He has contributed to The New York Times Book Review , Modernism/Modernity , Modern Language Quarterly , Partial Answers , and Studies in Romanticism . 2 Sessions, starting Thursday, September 12 • 10:30am-12:00pm • Zoom • Course 12775 • $70
Book Discussion: Madame Bovary (1857) by Gustave Flaubert, After the Wedding Cake
Gustave Flaubert’s Madame Bovary is one of the greatest novels in world literature. Reading the book in Francis Steegmuller’s acclaimed translation, see how it begins comically, with literature’s most memorable wedding cake, and concludes tragically, as what had first seemed Emma Bovary’s quest for freedom ends up being futile. Madame Bovary explores women’s experiences in a complex and sophisticated way, unprecedented in the nineteenth century. Also examine the possibility of whether a male writer, however gifted and insightful, can accurately capture the reality of a woman’s existence. NICHOLAS BIRNS (see bio for “Book Discussion: The Rainbow (1915) by D.H. Lawrence, a Modernist Family Saga”).
4 Sessions, starting Thursday, October 17 • 10:30am-12:00pm • Zoom • Course 12776 • $140
Book Discussion: Ivan Goncharov's Oblomov (1859), a Superfluous Man
We all know "Oblomov" types — people who have great promises but who seem to never achieve anything, seldom leave their home, and never take concerted action. Ivan Goncharov's 1859 novel paints Oblomov as a "superfluous man," somebody who is paralyzed both by his own imperfection and those of an autocratic Russian society. In reading Marian Schwartz's Yale University Press translation, see how Goncharov foreshadows the achievements of his younger contemporaries, Leo Tolstoy and Fyodor Dostoyevsky. NICHOLAS BIRNS (see bio for “Book Discussion: The Rainbow (1915) by D.H. Lawrence, a Modernist Family Saga”). 2 Sessions, starting Thursday, December 5 • 10:30am-12:00pm • Zoom • Course 12777 • $70
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