Episode 450 || Sneak Peek: Conquer a Classic
This week on From the Front Porch, you get a sneak peek at our super-popular Conquer a Classic book club for Patreon supporters! Today's episode is an excerpt from one of Annie and Hunter's Patreon-exclusive discussions about Bleak House, our Conquer a Classic book of 2023.
Do you want to Conquer a Classic with us in 2024? Now is the perfect time to join Patreon and read along with our bookish community from across the globe. Join Patreon to unlock exclusive episodes where Annie and Hunter discuss Lonesome Dove by Larry McMurtry, our Conquer a Classic pick for 2024! We'll read this 20th-century American western together over the next year starting in January.
If already own Lonesome Dove, you can access the reading tracker for free as a Patreon member, or purchase a digital PDF download here.
To conquer Lonesome Dove with us in 2024, follow these three steps:
1. Join our Patreon community at the $5, $20, or $50 levels here.
2. Stop by the store, call us at (229) 228-7767, or order your copy of Lonesome Dove online here. Your purchase includes an exclusive reading tracker and Conquer a Classic sticker.
3. Start reading and discussing this American western with us in January 2024!
We can’t wait to Conquer a Classic with you and readers from across the world!
In other news, friend of The Bookshelf Sean Dietrich (aka Sean of the South) is returning to Thomasville Center for the Arts on Thursday, November 30 for a book launch, performance, and book signing! We’re thrilled to partner with this terrific Southern author, storyteller, and musician to launch his heartwarming new novel, Kinfolk, releasing on Tuesday, November 14! Tap below to get tickets to his performance and preorder Kinfolk.
Kinfolk by Sean Dietrich - Signed Copy
Kinfolk by Sean Dietrich
Tickets to the Sean Dietrich event
Thank you to this week’s sponsor, Visit Thomasville. Fall is a wonderful time to see Thomasville, Georgia! If it’s time to hit the road for a quick getaway, we’re exactly what you’re looking for! You can rekindle your spark, explore historical sites, indulge in dining out, shop at amazing independent stores, and finally relax and unwind. There’s no better getaway than Thomasville! Whether you live close by or are passing through, we hope you'll visit beautiful Thomasville, Georgia – it’s worth the trip! Plan your visit at ThomasvilleGa.com.
From the Front Porch is a weekly podcast production of The Bookshelf, an independent bookstore in South Georgia. You can follow The Bookshelf’s daily happenings on Instagram at @bookshelftville, and all the books from today’s episode can be purchased online through our store website, www.bookshelfthomasville.com.
A full transcript of today’s episode can be found below.
Special thanks to Dylan and his team at Studio D Podcast Production for sound and editing and for our theme music, which sets the perfect warm and friendly tone for our Thursday conversations.
This week, Annie is reading The Fury by Alex Michaelides.
If you liked what you heard in today’s episode, tell us by leaving a review on Apple Podcasts. You can also support us on Patreon, where you can access bonus content, monthly live Porch Visits with Annie, our monthly live Patreon Book Club with Bookshelf staffers, Conquer a Classic episodes with Hunter, and more. Just go to patreon.com/fromthefrontporch.
We’re so grateful for you, and we look forward to meeting back here next week.
Our Executive Producers are...Ashley Ferrell, Cammy Tidwell, Chanta Combs, Chantalle C, Kate O’Connell, Kristin May, Laurie Johnson, Linda Lee Drozt, Martha, Nicole Marsee, Stacy Laue, Stephanie Dean, Susan Hulings, and Wendi Jenkins.
Transcript:
[squeaky porch swing] Welcome to From the Front Porch, a conversational podcast about books, small business, and life in the South. [music plays out]
“The universe makes rather an indifferent parent, I'm afraid.” - Charles Dickens, Bleak House
[as music fades out] I’m Annie Jones, owner of The Bookshelf, an independent bookstore in beautiful downtown Thomasville, Georgia, and this week, we’re taking a step back in time and giving you a sneak peak into our Patreon Conquer a Classic program. Here’s an announcement for local and long-distance customers alike: One of our favorite regional writers, Sean Dietrich, is coming back to Thomasville, Georgia! Sean of the South will be at the Thomasville Center for the Arts on Thursday, November 30, at 6 p.m., where he’ll be launching his latest novel Kinfolk. Kinfolk — as well as Sean’s other books — can be ordered directly from The Bookshelf in-store and online. Tickets to Sean’s event are $35 and are selling quickly! Get yours online through Sean’s website, seandietrich.com, or through the direct link in our shownotes. You won’t want to miss this event; Sean is beloved in Thomasville, and his events are always a big hit with our friends and customers.
Annie Jones [00:01:29] Now back to the show. Did you know that every year over on Patreon, hundreds of readers are digging into classic literature together. Since 2020, I have been joined in this conquer, a classic endeavor by my real life friend and friend of the show, Hunter McLendon, to read and recap classic tomes we might have overlooked. We launched the program back in 2020 with Anna Karenina. This was my personal bucket list book ever since I think it was an Oprah selection maybe when I was in high school. And then after conquering that, we felt like we could conquer anything. So in 2021, we read Middlemarch and then we read Count of Monte Cristo in 2022. This year, as you may or may not have heard through my various wailings on social media, we conquered Charles Dickens Bleak House, and I truly mean this. I have never been so proud to finish a book. Here is what I love best about conquering a classic each year. It forces me to read slowly. Back in college, when Jordan and I did the Great Books Honors Program, the first book we read was a book called How to Read Slowly. And it was so valuable because up until that point, I really prided myself on being a fast reader. And being a fast reader is helpful in my day to day life, in my regular job. So I am grateful to be able to read quickly. But I also know there's real value in slowing down, and that does not come naturally to me.
[00:02:57] So to embark on a world of classic literature, knowing up front that it's going to take me all year has become kind of a spiritual practice. And then reading alongside hundreds of readers all over the country. The year we read last year when we read Count of Monte Cristo together, we sent the Penguin clothbound version of that book into a reprint, which brought me so much joy that this work of classic literature was being reprinted because of readers and bookshelf readers. And so reading alongside so many well-read, thoughtful people has been an unexpected benefit. On months where the reading has felt especially dry or impossible. I know that I'm not only accountable to Hunter, who's recapping sections of these books with me each month, but I'm also accountable to many of you. And there is a real sense of-- pardon the quote from High School Musical, but we're all in this together. And so those two things, the act of reading slowly, which feels so countercultural and so counter to my own personality, and then reading alongside of other readers has been such a gift. I would never, and I really mean this, I would never in a million years have finished any of these classic books without the camaraderie of the Conquer a Classic program and our monthly recap podcast episodes each month on Patreon.
[00:04:20] If you're not familiar, each month on Patreon, Hunter and I diligently recap each section of that year's selection through a serious and a silly lens. We navigate the occasionally outdated language, but still somehow timely prose with frequent references to RuPaul's Drag Race, Gilmore Girls and more. So we take our roles as your guides through these literary works seriously. But we also know neither of us is an English major. Some of our patron supporters are, shout out to Christian, but we are not. We are lay-readers like you, and we're just trying to incorporate classic lit into our already really busy and full reading lives. And so we're beating each other where we are. To celebrate our recently conquered 2023 selection-- and if you're not on Patreon-- to give you a peek into what you've been missing, I wanted to show an excerpt from our first recap episode of Bleak House, which was released on Patreon back in January. I hope this glimpse into our monthly episodes brings you joy and maybe inspires you to conquer a classic along with us in 2024. Which last week on Patreon we announced our 2024 classic to conquer: Lonesome Dove.
[00:05:33] This is the Pulitzer Prize winning novel by Larry McMurtry. Neither Hunter nor I had read it. This will be our first work of classic American literature, so we're really excited to dive in. It clocks in at like 860 pages, I think, in the paperback edition. So it's a classic. It's a classic that needs to be conquered. It's a tome and you can read along with us. So if you join us at the $5 a month level or above, you'll receive our digital reading plan in addition to those monthly recap episodes which will begin in January. And if you purchase a copy of Lonesome Dove from The Bookshelf, you'll receive a printed copy of the reading guide as well. And that reading guide is like a five by seven size card that really just shows which chapters we read each month. So if you are wanting to read along with us, even if you don't join us on Patreon, but you want access to the reading guide, you can purchase a copy of Lonesome Dove and there is a downloadable copy available directly from the Bookshelf website. All of these links are in your show notes.
[00:06:37] But if you join us on Patreon at $5 month level, you get access to all of these things. So visit Bookshelfthomasville.com to find a copy of Lonesome Dove through the Bookshelf. And if you'd like to join us over on Patreon, you can visit Patreon.com/ fromthefrontporch. There is so much fun stuff happening on Patreon. No matter what tier of support you join, but conquer a classic episodes remain one of our most popular pieces with bonus content. And I hope by hearing today's Bleak House recap, you'll see why.
[00:07:13] Welcome to Conquer a Classic Bleak House. I am joined as always by my friend and co-host, Hunter McLendon. I'm Annie B. Jones. Happy New Year, everybody.
Hunter [00:07:25] Happy New Year.
Annie Jones [00:07:26] We're back. We've been on hiatus because last year we conquered the Count of Monte Cristo and we announced Bleak House. And it is finally time to start talking about Dickens and Bleak House. How are you? How are you feeling? How are you feeling as we move from one book to another?
Hunter [00:07:47] I'm feeling very excited to be done with the Count of Monte Cristo. I think Bleak House is going to be a nice change of pace.
Annie Jones [00:07:57] Yes.
Hunter [00:07:59] I had a question. How would you rate the first three that we've read so far?
Annie Jones [00:08:03] Okay. We've done Anna Karenina, Middlemarch and the Count. Okay. Do you mean in terms of overall favorites?
Hunter [00:08:13] Yeah.
Annie Jones [00:08:15] Okay, this is going to sound weird, but I think my favorite: Middlemarch, Anna Karenina, Count of Monte Cristo. Easiest reading experience: Count of Monte Cristo, Anna Karenina, Middlemarch. Does that make sense?
Hunter [00:08:38] Yes.
Annie Jones [00:08:38] Because to me, those are different things. Overall, I really think Middlemarch is a book that I probably will revisit and is a book that I think held a lot. And George Eliot stuck the landing. Count of Monte Cristo was a very easy-- I say easy. There were parts that were tough. But as a really enjoyable reading experience, I did not think the landing was stuck. And therefore I think you and I are very similar in that if an author can't wrap it up, then woe is them. Like, we lose a lot of respect and a lot of appreciation for that work. And then the good news for authors is if they can stick the landing, all of a sudden you and I are like, oh, five stars.
Hunter [00:09:21] Yeah, that's the thing. It's so funny because I feel like we've spent like the first five sections of Middlemarch being like, I don't know. And then that last page, we were like, well, best book in the world.
Annie Jones [00:09:35] Wow, last line, I could cry. I think that's really what it's all about. I have definitely enjoyed Anna Karenina. There were parts that were a bit of a slog. There were parts of Middlemarch that were a slog. That's why I say as far as enjoyable reading experiences, I'd actually put that one toward the bottom. But I think the work itself, I overall enjoyed that work better than the Count Because of the ending. Because of the ending.
Hunter [00:10:02] Yeah, but I think that because people often actually compare Tolstoy and Dickens or they compare and contrast them a lot. They kind of talk about like they kind of work in like a yin yang of each other sometimes. But I feel like this is an early predictor. I think that Charles Dickens will possibly have a lot of the propulsive nature that the Count of Monte Cristo had that we like. Like a lot is going to be happening. But I think it's going to have the quality that we're looking for that we loved in Middlemarch and Anna Karenina.
Annie Jones [00:10:34] I feel that deeply. I really do. Even just from these first seven chapters, I think I've gotten a sense I'm having a good time. I don't want to spoil all of our content, but I'm having a good time. Okay, before we fully dive in, welcome, everyone. Hunter there are nearly 700 people joining us on this journey.
Hunter [00:10:53] That is so wild.
Annie Jones [00:10:55] Isn't that bonkers? Seven hundred people are conquering this classic or at least going to attempt to. It could be like Survivor or The Hunger Games, so at the end of this you and I are the last two standing. I don't know. But right now, nearly 700 listeners are joining us from all over the country, all over the world, in fact. And so welcome. Thank you so much for being here. As Hunter alluded to, we are on our fourth year of Conquer a Classic. We have read Anna Karenina, Middlemarch and the Count of Monte Cristo together. And now we are back to read Charles Dickens Bleak House. I would love if you spread the word about conquer a classic so that we can have more listeners kind of following along, because I do think this is an enjoyable way to read classic literature. I hope it is. Hunter and I try to make it really fun and enjoyable. Well, we talk about this a lot. Reading is a beautiful solo activity, and I also think it's a really lovely communal activity. And so if you want to share with your friends, we would love for you to tag us on Instagram, show us where you're reading, use the hashtag conquer a classic. And even if Dickens isn't your thing, remember that on Patreon you can access all of our back episodes. So somebody messaged me the other day and said, I don't know that I'm going to do Bleak House, but I wasn't a patron supporter back when you guys did Middlemarch. And so can I access those episodes? Absolutely.
[00:12:23] You can go back and listen to the very Innocent Annie and Hunter of 2020 before we fully knew what was going on. You can go back and listen to those Anna Karenina episodes so you have a full back catalog and perhaps you want to read Middlemarch or I think a lot of folks read Count of Monte Cristo and actually kind of sped ahead of us. And so now if you want to do that this year where you read Count of Monte Cristo in a summer, well, you can go and listen to all the episodes in whatever amount of time you want. And so there is a whole back catalog for you to peruse. But we started this back in 2020 pre-pandemic. We didn't know what we were doing. We just knew Anna Karenina was one of my bucket list books, and Hunter graciously agreed to read alongside me and we had a lovely time. I have nothing but fond memories of that reading project, and so we decided to keep going. And last year we did Count of Monte Cristo, which was like what the people chose. They voted. We had a lot of good choices. That was the one that overwhelmingly, I think, won the vote. And you and I have already talked a little bit about Dickens and about Bleak House in particular. And so when it came time to choosing a book for this year, we did not allow a vote. We did not put it to the people, even though we love all of you. I couldn't even tell you, except I just felt like Bleak House was calling to me. It's how I will put it. And so that is why we chose Bleak House.
Hunter [00:13:54] Now, I'm very excited because the thing is, I think that Bleak House is a book-- I think it's the same way with Anna Karenina and Middlemarch-- where a lot of people might read Great Expectations or something or Oliver Twist on their own, I don't think a lot of people would read Bleak House on their own.
Annie Jones [00:14:10] Okay, that's a great point, because I think a lot of people are like Dickens? Why don't you read A Christmas Carol? Well, that's that's too short for Conquer a Classic. But I'm very open to it. Great Expectations, I think, is the obvious choice. And I think in the back of my mind I thought, oh, sure, that be great. But for some reason, who did you say? Did you say Donna Tartt, Bleak House is her favorite novel?
Hunter [00:14:31] Yes.
Annie Jones [00:14:31] So I think that was in my brain as something you had told me. And I think I just kind of wanted to pick something-- you're right-- that nobody would read on their own. We don't sell a lot of copies of Bleak House at the Bookshelf. Whereas, we'll sell a lot of copies of Great Expectations or Tale of Two Cities. And so I think this is going to be fun because I just don't think this is one people would have read otherwise maybe.
Hunter [00:14:58] Yeah. No, I agree.
Annie Jones [00:15:00] Okay, so let's get started. This is like our pilot episode and you can almost feel that in Dickens work here that he's kind of laying the groundwork. So we're going to lay the groundwork as well. Hunter, what is your relationship to Charles Dickens and to Bleak House in particular?
Hunter [00:15:18] So I've only ever read A Christmas Carol before this and also the first couple of pages of several of his other books. You can always tell whenever if somebody ever says to you, "Oh, I bet you love Charles Dickens," it's because they think you were abused as a child.
Annie Jones [00:15:38] Just going in everybody, if you're new here, this is the vibe. And I'm sorry.
Hunter [00:15:47] They assume. They're like, oh, something bad must have happened to you because you're really going to resonate. Because like everyone always tells me, they're like, "You're like Phoebe from Friends. You'll probably like Charles Dickens." And all of his books are like orphans being thrown to the wolves.
Annie Jones [00:16:02] Yes.
Hunter [00:16:02] Yeah. And so I had this idea of Dickens as being this writer of the poor Bohemian Rhapsody child whose suffering.
Annie Jones [00:16:12] Yeah, I get that. I feel that I have never read any dickens. That was kind of my bookseller confession. And part of the reason I feel like Conquer a Classic is my chance to kind of correct some of those things, even though I don't fully believe in bookish regrets. Like, books meet you when they're supposed to meet you, which sounds hippie dippy, but I think it's true. And so Bleak House is not necessarily the bucket list item that Anna Karenina was, but Charles Dickens definitely is. I just felt like I was vaguely familiar with the CliffsNotes versions of his works. He was never required reading in my collegiate work or in my high school work. I don't know, except maybe excerpts, I never read Dickens. Of course, I'm familiar with A Christmas Carol, much like I was familiar with Wishbones, Count of Monte Cristo. I'm familiar with The Muppet Christmas Carol. But that's about it. And I wanted to correct that because there's a world in which Dickens feels like the follow up to Jane Austen or something like that. Like it feels like something I should have read, something that I should be familiar with, but I wasn't. So my personal history with Dickens is that I don't really have one except being familiar with his works because of pop culture and because of reading. And actually somebody had a question about Little Women, but because of references to the Pickwick papers or things like that. References to Dickens, I'm very familiar with. The actual works of Dickens, I am not familiar with. And so this I hope is going to correct that a little bit. The most I knew about Dickens is that he wrote most often in serialized versions of his work, and that was one of the reasons Bleak House was appealing to me as a Conquer a Classic, because in some way we are mimicking the actual ways in which this book was first released and that there is something about that, that I find really lovely. Remind me, was Middlemarch done that way?
Hunter [00:18:16] Yeah, Middlemarch and Anna Karenina were done that way.
Annie Jones [00:18:21] I think when we researched, Count was not serialized.
Hunter [00:18:25] Okay. I do know both Anna and Middlemarch were. And I think that it did work really well, especially Anna. I think that one is a great one to read over the course of a year because it really just like it ends on a perfect--
Annie Jones [00:18:39] And it's so natural. It was so natural. The breaks we'll talk about in Bleak House if you have the The Penguin Clothbound Edition, you can see where the original sections were. I think there are 19 or 20. There are 20. And so you can see where it was actually serialized. So it was serialized over the course between March 1852 and September 1853, which are about 19 or 20 months. We're doing this in 12 months. So occasionally I combine sections. So like, for example, we read chapters one through seven for today's episode. That was sections one and two. So that was read over the course of a two month period by the British people, by Dickens readers in their original time. Okay. So let me also ask before we get into our thoughts on Bleak House and on this section. If listeners are new to this and they have started with Dickens, they didn't read along with us the previous years and they read chapters one and two of this and they want to hurt us because it's not the vibe, it's not for them; how do you typically approach? Because I think we are similar in some ways and different in some ways, how do you approach a work of classic lit like this? Do you go in knowing nothing? Do you go in heavily researched, knowing the basic plot? I think for Count of Monte Cristo, that story has been in the culture so much that we went in knowing how that was going to kind of go. But generally speaking, how do you approach reading a classic work?
Hunter [00:20:17] Well, I barely graduated high school, so I'm not one who prepares. So I just like to go in and I'm like, you know what? I'm sure I'll figure it out at some point. And that's the way I go about it.
Annie Jones [00:20:32] But well, and I think that works. Like, I do think eventually-- we've talked about that before. Occasionally, things will be happening in these books where we're like, what? But we just trust that we're going to figure it out. This is interesting because I'm an Enneagram five. So I think a lot of people might assume that like I deep dive, but I don't want to be really spoiled. And Bleak House is a book I'm not familiar with the plot at all. Count of Monte Cristo, I was. Anna Karenina, some of it. Basically I was. Although if you listen to those episodes, you can see that I was not. You could see that I kept predicting things that were not happening. When I was in college I did a Great Books Program as part of my coursework. And interestingly, to read those big books like The Iliad and Summa of the Summa and things like that, we had these editions that had prefaces and introductions by great authors, and our professor told us don't read those. And I don't remember in college fully what his reasoning was. I just remember thinking, okay, great, fewer pages that I have to read. But for this edition of Bleak House, which does come with an introduction, I started to read the introduction and then I thought, no, I don't want to read this.
[00:21:53] I'm going to use my collegiate teachings, and I'm going to go in because I think what happens when you read an introduction of a work like Middlemarch or Anna Karenina or Bleak House, there are going to be spoilers there because it's an introduction to the whole classic work. And I don't really want that. Even if you go to CliffsNotes, which I certainly did, we'll talk about how I aid my own reading at a time like this. But when you go to CliffsNotes, they will give you a whole summary of the whole book. And I don't want that. I kind of want to go in knowing nothing. So if you went into Bleak House knowing nothing, congratulations. So am I. And I thought about you, Hunter, because even with contemporary works of literature, you tend to go in knowing nothing. You don't really read blurbs, you don't read descriptions. I don't always do that. But even last year, when I was reading some Toni Morrison, I just went in knowing nothing. And I think the reading was better for it. I don't know that that will always be true, but in the case of Bleak House, I skipped the introduction. I read the preface because it felt like that was part of the original work, but otherwise I went in. I knew it was serialized. You had told me there might be a spontaneous combustion at some point. That's all I know.
Hunter [00:23:11] This might be a hot take, but I don't think it should be, which is that I think that any well-written, well-crafted book will tell you everything you need to know without you knowing anything going in. I think that especially now with modern publishing that people rely so heavily on the outside knowledge going in that they don't do some of the work they need to be doing.
Annie Jones [00:23:34] Look, maybe that's the same take my professor had. Because I just knew, I was like, oh, he'll want us to the introduction, he'll want us to do all this work in advance. And he very much was like, no, I want you to go in and read the work for the work, and then we can go back and read the introduction later, or we can go back and read more about the work later. And I think too he wanted us to do the analysis ourselves instead of reading other people's analysis. And I appreciate that. So that's kind of how I go in, is knowing nothing. Okay, we covered chapters one through seven. We're going to do this a little differently than we did with Count of Monte Cristo, because Count of Monte Cristo was a plot driven book. And so we hit those plot points. This, I can very much tell, is not necessarily going to be that. And so instead today we're going to just kind of set the stage, go over maybe the main things that happened, but really talk about characters because Dickens has a lot of characters. In chapters one and two, he's setting the stage. One listener sent me a DM and said, "So far is a lot of descriptions of fog and I am concerned." And that was so funny to me because I didn't mind it. Like, I was fully prepared to kind of hate the slowness of it.
[00:24:52] Hunter, you need to listen to a podcast episode with Ezra Klein and the author Marianne Wolff, because I've listened to it twice and I've read through the transcript. I can't stop thinking about it. She's talking about the concept of deep reading. And so one of the things I really thought I wanted to try to do this year was read Bleak House. Not the day of our recordings, as I am want to do often, but to really try to read at least a couple of days in advance and to sit down with a pen just like I would have done with my Great Books class and underline. Because you know I do my little terrors and things like that, but like to not be afraid to annotate or ask questions and to really sit with it. And so I think that is something that helped my reading this go around; though, there is no denying that chapters one and two someone also wrote in and said, I feel like I started reading a book in the middle. And I get that because it feels like we're expected to know something. But I would argue that's how we're supposed to feel. I think you're supposed to be a little bit confused.
Hunter [00:26:03] Because like the whole beginning of the book is about this something in something.
Annie Jones [00:26:10] Yes, it's Jarndyce and Jarndyce.
Hunter [00:26:12] Thank you. Yeah, and nobody knows what it is. They're all confused. So I do think it makes sense to be like what is happening?
Annie Jones [00:26:21] Yeah. And I think that's how you're supposed to feel because just like you said, your impression of Dickens is like, oh, no, the children are being abused. I think that really is something he was writing about. I think that's one of the themes of his work, is someone needs to pay attention to the children. And I think he also is writing we'll see if this holds up throughout the book, but it very much seems like this is a critique of the judicial system. And if if Count of Monte Cristo was about criminal justice reform, I think this might be about judicial reform. And I think it's supposed to be kind of about how confusing and inaccessible the court system is. Look, I'm married to a lawyer and I used to work in the legal fields, but if you ever have spent your time around a lot of attorneys or if you've ever attended a party with a lot of attorneys, the language they're using is unfamiliar. It's almost like in a professional world that you're not a part of. It feels like they're speaking a foreign language. And so I think we're supposed to feel a little bit discombobulated in those first two chapters.
Hunter [00:27:27] Well, yeah. And if we're going to get lit class about it, like fog is something that obscures vision, right? So symbolically I'm sure that the fog has a lot to do with, like, can't see nothing.
Annie Jones [00:27:42] Yeah, I think you're right. Okay, so Jarndyce and Jarndyce is this court case. We don't know anything about it. We're not supposed to know anything about it. If you're confused, you're supposed to be confused. Don't you worry. And basically, it's this case that has been working its way through the court systems and at this chancery court for what feels like decades. And we're going to get a sense of just how long that court case has been in front of this chancellor, in front of these judges. But that's really what the first two chapters are about. And through, I think, at the beginning of chapter two and then chapter three, we finally start to get the people that I think we're supposed to care about. So shall we talk about the characters?
Hunter [00:28:24] Yes.
Annie Jones [00:28:26] Okay. So first we're introduced to Lady Dedlock and then Leicester Dedlock. I did look up that pronunciation. Leicester and Lady Dedlock. They are married. I can't remember now. I want to say he married into her wealth or she married into his. Somebody was wealthy and somebody was not.
Hunter [00:28:48] Right.
Annie Jones [00:28:49] And that's really all we know. What were they in chapter two or chapter three? They're chapter two, because in chapter three we get introduced to who I think might be the main character. Okay, So we are introduced to them. And again, you don't really know why. Like, if chapter one is a bunch of fog and a legal case you know nothing about, chapter two is the Dedlock couple. And you really don't know why we're supposed to care about them. And then chapter three, the narration. You almost feel like you're reading a different book. Is that how you felt?
Hunter [00:29:18] Yes. Because it switches to the first person.
Annie Jones [00:29:20] Yeah. It switches to the first person. So the character's name is Esther Summerson, and she reminds me immediately of like Dorothea Brooke or Levin from Anna Karenina. Like, who are the quintessentially good characters?
Hunter [00:29:40] I thought you were going to say she reminds you of me. Because as I was reading it, I was like, oh, my gosh, she sounds just like me because she's so self-deprecating. But you can tell that she kind of thinks high of herself too at the same time.
Annie Jones [00:29:56] Yeah. I think that's why she reminded me of Dorothea a little bit. She lives with her godmother, who we then realize-- and Esther doesn't even know it, but she was apparently actually her aunt because they were actually blood related. But she was their godmother, who's kind of a complicated woman. And then the godmother dies, and then Esther is sent away and spent six years at a school, and she helps the children and she just lives her life in service to others and loves it and has a great time. And then someone approaches her, an attorney approaches her and is like, hey, your name has come up in this Jarndyce and Jarndyce case and you're going to come be the housekeeper for John Jarndyce, and you're going to take care of the people that he needs to care for. And so immediately Esther is kind of thrust into caregiving for two more characters were introduced too: Ada Clare and Richard Carstone, who I think are introduced in a following chapter where Ada feels very-- how do I say this? It feels very Rory Gilmore, like very innocent, beautiful [inaudible] get her dressed in the morning vibes.
Hunter [00:31:15] Well, yeah, it's so funny because I think it was Ada and Richard?
Annie Jones [00:31:19] Yes.
Hunter [00:31:19] Yeah, they definitely both of them feel like they would belong in Stars hollow. Listen, I'm losing my powers of reference. This is terrible. But I do think both of them could fit in that world.
Annie Jones [00:31:39] I'm not even sure if we're fully given their ages. I picture late teens, early twenties. And they also, while Esther has been approached by an attorney, an attorney has approached Ada and Richard and told them that they are related to Jarndyce and he is taking them in and they all are going to move to Bleak House. I don't even know if that name is introduced until later chapters, but basically they're going to move to Bleak House under the care of Jarndyce and under the care of Esther. We know that Ada and Richard are related to Jarndyce, but do we fully know how Esther is known to Jarndyce? Is that revealed yet?
Hunter [00:32:19] I don't think so. No.
Annie Jones [00:32:20] I don't think so either. Okay. But then we get to me what is one of the most humorous chapters where Esther, Ada, and Richard go to Mrs Jellyby's house. And this is a friend of Jarndyce. And this is where they're staying in between. It's like the halfway point between maybe London and then where they're going. And she is a dear friend, supposedly, of Jarndyce. And she immediately I'm like, oh, it's a woke white lady philanthropist who cares deeply about Africa but cannot care for her own children.
Hunter [00:33:01] Literally. Like, that is so accurate. I was like, what is going on with this woman? That's so accurate. Yes.
Annie Jones [00:33:09] Yes. She's a woke lady with a lot of money that she sends to Africa and then her children don't eat.
Hunter [00:33:15] Like tell me this has literally been existing all the time.
Annie Jones [00:33:21] Forever. First of all, I liked the description of the fog. But one of the immediate things I notice is, oh, I'm laughing. Like, this book is funny. Charles Dickens is funny. And I don't really know that I fully felt like Count of Monte Cristo was funny. I thought it was really good. But I think this is funnier if you can catch it. And I'm not going to lie and be like, oh, this is super easy. No, I had to sit in my living room and turn off everything. Like, no music, no nothing. Grab a pen. And I did have to focus. And occasionally my eyes would wander because it is not super plot driven and propulsive like The Count, but the language is funny. And then these characters are very funny because I just immediately felt like-- and maybe it's because I just finished listening to Prince Harry's memoir. But I was like, these rich people have been around forever. Only her poor children are starving and can't get anything to eat. So we're introduced to Mrs. Jellyby and then her eldest daughter, Carrie, who essentially is her transcriber, like, writes all her letters and you can see the desperation with which she looks to Esther, Ada and Richard. Like, peers have entered her midst and she's like desperate to get their attention and to be like, "Do you see what's going on in this house? It's a mess." That was, to me, one of the most entertaining chapters because it felt like social satire. And that is something that I appreciate.
Hunter [00:35:06] That is one thing too. It is funny because there's moments that this kind of also reminds me a little bit of Jane Austen just a little bit.
Annie Jones [00:35:14] Yes, I get that. There's just some real snark to it.
Hunter [00:35:20] Yeah. And that's the thing too. It's so funny. So I've made two discoveries since watching the international seasons of RuPaul's Drag Race. And one is that Canada is not funny. Sorry. And the UK. is very funny.
Annie Jones [00:35:38] That's hilarious. Okay, you know what? I can see it. Canada is so sincere. Don't you think Canada is so sincere.
Hunter [00:35:46] That's what it is. They have maple syrup, so they had to just be sweet.
Annie Jones [00:35:50] Yeah. I feel like Canadians are so very sincere. And I think Great Britain has to be snarky. Maybe it has to do with the teeth. I feel that as a person with crooked teeth.
Hunter [00:36:02] I agree. Yeah. I'm over talking because I have Invisalign right now. So if you hear a slur, that's what it is. I haven't been drinking.
Annie Jones [00:36:10] We both have crooked teeth, so we can say that. I think British people have to have a sense of humor. Their weather sucks, you know?
Hunter [00:36:18] That's true. Well, they have so much fog.
Annie Jones [00:36:20] Right. They got to make fun of it. Okay. So even though the book starts perhaps setting the stage, there are several plot points here where basically Ada, Richard and Esther. First, they go on a walk with Caddy, who is just desperate to get out of the house. And her character is very interesting to me. And one thing I can't decide or can't figure out about this book yet is which characters I'm supposed to be fully invested in because there are so many. But I hope we see more of Caddy Jellyby because she was very funny to me. So they go on this walk. And this is the second time we're introduced to this old lady character who essentially stands outside. And gosh, again, my husband works at the Florida capital. I used to work for the Florida bar. I just feel like I know these people. Where she stands outside the courtroom armed with her paperwork and she's like, oh, I come here every day. I come here every day and follow all the cases. And I know everything to know about Jarndyce versus Jarndyce. And then we find out she has her own case that she is desperately trying to find out news about so much so that she lives in an apartment near the courthouse so that she can go there every day. And her apartment is full of birds that are caged, that she will grant freedom to when she is freed from the court case, commandeering her time. And I think what we're supposed to get here is that the wheels of justice turn far too slowly in Great Britain. I think that's what Dickens is trying to tell us. It's a bureaucratic mess. Hunter, did you watch Parks and Rec?
Hunter [00:38:07] Yes.
Annie Jones [00:38:08] Okay. A listener wrote in and said it feels like floor four of the Pawnee.
Hunter [00:38:16] Yeah.
Annie Jones [00:38:16] It's the place where you go up to the Parks Rec floor, and it's abandoned and creepy. And you're like, what is happening up there? And so that is exactly what the chancery court feels like. And this older woman has taken it upon herself. And you just know. I can picture her. Like, she's an eccentric bird lady who follows court cases and takes her paperwork. And when she finds out Ada, Richard and Esther are all involved in the Jarndyce versus Jarndyce case, she is very intrigued by them and almost she treats them specially. Like she brings them to her house and shows them her birds and then she's like, "By the way, Mike, I got to go to court because I don't know if my case is going to be summoned, so got to go." So she's very quirky. And then we see them go back. Caddy and all of the children are so sad to see them leave because this is the only time they've received care or attention while their mother talks about Africa over and over again. And Ada, Esther, and Richard get in a stagecoach and they go to Bleak House, where they are immediately are greeted by John Jarndyce and Mr. Skimpole. And these character names by the way, fantastic. Fantastic. So I want to talk about Mr. Skimpole, because other than Mrs. Jellyby, I found him to be equally entertaining. I can't quite figure out what he is a critique of, but I assume he is satirical critique on a certain type of person. But he's kind of this loud, extroverted, artist who doesn't work and is like, "I can't work. The world should not make me work. I was made for this world, but not for work." Like, everything out of his mouth, I laughed at. Because I thought I feel like I know people like this too.
Hunter [00:40:22] This is really random. But there's an episode of the United States of Tara, where Bella Davis, she has this guy who lives with her who she calls him a Trustafarian [sp] because he was offered this trust fund.
Annie Jones [00:40:34] Yes.
Hunter [00:40:35] And I feel like that's the kind of vibe in a way.
Annie Jones [00:40:38] Absolutely. I totally think so. Jarndyce, for whatever reason, we're not quite fully sure why, but Jarndyce has taken him under his wing. He lives at the house, at least right now. And I was just trying to find just some examples of his personality because I thought he was so funny. I think I marked a whole section where I was like, this guy. Here it is. So he confessed to two of the oddest infirmities in the world. One was that he had no idea of time, the other that he had no idea of money. In consequence of which he never kept an appointment, never could transact any business, and never knew the value of anything. Well, so he had got on in life, and here he was. He was very fond of reading the papers, very fond of making fancy sketches with a pencil. Very fond of nature. Very fond of art. All he asked of society was to let him live. Is he an Instagram influencer?
Hunter [00:41:31] Absolutely. Yes.
Annie Jones [00:41:35] He just wants to draw. He just wants to make sketches on his paper. All he asks of society was to let him live. That wasn't much. His wants were few. Give him the papers, conversation, music, mutton, coffee, landscape, fruit in the season, a few sheets of Bristol board and a little claret. And he asked no more. I just could not stop laughing. I thought that was hilarious. So I found him very funny and very entertaining. And then I was immediately put off by him because he pulls Esther and Richard aside-- nobody dare ask Ada for money. She's too pretty. And so he pulls Richard and Esther aside and is like, "Turns out I'm about to be arrested. Can you give me money to pay off my debts?" They pool their money together, which irritates me because I think Esther says something like, "Well I've been working my whole life and I've saved some money, but I could give it to you today in this one instance." And so she pools her money with Richard, they give him the money he needs. Mr Jarndyce finds out about it and is not pleased. Apparently, shock to no one, Mr. Skimpole does this all the time, which I think shows how naive perhaps Esther, Richard, and Ada all are going to wind up being. They feel very innocent. And Jarndyce is kind of like, just please don't do it again.
[00:42:52] And then this is what I think is interesting. So we get really Esther's story. She starts in chapter three. She's the narrator. We get her story through chapter six, but then chapter seven feels like another flipped switch where we get a new character named Mrs. Rouncewell. Well, she's a housekeeper at the Dedlock's at one of their homes. And her grandson Watt, which Watt is a very Thomasville name by the way. It's a very great man name. I feel like I literally know people named Watt. So Watt is her grandson. He comes to the house. He immediately kind of has some feelings, some romantic feelings, I think, for Rosa, who is Mrs. Rouncewell's kind of helper. And then they talk about how the Dedlocks home is haunted and how there's a ghost that kind of haunts this house. So can you tell me from chapters one through seven, if I'm outlining it, one is an introduction, two is the Dedlock story, three through six is Esther's story and seven is Dedlocks story. But we don't know yet how the Dedlocks and Esther are connected. Am I right about that?
Hunter [00:44:11] Right, not yet. I am very curious to see how it happens. Okay there's something I've been meaning to ask. For anyone who has not listened to the last three of these, Annie always thinks that everyone's going to die.
Annie Jones [00:44:23] I do.
Hunter [00:44:24] This is very curious. [Inaudible].
Annie Jones [00:44:31] But here's the thing. I am very anxious to see what the Jarndyce Jarndyce case really is. I wonder, are we going to be kept in the dark? Like, is that going to be the point that nobody even knows the details of this case anymore? We get a glimpse at how long this case has been going on, because someone-- it might be Mrs. Rouncewell, but in one of the latter chapters of this section, it was very startling to me. They're talking about a Jarndyce who was following the case, who the case takes so long that he winds up going to a pub and shooting himself. And so to me that was very shocking because the book thus far has not been particularly violent or shocking.
Hunter [00:45:16] Yeah, this is something actually I do love about his writing so far, is that he just writes things so swiftly and then it's done.
Annie Jones [00:45:23] Yes. You blink and you would have missed that.
Hunter [00:45:28] Yeah, it is a really great line, the way it's written, but it's there and gone.
Annie Jones [00:45:31] Yes. I'm telling you, you really have to pay attention. So as far as other character deaths, because we kind of see that death, it's already happened in the past, it kind of lends to finding out about Jarndyce and Jarndyce. And I feel like either we're going to be continually kept in the dark about that or we're slowly going to find something else. To me, the Dedlocks are most likely to die at this point because their house is haunted, which feels like foreshadowing of some kind. And then I just can't tell how dark this book is going to get. Like Mr. Skimpole, is he a nice, eccentric man who just like living on other people's money or is he going to be so far into debt that he goes to jail and dies? I don't know how dark this is going to be.
Hunter [00:46:18] To me, I feel like if Anna Karenina were like the Martin Scorsese of films type, whatever, then Charles Dickens type stuff in Bleak House probably is like the Steven Spielberg.
Annie Jones [00:46:35] Okay, I'm going to be paying attention because I did just see the Fabelmans and so I feel like I know more about Spielberg than I ever did. So now I'm going to be thinking about this.
Hunter [00:46:43] Because if you think about it in a way, yes, there's darkness and violence and stuff. But if you think about Steven Spielberg films, they're all very sentimental too. Like, they're very commercially accessible artistic films. And so I think that Charles Dickens kind of seemed more like to the masses in some ways. And I also think and because I have a theory that the reason why so many-- if you ever think about it, most classics that we all know and love are coming of age stories. And I think that a lot of Charles Dickens work seems like coming of age type things. Or even if they're older is still coming of a new age. And I think it's because out of every experience that we've ever had, we've all come of age in a certain way.
Annie Jones [00:47:31] Yeah. It's the most universal experience, right.
Hunter [00:47:34] And so I think that's the reason why. Yeah.
Annie Jones [00:47:36] I think I will be interested to see-- because like I said, this feels like our pilot episode. It also feels like the pilot episode for Bleak House. Like we've been given, I think, maybe our major characters. My impression of Dickens is there might be a lot more to come, but like I think we have perhaps our foundational characters there at Bleak House, which is the title of the book. Like we had to get there, and so we're finally there. And we've got this court case and we know there's this underlying tension of this bureaucracy and there are victims of this bureaucracy. And then there's also even some underlying themes of maybe romance. I'm thinking of Ada and Richard. I can't tell if there are vibes there. I don't know how important Rosa and Watt will be, but it felt like there were things going on there. And then I think there's also a theme of personal responsibility. Like Esther already seems like somebody we're supposed to really like because she takes care of herself. Tragedy has befallen her, but she is not downtrodden by it. She has risen above her station. And then we are I think supposed to frown upon Skimpole and Jellyby because they don't take care of themselves. Like Jellby's family suffers because she just is so concerned with children overseas and then Skimpole just lives and kind of mooches off of everybody and is charming, but at what cost? I could be wrong, but it feels like Dickens is making very clear who we are supposed to like and root for and who we are supposed to be a little eyerolly about. Like, maybe they're not fully villains, but we're supposed to roll our eyes at them.
Hunter [00:49:21] Yeah, I agree with that. I actually do think that so far this book is a lot lighter than I anticipated because of the title.
Annie Jones [00:49:27] Yes. Even when I logged on to CliffsNotes, I would try so hard to not read so, I don't know where we're going here. And I'm curious to see why is it called Bleak House? Like, what are we supposed to think about that? Because the description of the house itself actually found to be one of the loveliest parts of the book. I felt like I could picture this kind of mishmash of a house where there are little cottages and little rooms. I felt like, oh, that feels so very Great Britain to me because I do love their architecture. And so I was very intrigued by that. Okay. We do have some really good questions that I thought we could work through really quickly. Lisa said, "I'm four chapters in and I am incredibly confused. Is it just me? Who the heck is Jarndyce? What is going on? I feel like I picked up a book and started reading in the middle." Lisa, I hope our mutual confusion and also some explanation was helpful to you. I don't know about Hunter, but I will say I am reading a chapter and then I go look up the CliffsNotes of that chapter to ensure that I have understood everything I was supposed to understand. And I will say for the most part I have, because I think Hunter's tip for reading is often so spot on, which is just keep reading and you'll figure it out. I do think it's really good advice for conquering a classic, which is just keep going, put one foot in front of the other. But your confusion is valid. I think it is okay to utilize CliffsNotes or I can't remember the tool I used last year. I'm using CliffsNotes this year because I just want to make sure I'm reading each chapter like I'm supposed to and make sure I'm getting what I'm supposed to be getting. I'm also taking notes on my little card of character. Like I like writing and taking notes, it helps me learn and helps me remember.
Hunter [00:51:24] Well, also, I will just say I think that when when you're approaching classics, a lot of times we have this idea that's kind of ingrained in us in school of like people always think it's like cheating to read CliffsNotes or to ask your friends or call or whatever. I think it's good to allow yourself to have a little hand-holding throughout this, especially in the beginning.
Annie Jones [00:51:47] Yes, that's what we're here for. I'll also say when I was very first Googling Bleak House back when you picked it in October or November, I'm pretty sure a British newspaper did a like community reading of Bleak House. Meaning they did kind of what we're doing where they read a few chapters at a time and then kind of did a newspaper article about it or an editorial about it. I need to go find it because I loved that idea. They almost did a community read with Bleak House. And I'll see if that is helpful at all as another tool. I think because we're not reading this in a classroom setting, we really have to take advantage of as many tools as we possibly can to kind of help guide our reading. And so that's what Hunter and I are here for, but it's also what the Internet is for. Kristen says, "Hi, Amy and Hunter. I'm participating in the Little Women Book Club and I'm reading the annotated version, the footnotes in my copy of Little Women note the conventions that Alcott borrowed from Dickens, the Pickwick Papers, etc.. I was wondering if you all see a through line from works like Little Women to Bleak House. I guess it's more of an Annie question, but I'm sure Hunter could see connections from Dickens to some of the works he's read for his National Book Award project." I will be honest. As I said at the top of the episode, this is my first work of Dickens, so I think it's going to take a minute for me to be able to decide in what ways Dickens has influenced both modern literature and then other classics. But I already see in my mind, Hunter alluded to it how Austen influenced Dickens. I feel like that is very clear, and then I can see how little women could have easily-- it wasn't, but it could have been a serialized work for sure.
[00:53:25] As somebody who's currently reading it a chapter at a time, it feels like it lends itself so naturally to serialized reading. And I would assume Alcott was perhaps inspired then by Dickens. I also think Dickens was an author for the people. And I think that is what Alcott was as well, an author for the people. This wasn't supposed to be something that was high minded. She did not intend for it to be high minded. It was supposed to be a book for kids, for young women, in fact. And at first, I think Louisa May Alcott felt kind of ambivalent about her own work because I think she knew she was writing for the masses, much like Dickens wrote for the masses. So far those are the similarities and sensibilities I see. I also think so far Dickens descriptions of his characters I find very reminiscent of how Alcott describes her characters. But this is something I'm going to be paying attention to as a newcomer to Dickens, and this is part of why I love reading classics. What did I really not enjoy? Rebecca. When I read Rebecca back in the day and I really didn't love it, but I could not help but see, oh, this is who has influenced all of Gothic literature ever?
Hunter [00:54:40] Yeah, well, also, let's remember-- I remember this, because I bought the book later and I was like, oh, you read the Winters right before.
Annie Jones [00:54:47] I loved the Winters. And having no idea that it was a retelling because I'm dumb.
Hunter [00:54:54] And it's funny too because part of me wishes I'd read The Winters first because I think I would've liked it more. But if I'd read it without reading Rebecca, I think if you read one you don't the other.
Annie Jones [00:55:03] That's what I mean. I think I really ruined it for myself. I should have read the actual classic work of literature first, and instead I read The Winters and thought it was great and then read Rebecca and thought it was terrible.
Hunter [00:55:13] Oh, well, could be [inaudible]
Annie Jones [00:55:15] It's totally fine. Do you have any thoughts on this as somebody who's read so many NBA finalists and literature that may or may not have been influenced by Dickens?
Hunter [00:55:24] It's funny because I don't actually think that as much was influenced by Dickens in American literature in the fifties and sixties as you would think. I think maybe even towards like the late seventies, early eighties, you start to see a lot more of it. I'm not really sure. Once I get there, I'll like do more historical research, but I definitely know that you did see people like Stephen King and then eventually like Donna Tartt and stuff having a lot of this. Yes, I would be curious to know if there was a certain reason why Dickens work became much more popular with those writers at the time, because there's a big spike in the eighties but not as hard. I think it's just the obvious one. But if you look at Stephen King's work, it is definitely all about these underdogs who are kind of overcoming all these obstacles and it's like these sprawling kind of, you know.
Annie Jones [00:56:13] And scrappy kids. Which I do feel like Dickens writes a lot about scrappy kids. I don't know. And then a lot of social commentary, which I think is why we get the Austen comparison. But I wonder if writers of the seventies or eighties were willing to be political in a way. I think Dickens was a political writer. Like you can tell he has a lot to say about... So, I mean, we're only 100 pages in essentially. And I can already tell he has a lot to say about governments, about bureaucracy, about the court system. It'll be interesting to see what we think of the as the pages go on. Elizabeth wanted to know, what did you think about the shift in narration and overall pace or tone after those first two chapters?
Hunter [00:56:54] I liked the shift because I really like Esther. I really like her. Listen, if somebody is ever kind of like self-deprecating, but also like, wink, wink, I'm cool, I resonate with that.
Annie Jones [00:57:07] I like the first person aspect of it. It's like that was something we hadn't gotten in a while. We certainly didn't get it in The Count. And so, that was kind of fun actually. Felt very modern to me.
Hunter [00:57:18] Don't you feel like sometimes first person is just easier?
Annie Jones [00:57:20] Yeah, I do. And it feels like it's going to go back and forth. Like chapter eight looks like it's going to be from Esther's perspective again. And so I'm really intrigued. Will it always be so? And I'm still very curious at what point the Dedlock story is going to intertwine with Esther's. Maybe it won't, but it feels like it's going to. And I'm curious how that's going to happen and if the book continues to kind of go back and forth. But I loved it and was also genuinely surprised by it, because the first chapter was so atmospheric and literally painting a picture of where we were. And then chapter two felt like a work of classic literature where I'm reading about these characters. I don't know who they are yet. And then you're right, three I immediately felt at ease. I was like, oh yes, this girl is going to tell me about her life. And it almost felt like a little princess or like, I don't know-- [crosstalk]. Yes. Very familiar. So I love that switch. And I think it'll be interesting to see if Esther's storytelling is grounding in each section. I wonder if Dickens knew my readers might get bogged down by this court stuff, so I'm going to give them this narrator, I'm going to give them this person that they can kind of cling to. And I wonder if that's going to be the case.
[00:58:40] Okay. This is from Jack Mommy [sp] on Instagram. She says, "I'm reading the Penguin clothbound version. Are you reading all the footnotes and notes as you go along?" Heck no. You know what? I love an in note, I've said that before. But let me tell you something. One thing that peeved me off from the moment we began was in chapter one. Yeah, it was by the end the first page, one page of text, 13 in notes. Absolutely not. Absolutely not. It's too many. It's distracting. And some of them I did flip back to. Guess what? Not worth it. Not worth it. Some of them I was like, I don't need an end note for that. I know that I'm not the brightest bulb in the universe, but I can figure some of this out through context clues. Thank you so much Penguin Clothbound. It's too much. They went end note happy in that first chapter. So no Jacks Mommy, I flip every so often to just see is there something I need to know here? But almost 90% of the time I do not. Last question is from Meghan. "The first two chapters really confuse me and were tough. The descriptors of the mud felt endless. Moving into chapters 3 to 7, I felt like the tone and pace dramatically changed for the better. I really like the foundation being set for these characters and I'm excited to see how their stories unfold. I've been using a chart from Spark Notes to keep track of the characters and how they're related to one another. Annie and Hunter is this feeling like an elaborate whodunit story to you?"
Hunter [01:00:19] First of all, who is she? Joan Crawford. What's her problem with mud? Just kidding. That's a joke.
Annie Jones [01:00:28] Joan Crawford. Come for the Joan Crawfordses [sp].
Hunter [01:00:34] Yeah. And it's so funny. We started this this episode talking about children being like, you know.
Annie Jones [01:00:40] We did. Abused,
Hunter [01:00:42] Yeah, it's full circle moment.
Annie Jones [01:00:44] Full circle.
Hunter [01:00:45] Yeah. I don't know. That's a good question. Elaborate whodunit. I didn't even think about that.
Annie Jones [01:00:52] Okay. Yeah. Megan, I did not think about that. Mostly, I wondered, is John Grisham the comparison? Because I'm in this now and I'm like, is this going to be a legal thriller? Like, not a thriller, but there's this mysterious court case. Everybody's been following it through the decades. Somebody killed themselves over it, these two children now have a home because of it. And so I don't know that I thought who'd done it, although I would be here for it if it was. But I'm definitely here for if not legal thriller, legal mystery. I am wondering about the John Grisham of it all.
Hunter [01:01:36] Yeah, I do wish there was like a woman with a suitcase.
Annie Jones [01:01:49] If only. Okay. How do you feel?
Hunter [01:01:50] I'm feeling good.
Annie Jones [01:01:51] I really do feel good. I really have no idea what's going to happen. And I want to encourage everybody. If you finish this and your, like, way less happened in these first seven chapters, Count of Monte Cristo, for example, you are correct. Like, this is a very different vibe. I personally like the vibe so far, but it is not as easy to me as Count of Monte Cristo was. However, Esther's narration, I think, makes it pretty accessible, and I like the way it's going because it feels Middlemarch to me. But honestly more accessible than Middlemarch.
Hunter [01:02:32] I agree.
Annie Jones [01:02:33] I'm excited. Next, for February, we're reading chapters eight through 13, which I was just going to say, I do love knowing how the original readers read it. Yeah. It's the next two sections. So it would have taken place over two months in British in the 1850s or whatever. Yeah, I like it. I'm here for it. I have no idea what he's doing. I have no idea the direction it's going, but I'm curious and that gives me hope.
Hunter [01:03:06] I think it's really good.
Annie Jones [01:03:07] I did too. This week, what I'm reading is brought to you by Visit Thomasville. Fall is a wonderful time to see Thomasville, Georgia. If it's time to hit the road for a quick getaway, we are exactly what you're looking for. You can rekindle your spark, explore historical sites, indulge in dining out, shop at amazing independent stores, and finally relax and unwind. There's no better getaway than Thomasville. Whether you live close by or are just passing through, we hope you'll visit beautiful Thomasville, Georgia. It's worth the trip. Plan your visit at ThomasvilleGa.com. We are officially in November. I walked into the Bookshelf earlier this week and saw the lights being strung in the trees downtown, which means the holidays are officially on their way. We have finished all the fun trick or treating festivities and now we are full swing into the holidays. As of this recording, the Bookshelf will be decorated for the holiday season this weekend. And I'm just so excited for you all to see it. It's just a really fun time of year, not only in store but in Thomasville, which is why I really do think at the top of the episode when I mentioned Shawn Dietrich coming, I really do think coming to see Shawn Dietrich would be such a fun kickoff to your holiday season.
[01:04:28] That event is Thursday, November 30th, so you could come into town, check in at the Marriott, attend Shawn's events Thursday night at the Thomasville Center for the Arts, which is a gorgeous theater, and then Friday and Saturday spend some time downtown. Go to our local history museums, walk around. Friday night is first Friday in December. So it would just be such a great weekend. If I were planning your trip, that's what I'd tell you to do. I'd tell you to come hear Shawn Dietrich on November 30th. Stay the weekend, the first weekend in December, because that's when I don't think it'll be too busy, too hectic, too crazy just yet. And so if you want to come see Thomasville in all of its decked out holiday glory, but without the crowds, I think that would be a really great weekend to come. This week, I'm reading The Fury by Alex Michaelides. Thank you again to our sponsor Visit Thomasville. Plan your upcoming visit at ThomasvilleGa.com.
Annie Jones: From the Front Porch is a weekly podcast production of The Bookshelf, an independent bookstore in Thomasville, Georgia. You can follow The Bookshelf’s daily happenings on Instagram at @bookshelftville, and all the books from today’s episode can be purchased online through our store website: bookshelfthomasville.com A full transcript of today’s episode can be found at:
Special thanks to Studio D Podcast Production for production of From the Front Porch and for our theme music, which sets the perfect warm and friendly tone for our Thursday conversations.
Our Executive Producers of today’s episode are…
Cammy Tidwell, Chantalle Carl, Kate O'Connell, Kristin May, Linda Lee Drozt, Martha, Stacy Laue, Chanta Combs, Stephanie Dean, Ashley Ferrell
Executive Producers (Read Their Own Names): Nicole Marsee, Wendi Jenkins, Laurie Johnson, Susan Hulings Annie Jones: If you’d like to support From the Front Porch, please leave a review on Apple Podcasts. Your input helps us make the show even better and reach new listeners. All you have to do is open up the Podcast App on your phone, look for From the Front Porch, scroll down until you see ‘Write a Review’ and tell us what you think. Or, if you’re so inclined, support us over on Patreon, where we have 3 levels of support - Front Porch Friends, Book Club Companions, and Bookshelf Benefactors. Each level has an amazing number of benefits like bonus content, access to live events, discounts, and giveaways. Just go to: patreon.com/fromthefrontporch We’re so grateful for you, and we look forward to meeting back here next week.