| Course Title: Studies in Nineteenth-Century British Literature: 'William Wordsworth and George Eliot' |
| Start Date: 09/09/2026 End Date: 12/22/2026 |
| Term: Fall Semester 2026 |
| Description: William Wordsworth and George Eliot grew up in a revolutionary age: the American Revolution, the French Revolution, the Haitian Revolution, wars of independence and of imperial conquest, and, behind it all, the social transformations arising from the industrial revolution. Both Wordsworth and Eliot wrestled with how to adapt their art to these new realities: he introduced dramatically new content into poetry and experimented with a startling variety of poetic forms; she transformed the various prose genres to construct a novelistic form able to represent the totality of British society. By so doing, they forged a revolution in literary forms with the emergence of the modern lyric and the realist novel. |
| Distribution(s): I - Humanities , TP - Topics Course |
| Academic Level Of Course: Undergraduate | Credits:4.00 |
| Faculty | Phone | Email address |
| Nigel Alderman | 413-538-3224 | nalderma@mtholyoke.edu |
| Meeting Dates | Method | Meeting days | Meeting times | Building name | Room | Frequency |
| 09/09/2026 - 12/22/2026 | Seminar | Tuesday and Thursday | 01:45PM - 03:00PM | TBA | TBA | Weekly |
| Requisite Courses | ||
| Prereq: 8 credits in English. | Take previously | Required |
| Comments |
| Additional Comments |
| Meets the English department's legacy 1700-1900 requirement. |
| Course Tags |
| Cross-listed Sections |
| None |
| Course Availability | ||||
| Section status: Open | Capacity: 18 | Enrollment: 0 | Available: 18 | Waitlist: 0 |
BOOK INFORMATION
| Book List | Required | Publisher Full Price |
| Title: William Wordsworth - The Major Works Author: Wordsworth, William Copyright: 2008 Edition: Volume: ISBN: 9780199536863 Publisher: Oxford UP |
Required | 18.95 |
| Title: The Lifted Veil Author: Eliot, George Copyright: Edition: Volume: ISBN: 9780199555055 Publisher: Oxford |
Required | 12.00 |
| Title: Middlemarch Author: Eliot, George Copyright: 2019 Edition: Volume: ISBN: 9780198815518 Publisher: Oxford |
Required | 10.95 |
| Title: Silas Marner Author: Eliot, George Copyright: 2017 Edition: Volume: ISBN: 9780198724643 Publisher: Oxford World Classics |
Required | 10.00 |
| Additional Book Comments |
| This is NOT the complete book list for this class. |
| Instructor's comments about the book list: It is an absolute requirement of the class to have the assigned Wordsworth text: "William Wordsworth - The Major Works including The Prelude," edited by Stephen Gill in the Oxford World's Classics published by Oxford University Press, ISBN: 9780199536863. This particular text is so important that a percentage of your participation grade will be given for having it. I also strongly encourage you to have the Oxford world classics copies of the George Eliot texts. |