Masterclass: Tess of the D’Urbervilles with Josie Billington

Read the book? Watched the recent BBC adaptation? Now go deeper...

Tess of the D'Urbervilles

Masterclass with Josie Billington

Wednesday 2nd June, 10.30am – 3.00pm
19 Abercromby Square, Liverpool, L69 7ZG
£30, including lunch and refreshments (£15 concessions)

Come along to read and discuss Thomas Hardy’s Tess of the D’Urbervilles with other readers in the company of Josie Billington, Lecturer in English at the University of Liverpool and The Reader Organisation’s Research Manager. Hardy writes,

She might have seen that what had bowed her head so profoundly – the thought of the world's concern at her situation – was founded on an illusion. She was not an existence, a passion, a structure of sensations, to anybody but herself. ... Almost at a leap Tess thus changed from simple girl to complex woman.

Read (in advance if you can) this brave and powerfully moving story of a young woman’s mistakes, second chances, the world’s crass failure to honour these, and Hardy's – and her own – vital commitment, amid all, to the human scale.

Passages will be provided on the day but please bring a copy of the novel with you if possible.

To book your place on this Masterclass you need to complete a booking form, which you can download from this page on our website, and return it to Mark Till, Training Programme Assistant, by email marktill@thereader.org.uk or fax 0151 794 2291.