Reading Circle
Explore beauty, morality, and the shadows of 19th-century Britain.
📅 We hope to begin our first circles in September 2026, in line with the academic year.
Step into the gaslit streets and grand drawing-rooms of the nineteenth century. This circle is devoted to the thrilling, atmospheric and beautifully dark world of Gothic literature — vanity and scientific hubris, the duality of man, and the hidden desires beneath polite society. If you love rich, descriptive language and deep psychological character studies, this is your circle.
→ See an example 12-week syllabus for The Picture of Dorian Gray
Language & Fluency Focus
Move well beyond basic adjectives. You'll learn to wield the rich, evocative language classic authors used to paint complex psychological states, charged atmospheres and pure aesthetic beauty.
Nineteenth-century prose runs on longer, more intricate sentences. Navigating it will sharpen your reading speed, your grammatical intuition, and your ability to parse dense academic or business writing.
In our live sessions you'll practise forming and expressing nuanced, abstract opinions about the human condition — clearly and confidently, in a group.
With Oscar Wilde especially, you'll train your ear for British sarcasm, subtle social critique and the meanings hiding just beneath the words.
Join a Circle
Circles are capped at seven readers, so places are limited. Start with a single book, or commit to the full journey.
Join this circle