It's the best of times! Oprah sat down with Pulitzer Prize-winning American novelist and Charles Dickens expert Jane Smiley to discuss her Oprah's Book Club picks, A Tale of Two Cities and Great Expectations.Watch the complete Oprah's Book Club webcast now!
Don't have time to watch the full webcast? Watch a quick Q&A clip with from Oprah's conversation
- Jane Smiley on reading (and rereading) Dickens
- Was Dickens the first modern day celebrity?
- An introduction to A Tale of Two Cities
- The extremes of Dickens' female characters in A Tale of Two Cities
- The religious beliefs of Charles Dickens
- How Dickens used his writings as a vehicle for social change
- The lessons that can be learned from reading Dickens
- The important role that dialect plays in his writings
- Are there any modern day heros like Sydney Carton in A Tale of Two Cities?
- Why Madame Defarge in A Tale of Two Cities is portrayed so unsympathetically
- Why Great Expectations is an ultimate example of Dickens' writings
- How Dickens' own life was an inspiration for his work
- The secrets of Dickens that drove the plot of Great Expectations
- Authors and their connections to their characters
- Which modern day authors readers might be studying 200 years from now
- Why two endings were written for Great Expectations
- Jane Smiley on her own writing process
Why Oprah chose A Tale of Two Cities and Great Expectations by Charles Dickens for Oprah's Book ClubMore on A Tale of Two Cities and Great Expectations by Charles Dickens
Read the excerpts, print the character guides and discuss your questions with other Dickens readers
Published 02/18/2011
