All patrons and friends of the Charlotte Hobbs Memorial Library are welcome to join Page Turners, the Library’s book discussion group, which meets at 1:00 p.m. on the second Monday of each month. Currently we are meeting on Zoom. At our May meeting, we will be discussing the anonymous novel The Woman of Colour,. published in 1808 and featuring a biracial heroine who travels from Jamaica to England to fulfill the terms of her father’s will by marrying her cousin. A page-turner with Gothic overtones and a frank inquiry into British racial politics, this recently rediscovered work sheds new light both on the abolitionist era and on novels by Jane Austen and Charlotte Brontë that also feature Caribbean women in complicated plots. Copies of The Woman of Colour are available for purchase, new or used; the novel can also be read online in a pdf version. In June we will conclude our series on eighteenth-century literature by taking up three short works by Jane Austen: her early novel Lady Susan, the abandoned The Watsons, and the first chapters of Sanditon, left unfinished at Austen's death and also featuring a “woman of colour.”

Page Turners maintains a discussion list for our members, through which you can receive advance background information and preparatory discussion questions. Please contact Sue Lanser (925-6244 or lanser@brandeis.edu) if you would like further information about the group or wish to join our mailing list.