Join Trollope Society members worldwide on Monday 4th August 2025 for a special concluding session of our Big Read of John Caldigate. This final Zoom event will feature two distinguished speakers and be followed by Q&A.

Professor Helen Small, Merton Professor of English Language and Literature at the University of Oxford, will open the session with a talk on John Caldigate. She regularly writes on Victorian fiction, poetry, and public moralism, and has edited several well‑known and less well‑known nineteenth‑century literary works, including Vanity Fair, Wuthering Heights, The Lifted Veil and Brother Jacob, The Eustace Diamonds, and (with Stephen Wall) Little Dorrit. She is also a member of the editorial board of the Journal of Victorian Culture and serves on the advisory board of History of Humanities.

Following Professor Small’s talk, Dr Simon Grennan, Professor of Art and Design and Associate Dean for Research and Innovation in the Faculty of Arts, Humanities, Social Sciences and Education at the University of Chester, will discuss his graphic adaptation Dispossession: A Novel of Few Words, based on John Caldigate. An acclaimed comics scholar and artist, he has produced more than forty graphic works, and his adaptation is celebrated for its visual storytelling and minimal text.

After their talks, both Helen Small and Simon Grennan will take questions from participants.

Photo: Dr Simon Grennan at the launch of Dispossession in 2015

Register free for the complete 2025 BIG READ

You only need to register once, you can then attend any of the 2025 BIG READ Zoom meetings without needing to register again. You can cancel your registration at any time.

Monday 4 August – John Caldigate, Chapters 53 – 64
Monday 18 August – The Three Clerks, Chapters 1 – 12
Monday 1 September – The Three Clerks, Chapters 13 – 24
Monday 15 September – The Three Clerks, Chapters 25 – 36
Monday 29 September – The Three Clerks, Chapters 37 – 48
Monday 13 October – Ayala’s Angel, Chapters 1 – 13
Monday 27 October – Ayala’s Angel, Chapters 14 – 26
Monday 10 November – Ayala’s Angel, Chapters 27 – 39
Monday 24 November – Ayala’s Angel, Chapters 40 – 52
Monday 8 December – Ayala’s Angel, Chapters 53 – 64
Monday 22 December – Christmas Stories (tbc)

Click here to register to attend John Caldigate BIG READ Zoom meetings

We will send you an email with instructions on how to join and the password. Using Zoom is easy, just click on the link in the email and follow the instructions. Please note that you will not be able to join the meeting until 8.00pm (UK time) on the day.

Resources

• Plot summary and character listing for John Caldigate
• Download John Caldigate free of charge from Project Gutenberg