The Hibernation Book Club: Long Reads for Short Days

VIRTUAL AND IN-PERSON MEETING

If you have always wanted to read big classic works of literature but have been daunted by their length and supposed complexity, we have a book club just for you! In the Hibernation Book Club, we will read one long classic novel every winter, dividing it up into shorter sections and meeting six times over the course of three months to work our way through it. Our title for the winter of 2026 is Bleak House by Charles Dickens. Published serially in 1852–53 and in book form in 1853 and considered to be one of Dickens’ best novels, Bleak House is the story of the Jarndyce family, who wait (and wait and wait) to inherit money from a disputed fortune in the settlement of the extremely long-running lawsuit known as Jarndyce and Jarndyce. Filled with a large cast of memorable characters and told partly by the novel’s heroine Esther Summerson and partly by an omniscient narrator, Bleak House helped spark a movement that led to the enactment of legal reform in Britain in the 1870s. In this six-part program, we will read Bleak House in installments of approximately 160 pages each and meet every other week to discuss it.

Moderated by Readers Advisory Librarian Cindy Haiken. To participate and for details about meeting virtually or in-person, contact Cindy at chaiken@wallingfordlibrary.org.