1OK, Graham, so let's check we both know what we're supposed to be doing.
2OK.
3So, for the university's open day,
4we have to plan a display on British life and literature in the mid-19th century.
5That's right.
6But we'll have some people to help us find the materials and set it up, remember.
7For the moment, we just need to plan it.
8Good.
9So have you gathered who's expected to come and see the display?
10Is it for the people studying English, or students from other departments?
11I'm not clear about it.
12Nor me.
13That was how it used to be,
14but it didn't attract many people, so this year it's going to be part of an open day,
15to raise the university's profile.
16It'll be publicised in the city, to encourage people to come and find out something of what goes on here.
17And it's included in the information that's sent to people who are considering applying to study here next year.
18Presumably some current students and lecturers will come?
19I would imagine so,
20but we've been told to concentrate on the other categories of people.
21Right.
22We don't have to cover the whole range of 19th-century literature, do we?
23No, it's entirely up to us.
24I suggest just using Charles Dickens.
25That's a good idea.
26Most people have heard of him, and have probably read some of his novels,
27or seen films based on them,
28so that's a good lead-in to life in his time.
29Exactly.
30And his novels show the awful conditions that most people had to live in, don't they:
31he wanted to shock people into doing something about it.
32Did he do any campaigning, other than writing?
33Yes, he campaigned for education and other social reforms, and gave talks,
34but I'm inclined to ignore that and focus on the novels.
35Yes, I agree.
36OK, so now shall we think about a topic linked to each novel?
37Yes. I've printed out a list of Dickens's novels in the order they were published,
38in the hope you'd agree to focus on him!
39You're lucky I did agree!
40Let's have a look.
41OK, the first was The Pickwick Papers, published in 1836.
42It was very successful when it came out, wasn't it,
43and was adapted for the theatre straight away.
44There's an interesting point, though,
45that there's a character who keeps falling asleep,
46and that medical condition was named after the book - Pickwickian Syndrome.
47So why don't we use that as the topic,
48and include some quotations from the novel?
49Right, Next is Oliver Twist.
50There's a lot in the novel about poverty.
51But maybe something less obvious...
52Well Oliver is taught how to steal, isn't he?
53We could use that to illustrate the fact that very few children went to school,
54particularly not poor children, so they learnt in other ways.
55Good idea.
56What's next?
57Maybe Nicholas Nickleby.
58Actually he taught in a really cruel school, didn't he?
59That's right.
60But there's also the company of touring actors that Nicholas joins.
61We could do something on theatres and other amusements of the time.
62We don't want only the bad things, do we?
63OK.
64What about Martin Chuzzlewit?
65He goes to the USA, doesn't he?
66Yes, and Dickens himself had been there a year before,
67and drew on his experience there in the novel.
68I wonder, though...
69The main theme is selfishness,
70so we could do something on social justice?
71Hmm... No, too general, let's keep to your idea.
72I think it would work well.
73He wrote Bleak House next - that's my favourite of his novels.
74It's mine too.
75His satire of the legal system is pretty powerful.
76That's true, but think about Esther, the heroine.
77As a child she lives with someone she doesn't know is her aunt,
78who treats her very badly.
79Then she's very happy living with her guardian,
80and he puts her in charge of the household.
81And at the end she gets married and her guardian gives her and her husband a house,
82where of course they're very happy.
83Yes, I like that.
84What shall we take next?
85Little Dorrit?
86Old Mr Dorrit has been in a debtors' prison for years...
87So was Dickens's father, wasn't he?
88That's right.
89What about focusing on the part when Mr Dorrit inherits a fortune,
90and he starts pretending he's always been rich?
91Good idea.
92So, next, we need to think about what materials we want to illustrate each issue.
93That's going to be quite hard.