Sketches of a syllabus

Prof. Ortiz-Robles has hinted that this semester's reading will involve George Eliot's Middlemarch, Virginia Woolf's To the Lighthouse, and J. M. Coetzee's Disgrace. I'm not sure whether these texts have been finalized for inclusion on the class syllabus (I think they have), but if you want to do pre-reading here are some suggestions:

• The principle biography of George Eliot is Gordon S. Haight's George Eliot: A Biography. As you can see from the Amazon link, the Haight biography is no longer in print; however, the campus libraries have dozens of copies. Eliot's other major works are not for light readers -- Adam Bede and Daniel Deronda are both in the 650- to 750-page range, depending on how they're printed. This is why Silas Marner is the Eliot that is always taught in schools -- it might not be good, but at least it's short.
• The authoritative Virginia Woolf biography is Hermione Lee's brilliant Virginia Woolf To read To the Lighthouse in the context of Woolf's other works, you might want to read through her slightly more popular Mrs Dalloway and its experimental predecessor Jacob's Room.
• Coetzee is in the middle of writing a many-part autobiography. So far, he has published Boyhood and Youth. John Updike reviewed Youth in the New Yorker. Coetzee's Nobel lecture is available in text and video.