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We will be finishing 2017 with No Thoroughfare. It is a highly melodramatic story created in collaboration between Charles Dickens and Wilkie Collins. Together they wrote the play... and then a novelization of the play. Both were released in December 1867, in a stroke of marketing genius.



Feel free to add any background information or resource links which would enhance this read for the group.

Reading Schedule for No Thoroughfare:

Week 1: December 10-16: Overture and Act One
Week 2: December 17-23: Acts Two and Three
Week 3: December 24-31: Act Four and Closing Discussion

It's a lot of fun! I hope we get a few others who are up for it in December.

Link to the Librivox audiobook...

Hello, I would like to join in. I ordered the book today. This looks like it's going to be a nice short read for the holiday season. That is very convenient. I'm looking foreword to reading this book because I like Wilkie Collins and Charles Dickens. I didn't know they collaborated on a story, that's cool.

I think it's a cool bit of trivia, too. Apparently, they were very good friends.

One of Dickens's daughters was actually married to Collins's brother. So they were almost related.

I forgot that! Thanks for sharing that bit of information.

There is a strange but also very interesting novel Drood by Dan Simmons exploring the friendship of Dickens and Collins. It is fiction, of course and it is rather tricky to understand where the very accurate details of their biographies end and Simmons's imagination starts. But it was a fascinating read anyway. The book deals with the last years of Dickens's life, so the writing of No Thoroughfare is also featured.
After finishing this one I simply had no choice but to read an actual biography of Dickens. Just to double-check what was true and what not. :)

That's really funny since I did exactly the same thing!

Inese wrote: "One of Dickens's daughters was actually married to Collins's brother. So they were almost related."

Ah, this is news to me. :) I knew Collins and Dickens had a close connection, and thought it is a professional one. But now I know there is a personal link too. Thanks for sharing the information, Inese.

I've started it already, but I'm going to try to stick to the reading schedule.

I'm hoping to start today. Really curious to see how the Dickens/Collins combined effort has fared.

What a find! Just started. Thanks for mentioning LibriVox, Renee. Glad I stopped by Victorians.

So glad you are enjoying! :)

I probably won't be able to start this till another week. I hope I will still be able to contribute to the discussion.

No worries. It's supposed to be a light fun read. No pressure. :)

I am super excited for this! --Jen from Quebec :0)

Finally going to start! :)

I'm tempted to read the comments in other two threads, and holding myself with quite an effort. :-) Don't want to run in to spoilers!

It's a fun little read, but pretty heavy-handed. Obvious villains, lots of foreshadowing. But there are plenty of surprises just the same. I think it must have been fun to write. :)

Maybe I missed someone noting that this is the 150th birthday of this delightful book?