Delve Readers Seminar: Haunted Chambers: Piranesi and The Little Stranger

Setting is an important aspect of every story, but sometimes it is so integral as to be almost a character in itself. Susannah Clarke’s Piranesi and Sarah Waters’s The Little Stranger explore the unsettling power of place and its influence on the human mind. Piranesi lives in the House, a fantastical, dreamlike structure where ocean waves surge through infinite vestibules, clouds float and birds fly through halls decorated with statuary, and human remains lie secreted in niches. Alone except for occasional visits from a man he calls the Other, Piranesi records his daily routines and discoveries in his journal, muses on the Other’s quest for “a Great Secret and Knowledge,” and gradually unravels mysteries that threaten to upend his fragile contentment. In The Little Stranger, a rambling English estate is the menacing setting for a literary thriller that subtly explores questions of class, gender, and mental illness. Are the frightening events at dilapidated Hundreds Hall the cause or the product of the characters’ unease? Compelling and unpredictable, the novel is so well plotted, its atmosphere so vividly unsettling, that it is difficult to put down.

In this Delve we will explore both writers’ craftsmanship, their innovative approach to fantasy and the supernatural, and the broader social themes that underpin the narratives.

Texts
Piranesi by Susannah Clarke (Bloomsbury, 2020)
The Little Stranger by Sarah Waters (Riverhead Books, 2009)

Access Program
We want our classes to be accessible to everyone, regardless of income and background. We understand that our tuition structure can present obstacles for some people. Our Access Program offers class registrations at a reduced rate. The access program for writing classes covers 60% of the class tuition. Most writing classes have at least one access spot available.

Please apply here for access rate tuition. Contact Susan Moore at susan@literary-arts.org if you have questions.

Liaison position
Every in-person class and seminar at Literary Arts has one liaison position. Liaisons perform specific duties for each class meeting. If you are a liaison for a class or seminar, the full amount of your tuition is covered by Literary Arts.

Apply here for the liaison position.

Sara Atwood

Sara Atwood teaches English literature and writing at Portland Community College and Portland State University. She is Co-Director of the Ruskin Society of North America and has lectured widely, both in the US and abroad, on John Ruskin, education, the environment, and language. Her work has been published in Nineteenth-Century Prose, The Journal of Pre-Raphaelite Studies, and Carlyle Studies Annual. She is the author of Ruskin’s Educational Ideals and has contributed essays to a number of books, including Teaching Victorian Literature in the Twenty-First Century, John Ruskin and Nineteenth-Century Education, William Morris and John Ruskin, and Victorian Environmental Nightmares.