Western Classics Book Club Sydney

PLEASE NOTE: AT THE REQUEST OF THE SHAKESPEARE HOTEL, we are not meeting on the usual first Thursday of the month, as it clashes with a football event. So, we are meeting on the first Tuesday of this month.

Meeting at the usual place, the Shakespeare Hotel, 200 Devonshire Street, Surry Hills (Upstairs), we will be discussing the ultimate vampire novel, Dracula.

Rather than a simple narration, the novel is written by bringing together a number of diary entries, letters and newspaper clippings. It speaks of an ancient and aristocratic Romanian Count, Count Dracula.

The novel begins with Jonathan Harker, a solicitor's clerk who travels from England to Transylvania to finalize a real estate deal for the Count. He stays overnight in the Count's castle, and then realises that he is a prisoner, and that Dracula isn't quite normal. Dracula subsequently travels to England where he preys on Lucy Westenra, who herself becomes a vampire. Can vampire expert, Professor Van Helsing, save the day?

AI tells me this book is about 400 pages long. The type of book where I find it helps to make a written note of the names of the characters while reading.

The format of the meeting is that we talk about the book in a fairly focused way for about an hour, and then the meeting formally ends. People tend to stay around to talk more about the book or anything else.

Meeting at the usual place, upstairs at The Shakespeare Hotel, 200 Devonshire Street, Surry Hills, at 7.00pm, on Thursday 2 April 2026, we will be discussing Fathers and Sons (1862) by Ivan Turgenev,

The novel is about the homecoming of Arkady and his friend Bazarov. Bazarov is a young nihilist who rebels against the old, rejects all authority and hates sentimentalism. He represents the growing intellectual rift between the romanticist "fathers" of the 1840s and the revolutionary "sons" of the 1860s.

As the young men visit various estates, Bazarov finds his contempt for the status quo and his cold logic challenged by his sudden love for a woman - and a wealthy one at that. The novel explores the inevitable clash of generations, the limitations of scientific rationalism, and the shifting social landscape of a Russia on the brink of profound reform. As a writer, Turgenev has been praised by Tolstoy, Dostoyevsky, Joseph Conrad and Hemingway.

The format of the meeting is that we talk about the book in a fairly focused way for about an hour. Then the meeting ends. Almost everyone stays back to talk more about the book or other things bookish.

On Thursday 7 May 2026 at 7.00pm we will be meeting at the usual place, the top floor of The Shakespeare Hotel, 200 Devonshire Street, Surry Hills, to discuss Rebecca (1938) by Daphne du Maurier.

"Last night I dreamed I went to Manderley again."

Such is the famous opening line of Rebecca, as well as the opening line of the movie adaptation, directed by Alfred Hitchcock. Following the tragic loss of his first wife, the very wealthy Maxim de Winter impulsively marries a timid young woman. In this rebound from personal tragedy, he establishes her as the new Mrs de Winter. As a newly married couple, they travel to their future home together, the estate of Manderley. The timid and somewhat clueless new Mrs De Winter comments positively on the first building they see, assuming that the charming building on the edge of the grounds is their new home together. She is confused and somewhat overwhelmed to find out that this is merely the gatehouse. The estate, over which she is now Mistress, is in the distance, complete with its multiple rooms and domestic staff.

The new Mrs de Winter tries to settle in, under the disapproving eye of the head housekeeper, Mrs Danvers. Always - always - in the background, there is the haunting memory of the first Mrs Du Winter, whose first name was Rebecca. It all ends in tears, with the new Mrs De Winter eventually finding the simple love that she wanted from the start.

Rebecca is a seminal work of gothic fiction, regarded as a masterpiece of 20th-century fiction, celebrated for its masterful atmosphere and its enduring influence on the modern Gothic genre.

The format of the meeting is that we chat about the book in a focused way for about an hour, and then the meeting formally ends. People stay back to speak more about the book or anything else bookish.

Meeting at the usual place, The Shakespeare Hotel, 200 Devonshire Street, Surry Hills, on June 4, 2026, at 7.00pm, we will be discussing To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee.

This is the most recent 'classic' we have discussed in the group. Published in 1960, the novel is a cornerstone of American literature. Set in Alabama during the Great Depression, the story is narrated by 'Scout,' a young girl who grows up while observing the racial politics of the Deep South.

Scout's father, Atticus Finich, is appointed to defend a black man falsely accused of raping a white woman. Despite evidence showing that Tom could not have raped her, the all-white jury convicts.

There is a vast industry discussing this novel. The still photo shows the characters Atticus Finch and Tom Robinson from the 1963 movie (available on youtube).

The format of the meeting is that we chat about the book in a focused way for about an hour. Then the meeting formally ends. Almost everyone stay behind to chat more about the book and other things bookish.