Aurora Floyd Read-Along: Announcement and Instructions for Participation

Hello all! Courtney Floyd, here. You may remember me from my last appearance on the blog in this post.

Today, I have the honor of taking over the Mary Elizabeth Braddon Association (MEBA) blog and Twitter stream to (1) announce the first ever MEBA Read Along and (2) inform you of the whats, hows, wheres, whens, and whos.

What we’re reading: Mary Elizabeth Braddon’s 1862-3 sensation novel, Aurora Floyd.

How we’re reading: Monthly installments, more or less along Aurora Floyd’s original publication schedule in Temple Bar. You’ll find our schedule (along with links to free versions of the novel) below.

• January – chs 1-3
• February – chs 4-6
• March – chs 7-9
• April – chs 10-12
• May – chs 13-15
• June – chs 16-18
• July – chs 19-21
• August – chs 22-24
• September – chs 25-28
• October – chs 29-31
• November – chs 32-34
• December – chs 35-36
• January – chs 37-39

If you’d like to read the original installments, volumes 4-7 of Temple Bar are available free via Hathitrust.

Most of us, I suspect, will be reading from whatever variation of the 1863 Tinsley Brothers 3 volume bound edition we’ve got on hand. If you’d like to do the same, digitized versions can be found free online via Project Gutenberg and The University of Adelaide. You can also stream or download a free audiobook edition from Librivox.

Where and How we’re discussing: Twitter (though you can certainly follow along on the MEBA blog if you’re not a Twitter user!). On the last Monday of each month, I’ll be taking over the MEBA Twitter feed to post a series of questions. If you want to join in, make sure to do the following:

• Tag all posts #MEBAread
• If you’re answering a specific question (for example, Q1), include a corresponding answer number (A1) in your tweet
• Number tweets (i.e., 1/5, 2/5, 3/5, etc.) if your response will take more than 140 characters
• Tag others you think may be interested in reading along / discussing the novel
• If you’re replying to someone else’s tweet but want to make your reply part of the larger conversation, include a period before their Twitter handle (e.g., .@braddoninfo) so everyone can see your response
• Conduct longer one-on-one discussions via direct message (DM) to avoid flooding newsfeeds

If you’re interested in contributing discussion questions at any point during the read along, please feel free to DM me on Twitter via my personal account (@cannfloyd) or email me directly at cfloyd3@uoregon.edu

When we’re discussing: I’ll be posting questions on Twitter on the last Monday of every month (January 2017 – January 2018) and actively moderating discussion throughout the rest of that week. However, please feel free to join in at ANY time.* I’ll provide archives of each month’s discussions via Storify, so you can catch up if you have to miss a week.

*I’ve found live-tweeting while reading to be a particularly valuable activity for myself and my students, and would love to hear about your experience if you choose to live-tweet your read-through of Aurora Floyd. Please remember to tag your live-tweets #MEBAread if you decide to do this!

Who Should/Can Join In? The Mary Elizabeth Braddon Association hopes that anyone who wants to join in does join in. We’re intentionally structuring the read along so that it is accessible to readers of all levels and persuasions!