Welcome to Read the Classics

Read-alongs, recommendations and round-ups

Hello! And thank you for visiting Read the Classics – a place where we read and discuss the greatest books ever written.

I’m Henry and I’m an author and an editor at Bloomsbury Publishing in London. I’ve previously worked as Classics Editor at Faber & Faber – and I was Creative Editor of the Penguin Classics series for five years, where I hosted their podcast On the Road with Penguin Classics. I’ve written books including The Penguin Classics Book and Eliot’s Book of Bookish Lists. There’s a little more about me here.

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I would be thrilled if you wanted to subscribe to Read the Classics. If you do, you’ll receive a weekly email with:

• Read-alongs. The heart of this Substack: we read a new classic book each month with weekly opportunities for paid subscribers to comment and discuss as we read along together. You can browse previous read-alongs on the home page here.

• Recommendations. I regularly recommend classic books that are topical or suitable reading for the time of year.

• Round-ups of newly published classics and other lists.

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Free subscribers to Read the Classics receive lots of great material – including the opportunity to join a year-long slow-read of a classic title, starting each January.

And there is also the option to support my work for £5 a month, for which I’d be very grateful.

Paid subscribers get full access to the weekly read-along discussions and are able to comment and join these conversations.

I charge for the read-alongs because they take time and thought to prepare, but I do want them to be available to everyone. If you would like to join, but can’t afford a paid subscription, please just let me know and I will gift you a complimentary subscription.

You might be interested to read some testimonials from current subscribers here.

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Thanks again for visiting and I hope you will stay. Please do subscribe and I’ll look forward to discussing a classic with you soon.