Oprah Winfrey went “old school”--her words--in selecting two 19th century novels for her next Oprah’s Book Club pick. Great Expectations and A Tale of Two Cities, both by English master novelist Charles Dickens, made Oprah’s reading list. On her Monday show, Oprah urged her audience to read Dickens over the holidays, confessing she had never read him. The novels are available from a number of publishers. For book club purposes, Penguin had produced a paperback edition containing both books.
Freedom author Jonathan Franzen appeared right before the pick was disclosed on the show to discuss his bestselling novel, which Winfrey had previously made a book club selection. Franzen famously expressed hesitance in 2001 over her pick of his earlier novel The Corrections. The reading taste-maker thereupon dis-invited him from her show. The two hugged and spoke cordially on Monday. Affirming that he was a “Midwestern egalitarian” and not a woman-reader hating snob, a jeans-clad Franzen told Oprah “it’s an honor to be here.” He called A Tale of Two Cities “a page-turner.”