Brief reflections, second week of classes edition

My schedule this semester turns out to be suboptimal for days on which job candidates are visiting: interview at 9, class at 10, their presentation at 11:15, my next class at 12:20...making me a rather ravenous LP during class #2. Then again, we're about to begin The String of Pearls, aka Sweeney Todd, in class #2, so that should put me off my appetite in a jiffy. Meat pies, anyone?
Speaking of Sweeney Todd, it will be interesting to see how the students respond to something that is of *cough* *ahem* marginal literary quality (but on the syllabus so that they can see This Sort of Thing). Because you can't really do a traditional close reading of Sweeney Todd--in fact, I've already warned them that they should be trying to zip right through it, rather than treat it like a poem by Wordsworth. But we can certainly discuss things like seriality, pacing, and sensational effects. Oh, and cannibalism. And murder! (This may be a rare opportunity to trot out some Sondheim.)
If nothing else, proofreading Robert Elsmere has certainly increased my appreciation of Mrs. Ward's stylistic--in particular, her unpunctuated coordinate adjectives and her habit of unfolding details in parallel subordinate clauses ("of...., of...").
Speaking of which, I'm supposed to see the first copyedited text of Book Two fairly soon. It should be making its way into the Notre Dame catalog in relatively short order. Without anyone being burnt at the stake on the cover, in case you were wondering.
Out of curiosity, I picked up a free Hound of the Baskervilles video game for the iPad. For some reason, the graphics are more than a little reminiscent of the Disneyland Haunted Mansion...