Classical Pursuits
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Classical Pursuits

As children we constantly wondered “Why?” and “So what?” Return to the big questions now, in convivial conversation about great books, music, and art.

Travel Pursuits

Travel Pursuits are learning vacations rooted in place and transcending time. See with your own eyes and through discussion of the works of some of a country’s most celebrated authors and artists. Explore the mutual influence of artist on place, and place on artist.

Travel Pursuits 2009


Preview our 2009 offerings, full details to come in the following months. Click Here

Travel Pursuits 2008

Bayfield, Ontario
Alice's Wonderland
Alice Munro, Carried Away
October 5–9 (4 nights)

Galicia, Spain
A journey through the animated forest
Monsignor Quixote by Graham Greene and Pilgrim of Tinker Creek by Annie Dillard
June 23–30 (7 nights)

Lyon, France
The French Resistance
St. Exupery, Camus and Jules Vercors
May 11–18 (7 nights)

Cornwall, England
In Search of Arthur
Selected readings
May 3–10 (7 nights)

Savannah & Milledgeville, Georgia
Mystery & Manners in Savannah
Selected Works of Flannery O'Connor
April 610 (4 nights)

Toronto Pursuits

About 150 people from across Canada and at least 20 states gather each year on the shady garden campus of the University of St. Michael's College to immerse themselves for a week in the great classics of music, philosophy and literature.

Toronto Pursuits in the Summer 2008 was a great success! We celebrated our Tenth Anniversary with “LATE EDITIONS”, an entire week will focused on creativity in later life – crowning achievements of Beethoven, Shakespeare, Rembrandt, Dostoevsky and many others. The week included ten small group seminars; a featured series on late works of five opera composers, a Late Beethoven Piano Recital with William Corbett-Jones, talks mediated by the AARP’s Harry Rick Moody, art walks, small group dinners, and an optional trip to the Stratford Festival.

Click here for the slide show

Click here to read about the seminars offered.

Travel Pursuits We design literary trips for affinity organizations and groups, such as university classes, alumni groups, and book clubs, with a focus on small group discussion of great works of literature in the destination where the book(s) were written or set. We have 20 trips that have already been carefully designed, reflecting extensive research and experience. We can either modify an existing trip or design a brand new one to suit your travellers' preferences.


Classical Pursuits Live

View a video interview with Ann Kirkland and some of our discussion leaders.


Toronto Pursuits in the Fall 2008

Don Quixote: Ideals Lost and Found
Six Sundays in October and November

Who can resist Don Quixote, the enthusiastic bungler, the book crazed, self styled knight of La Mancha? With masterful comical strokes Cervantes’ narrator captures our attention. But Don Quixote is much more than a tall tale. Some great writers, whose skeptical visions disturb both the authorities and the common people, have left us manuscripts of great power. Cervantes is one of these. Like Chaucer two hundred years before him and Kerouac three hundred years later Cervantes has chosen the road trip as the vehicle for his ironic vision... click here

Travel Pursuits

Stay in touch through our monthly literary e-letter. Find out about upcoming events and our regular features, including "Today in Literature" and "Classical Trivia" as well as great literature in "The Installment Plan."

Travel Pursuits

View slideshows of some of our recent trips:
Mexico | Ireland | Krakow | Sicily | Paris | Greece | Savannah | Florence | Galicia 2007 | Santa Fe | Newfoundland | Andalucia | Cornwall | Lyon | Galicia 2008 |

Toronto Pursuits Archive


A list of some of the topics we've covered in the past.

Travel Pursuits Archive

Some of the other places we've gone.

The Classical Pursuits Blog

Read Ann Kirkland's blog for Classical Pursuits.