Novel warnings for uni students

CLASSIC Victorian novels rarely shied away from the realities of life.

But undergraduates reading Charlotte Bronte’s Jane Eyre and Charles Dickens’s Great Expectations now receive a ‘trigger warning’ flagging up ‘distressing’ passages. The decision by Salford University has drawn criticism from politicians and actors including Simon Callow, pictured, the star of several Dickens TV adaptations. He joked: ‘I don’t think the university authorities have gone far enough. A more helpful alert would be: “Warning – this book may make you think. In extreme cases, it may even make you feel”.’

The warning to students notes ‘scenes and discussions of violence and sexual violence’. A Salford University spokesman said: ‘We give students the opportunity to have a discussion with their lecturer in advance.’