Middlemarch by George Eliot

Yea! Finally done with Middlemarch. It wasn't that I didn't enjoy it. It was a long book and it took me almost a month to read. I summarized my thoughts halfway last week but I thought I would talk a little about the characters and why I liked or didn't like them.
Dorothea-Probably my favorite character in the book. Dorothea longs for a life different that she has. She longs to be poor (or maybe just not as rich). She wants to learn more and not be constrained by what's right for women to learn. Dorothea speaks her mind overall and, in my mind, is the most steady of the characters.
Mr Casaubon-I liked Mr Casaubon at the beginning. Over time, I pitied him. Here's this older gentleman, doing ok in life. He meets this young woman who wants to be his companion and assist him with his writings. After marrying Dorothea, it seemed like he didn't know what to do with her. Honestly I think he probably would have been better off with a secretary than a wife.
Mr Brooks-This man's speech patterns annoyed the crap out of me. Overall nice man, just never looked forward to him speaking.
Celia-Not as much substance as Dorothea. But she served as a nice opposite to Dorothea. Celia was happy to get married, have babies, and do as expected by the rest of society.
Rosamond-Similar to Celia. She was a good opposite to Dorothea as well. I did want to write her off but she proved helpful at the end. After she marries Mr Lydgate, Rosy has to learn that life sometimes isn't as easy as it was when you live with your folks.
Fred & Mary-Probably my favorite couple. I loved the evolution of "them". I was excited by their happy ending in the Finale. I also liked her mother and father. Could have read a book about the Garths on their own happily.
Will-My favorite male character. In the beginning he seemed like a shyster but redeemed himself in my eyes by refusing Mr Bulstrode's money and attempting to leave Dorothea to live her life without his interference.
Overall I enjoyed Middlemarch. Especially the last half. Once I understood what was going on and what Eliot was trying to do (the life of a town's inhabitants and how they affect each other), I relaxed and enjoyed Middlemarch. It's a beautiful story of love, family, honor, trust, patience, and society.

Middlemay 8: Sunset and Sunrise

Woohoo!! We've made it through 800 or something pages of Victorian prose!! I feel an enormous sense of accomplishment. I hope everyone else does, too!!

Thoughts and feelings on Book 8? Favorite passages?

Glass of champagne? I also have sparkling grape juice and, for the un-thirsty, virtual cupcakes in the back. If I haven't eaten them all already.

Middlemay 7: Two Temptations

Hi everybody!! Phew. Exciting book. Thoughts, feelings, opinions? Progress reports? Favorite quotations or passages?

Middlemay 6: The Widow and the Wife

Hi folks! Status reports, favorite passages, thoughts and feelings?

MIddlemay 5: The Dead Hand

Hi All! Progress reports, favorite passages?

Middlemay 4: Three Love Problems

Hi Everybody! How's the reading going? Status reports, favorite passages?

Middlemay 3: Waiting for Death

Hi everyone! Welcome to the third week of our Middlemarch group read.

Please feel inspired to post status reports, favorite quotations, and thoughts and impressions.

If you feel like reading more, I thought I'd do a brief romantic profile of George Eliot this week. (Inspired by my mother, whom I told about Middlemay. She told me that she and my father had read a George Eliot poem at their wedding, and then she asked me if George Eliot was a lesbian. I thought it would be useful to clear up some misconceptions about Eliot's absolutely fascinating personal life.)

The Loves of George Eliot*
Mary Anne Evans was not considered a very beautiful woman, and although she had fallen in love with several men during her twenties, when she was already very active in the literary scene, she had never seen any of those feelings reciprocated. In 1851, when she was 32 years old, she was a spinster. That was the year she met George Lewes, a philosopher whose mind was the perfect complement to hers, and who nurtured and encouraged her work. He was, unfortunately, married, but he believed that marriage was an unfair and sexist institution, and as a result had allowed his wife, Agnes, to carry out an open affair with their neighbor. Even as this affair dragged on and his marriage became less and less viable, Lewes was unable (and possibly unwilling) to divorce Agnes because, by allowing his name to appear as father on the birth certificate of one of the children Agnes had with the neighbor, he was legally complicit in the adultery. George Lewes was raising several of his neighbor's children as well as his own in a house that Mary Anne Evans decided to move into in 1854.

Although they were never legally married, Evans and Lewes acted like husband and wife (and referred to each other as such) for the next 24 years. They were not discreet about their relationship, and as a result, Evans (but not Lewes; there's fair for you) was effectively shut out of Victorian society, and not allowed into "good" houses. They were, however, deeply committed to each other mentally and emotionally, and when Lewes died, Evans went into an intense period of mourning, during which her weight dropped to 80 pounds (or something; I can't remember the exact number).

Then, two years later, Evans did the unthinkable again. In her deep mourning, she had made a friend who was also in mourning, and the two of them became very close consoling each other. This friend, John Cross, was mourning his recently deceased and beloved mother. I should mention he was twenty years Evans's junior. When they got married in 1880, everyone was scandalized all over again.

Evans died only one year later at age 61 of kidney problems and a throat infection. Despite her many acknowledged contributions to English literature, she was denied burial at Westminster Abbey because of her apparently inappropriate quarter-century monogamous relationship with Lewes. But (as I'm slowly learning as I read Middlemarch!) Evans/Eliot left us plenty to think about in terms of romance, society, and women's roles, and I'm glad she had the fortitude to stick by her choices despite what everyone else had to say about it.


*I got all this from Parallel Lives, a great book by Phyllis Rose. If you're into Victorian romances, you'll love it.

Middlemay 2: Old and Young

Hi everybody, and welcome back for the second week of George Eliot's Middlemarch!

Please feel free to post status reports and/or famous lines as well as comments.

Please don't feel beholden to read any further than this line before commenting! But if you'd like further prompting, I put some random stuff up to perhaps inspire/incite. This week, I did a little fussing around reading biographical information about Ms. George Eliot as well as background on the book and its writing. So, in no particular order and without any guise at journalistic integrity, I'm going to post what struck me as interesting trivia (mostly stolen from my Oxford World's Classics edition):

-Middlemarch was published in 1870 and 1871, in single book installments (so 8 separate installments total), usually two months apart. Then, at the end of it all, they issued a "Cheap" (bumper edition). Not unlike several modern-day marketing schemes I've seen (eg "buy this compilation album! There's a secret song!").

-George Eliot didn't become a novelist until she was 37, which is pretty young in the scheme of things, but perhaps not as young when one considers she'd spent her entire adult life as a professional writer. Middlemarch was published when she was 51.

-George Eliot's birth name was Mary Ann Evans. She took the male pen name so she wouldn't be written off as a romance novelist, like most of her fellow female Victorian novelists.

-Eliot was almost entirely self-educated. She didn't have the means to go to the kind of fancy private school she makes fun of Rosamund Vincy for having attended, but she was a strong believer in self-education and self-improvement. By the end of her life, she had taught herself eight languages: aside from English: French, German, Italian, Spanish, Hebrew, Latin, Greek.

-Eliot's writing was (purposely) idea-driven. That's why we get so much about art, science, and religion in every moment of Middlemarch--Eliot cared a lot about her ideas and was very focused on making what she believed come through in her plots.

-Eliot lost faith in God when she was 20. She wasn't the only Victorian questioning faith--British Christianity had reached a strange point during her lifetime where it was assumed one believed in a Christian God as a default, but people were increasingly less confident in this religion. Religion, its place, and its politics are a major concern throught Middlemarch, as in the second book, where we witness (in close detail) the highly political election of a clergy position, and where the question of fitness to lead congregants is secondary to other concerns, like salary and personal relationships.

Ok, I've lost stamina for typing. Turning over the floor!!

-We get a lot of biting commentary on the role of women (often toward some of the things the female characters do and say themselves), but Eliot--although a feminist by practice and by default--did not want to be associated with the feminists of her era, because she didn't agree with some of their philosophies. (NOTE TO SMARTER PEOPLE--this is taken directly from my edition of the book, but there was no further commentary on what philosophies specifically she disagreed with. Anyone know anything about Victorian feminism and/or George Eliot's opinions? I'm fascinated and would love to know more!)

Middlemay 1: Miss Brooke

Hi everybody! How did people do finishing their pages for the first week? Congrats to those who've finished, and to those who haven't, as the Japanese would say, "Gambare!" (Keep fightin'!)

Some pre-reading discussion happened over here, wherein it was revealed that George Eliot was a woman, and also some other fun things.

If you have stuff you want to talk about, please post a comment! For those who like some prompting, activities I would like to suggest for posting inspiration:

1) Declare yourself proudly in the comments if you finished the first book! Or offer your lame understandable excuses if you didn't. (I'm just kidding; it's a pretty tough read, and I'm very sympathetic!

2) Offer up your favorite line (or two) if you have one.

I'm really grateful for this group; don't think I would have had as good a time reading it if I weren't anticipating checking in here today.

(ps I made a "group read" label for this post; hope people like it/agree with it.)

Middlemay!

Hi Everybody,

My copy of Middlemarch, by George Eliot, finally arrived!

I have gone through and flagged off weekly goals with post-its. Yumm. Thank you, Ms. Eliot, for kindly dividing your book into 8 sections of about 100 pages each. These, I think, are very, very convenient weekly reading breaks.


So, for anybody else who is ready to do Middlemay with me (that is, read Middlemarch over the month of May and some of June--like it? I'm very proud), I'd like to suggest we "gather" here every Monday at our leisure to check in and chat. That will give us the weekend to try to do a block of reading.

Here's my proposed schedule:

Monday, May 4: Book I: Miss Brooke
Monday, May 11: Book II: Old and Young
Monday, May 18: Book III: Waiting for Death
Monday, May 25: Book IV: Three Love Problems
Monday, June 1: Book V: The Dead Hand
Monday, June 8: Book VI: The Widow and the Wife
Monday, June 15: Book VII: Two Temptations
Monday, June 22: Book VIII: Sunset and Sunrise

I feel that 100 pages (give or take) is a good sched. If you want to read faster (God bless and help you) you can always talk about it ex post facto, and if you fall behind, other people's words of encouragement may inspire you!

Sound good?

Middlemarch, George Eliot

Hi Guys,

I never assigned a May book club book on my blog, because I think reading here is going to be my new focus.

So, since Middlemarch comes on most of our lists, I thought I'd propose those who'd like to read en groupe start the first week of May.

Alas, it looks terribly, terribly long. Editions range from 800 to 1000 pages. So here's what I was going to propose: reading it over 8 weeks, so May and June, and reporting in on designated chunks here once a week. I'm going to get my hands on a copy and confer with my Eliotian Spiritual Adviser to see if there are natural/recommended chunk breaking points. Then, people who want to read along at the same pace can; people who read faster/have read and log in and chat, and people who fall behind can have plenty of nicely paced time to catch up.

What do you guys think? Basically, I'll do this as long as one other person wants to play. This should not preclude other "book groups" here if other people want to read other books, too! Heck, I might do those, as well.

Kisses,

mr