From the Bookshelf of Reading the Classics…

Middlemarch

George Eliot

Start date: November 1, 2014

Finish date: December 31, 2014

Discussion: Past Group Reads

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Past Group Reads

* Washington Square - Reading Schedule
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last updated May 08, 2021 11:27AM

* Rebecca Reading Schedule
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last updated Feb 04, 2021 10:42AM

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What Members Thought

May 01, 2018 Ahtims rated it really liked it

Shelves: paperback-hardback, re-read, classic, ebooks, borrowed, buddy-group-reads, stalled-for-time-being, my-own-lovelies

phew

too jumbled up now to review... Shall attempt later

Later Attempt ( after a night's sleep)

BR with Kru and a few others...
Only Kru and I stuck to the end.
This read was the culmination of my desire to read more classics and my adroit joining in of any BR planned.
We started exactly in the middle of March , and my initial plan was to finish it off by March end. But the book had other plans.
This should be my first unabridged George Eliot... beforehand I have read abridged versions of Silas Marner phew

too jumbled up now to review... Shall attempt later

Later Attempt ( after a night's sleep)

BR with Kru and a few others...
Only Kru and I stuck to the end.
This read was the culmination of my desire to read more classics and my adroit joining in of any BR planned.
We started exactly in the middle of March , and my initial plan was to finish it off by March end. But the book had other plans.
This should be my first unabridged George Eliot... beforehand I have read abridged versions of Silas Marner and the mill on the floss as a child, and didn't expect large , confusing sentences and meandering chapters.
Not that I didn't enjoy.. sometimes there's nothing better than sitting in solitude and reading chunksters which ramble on.
I was soon caught up in the life of the people of Middle March - mostly upper middle class folk keenly mimicking aristocracy .
The two sisters Dorothea and Celia ( as different as ever) and their paramours , friends and relatives make up the story.
Dorothea wants to do good and marries an ages parson, Mr. Casaboun, leaving the grounds clear for Celia to marry Sir James Chettam, who had his eyes on Dorothea. Casaboun is as dry as he is aged and soon lays untold restrictions in Dodo' s life. His nephew, Will Ladislau befriends Dodo.
Rosamund is perhaps the most beautiful girl in Middle March and she soon ensnared Dr. Tertius Lydgate, a do gooder doctor with ideas of medical reform. Soon they realise the worth of the dictum " Marry in haste, repent st leisure".
Rosy's brother Fred has set his eyes on Mary, who is plain in looks but beautiful at heart..who is also the centre of attraction to Mr. Fairbrother, a poor clergy .
There is Mr. Brooke, Dodo and Celia's bachelor uncle who raised them, Mr. Blumstrom ..a blistering fellow who suddenly came into riches and has a chequered and hidden past.

Middle March consists mainly of the actions interactions of these people, and a few more; and their consequences.
I won't claim I thoroughly enjoyed the book; I was often cribbing at its slowness...but am happy that I read it. ...more

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