Week 21 - Middlemarch by George Eliot

[Jenny]

How very apt: week 21 brings us our current classic group read Middlemarch (1871-2) by George Eliot.

from the article:

"Middlemarch is one of those books that can exert an almost hypnotic power over its readers. Few other titles in this series will inspire quite the same intensity of response. When, for instance, in 1873, the poet Emily Dickinson referred to the novel, she wrote in a letter: "What do I think of Middlemarch? What do I think of glory – except that in a few instances 'this mortal [George Eliot] has already put on immortality'."

(...)

"George Eliot's masterpiece, Middlemarch, appeared after the deaths of Thackeray (1863) and Dickens (1870). This is hardly an accident. Subtitled "a study of provincial life", the novel has a didactic realism that's a world away from Vanity Fair or Great Expectations. Indeed, Middlemarch looms above the mid-Victorian literary landscape like a cathedral of words in whose shadowy vastness its readers can find every kind of addictive discomfort, a sequence of raw truths: the loneliness of the disappointed failure, Dr Lydgate; the frustrations of his discontented wife; the humiliation of a good woman, Dorothea; the corrosive bitterness of Casaubon, and so on."

read the full article here

[Pink]

Hooray, a book that we're currently reading as a group. I'm loving it so far, but still a long, long way to go :)

[Leslie]

Pink wrote: "Hooray, a book that we're currently reading as a group. I'm loving it so far, but still a long, long way to go :)"

I'll second that! :)

[LauraT]

And as I've said so many times ... what a novel!!!

[Alannah]

I'm so glad I read this book.

[[deleted user]]

A very recent addition to my library, George Eliot is one of my preferred authors. I haven't gotten around to reading this particular book yet, but I have read "Adam Bede" and "Silas Marner."

[Shirley]

I'm glad I read it, too. Long, but well worth it.

[Albert]

I read it in college, not as part of a course, but as my treat to myself between studying. It tokk a long time to read that way and I savored every minute. One of my most memorable reads.

[Leslie]

Albert wrote: "I read it in college, not as part of a course, but as my treat to myself between studying. It tokk a long time to read that way and I savored every minute. One of my most memorable reads."

What a nice way to give yourself a treat! Much better than snacking :)

[LauraT]

Leslie wrote: "Albert wrote: "I read it in college, not as part of a course, but as my treat to myself between studying. It tokk a long time to read that way and I savored every minute. One of my most memorable r..."

Definetly Leslie!