So looking forward to Summer Reading together! A word of advice: Skip the preface! We’ll be starting in with Chapter One. And: What Henry James and Virginia Woolf couldn‘t see in Middlemarch.
However...the Prelude offers a salient portal into the novel. Dorothea was aspirational like St. Teresa, seeking an epic life...but not to be because of gender, status, power....
Ah! Well, I am following directions and not re-reading the Prelude, but I think the point maybe is not so much whether or not the Prelude touches on relevent themes as whether it sets us up emotionally for our introduction to Dorothea. To begin the novel with a child who will give her life to the Church seeking her own martyrdom—such a dark prototype for the person we will meet, who has so much contradictory vitality… That's just my sense.
I think she's on to something with "they felt her genius, perhaps even a little oppressively" … I'm feeling the toxicity of rivalry after last night's visit with the Roys!
It's Lisa New, popping in to this discussion late. Middlemarch is a book I haven't actually re-read since college, where I might have been one of a very small handful of students who actually read the whole thing-- I was so grateful to have been given that assignment. The same course included Bleak House! Or maybe it was just the same professor who assigned books like Middlemarch and Bleak House, giving them two weeks of instruction. Anyway, I'm thrilled to be reading with all of you. Will catch up
Lisa, welcome! Sorry to be slow replying! I'm finding in these comments that lots of people are having this experience—looking at Dorothea from the other side of youth. I certainly feel this way, knowing, perhaps as Eliot did, where some of these ardent aspirations lead, which, when I first read it, I knew about as little of as Dorothea!
I'm so sorry, running late! Coming soon, promise!
Thank you bunches! Just thought I'd check 🤓
Meanwhile I've opened a chat!
However...the Prelude offers a salient portal into the novel. Dorothea was aspirational like St. Teresa, seeking an epic life...but not to be because of gender, status, power....
Ah! Well, I am following directions and not re-reading the Prelude, but I think the point maybe is not so much whether or not the Prelude touches on relevent themes as whether it sets us up emotionally for our introduction to Dorothea. To begin the novel with a child who will give her life to the Church seeking her own martyrdom—such a dark prototype for the person we will meet, who has so much contradictory vitality… That's just my sense.
Ooh, like “contradictory vitality.”
I like your snarky rewrite of Austen's first line in Pride and Prejudice!
Hey all - just wondering if I missed the June 4th post - or does the discussion begin on the 5th?
Meanwhile I've opened a chat!
“It is a truth not often acknowledged that all great books do not have equally great openings.” - Mona Simpson
Were I inclined to stitch this might become a pillow phrase in my living room. Looking forward to more.
Oh dear...this makes me want to read Middlemarch again. It’s been two years since I last read it--maybe I’m due for another round. Do I dare!?
Surrender to the temptation!
What a lot to ponder...looking forward to reading.
I think she's on to something with "they felt her genius, perhaps even a little oppressively" … I'm feeling the toxicity of rivalry after last night's visit with the Roys!
It's Lisa New, popping in to this discussion late. Middlemarch is a book I haven't actually re-read since college, where I might have been one of a very small handful of students who actually read the whole thing-- I was so grateful to have been given that assignment. The same course included Bleak House! Or maybe it was just the same professor who assigned books like Middlemarch and Bleak House, giving them two weeks of instruction. Anyway, I'm thrilled to be reading with all of you. Will catch up
Lisa, welcome! Sorry to be slow replying! I'm finding in these comments that lots of people are having this experience—looking at Dorothea from the other side of youth. I certainly feel this way, knowing, perhaps as Eliot did, where some of these ardent aspirations lead, which, when I first read it, I knew about as little of as Dorothea!