We here at The Toast are delighted and excited to formally announce our first* big communal book-reading exercise, which will be challenging and fun and gripping and life-affirming and a wonderful bonding experience for us all.
We are going to be reading TWO books together: George Eliot’s Middlemarch, and Rebecca Mead’s not-yet-on-shelves My Life in Middlemarch, which is one of the best things I’ve ever read about the reading life, being a woman, maturity, and love. No big deal. It only brought me to tears on a transatlantic flight.
If you’re not familiar with Rebecca Mead’s work, The New Yorker very graciously acquiesed to our request to un-paywall the article which eventually gave birth to the book we will be enjoying together, and I encourage you to start there.
Now, Rebecca Mead has a little message for the readers of The Toast about her book and our lovely endeavour, and then we’ll get into the mechanics of this whole process:
Virginia Woolf once called Middlemarch “one of the few English novels written for grown-up people,” and it’s easy to see why the characterization has stuck. It’s a great big book in which the most substantial of themes—love, marriage, ambition, hope, duty, limitation, resignation, and loss—are embedded in a narrative that is filled with drama, humor, and pathos, and is rich in sympathetic insight and wisdom. I first read the novel—and fell in love with it—when I was seventeen years old, and have gone back to it every five years or so since, my emotional response to it evolving with each revisiting. In My Life in Middlemarch I’ve explored George Eliot’s life story, and described how she came to write the novel; I’ve examined its characters and themes; and I’ve revisited sites and inspirations of George Eliot’s own life. But the book is also about my experience of growing up with Middlemarch: what I have learned from it, how it has changed me, and how it still speaks to me. My Life in Middlemarch is about how a great novel seems to read us, just as much as we read it.
You don’t need to have read Middlemarch in order to read my book—though I hope that my book will make readers who haven’t yet tried Middlemarch eager to get to know this greatest of novels for themselves. But I do think (this is an exaggeration, but barely) that you need to have read Middlemarch to be a fully realized human being. And what could be a better way to read, or re-read, Middlemarch than in the excellent, intelligent company of the readers of The Toast? I’m very eager to see what you make of it, and thrilled at the thought of new readers discovering the glory of George Eliot’s masterpiece for themselves.
I’m so excited I can barely handle it. Now, here’s how this is going to work.
We will be starting with Middlemarch, and giving ourselves until after Christmas to finish it. It’s a long-ass book, and it divides beautifully into manageable chunks, and it’s available for free online in a variety of formats, and also on Amazon and Indiebound if you want to pay money for it. We’ll do a discussion after we finish each chunk: the first discussion is to be held on December 2nd, and will cover up to the end of Chapter 12. As you’re reading, shoot me questions or ideas you’d like us to specifically discuss (nicole at the hyphen toast dot net), and Mead will weigh in as well.
After My Life in Middlemarch drops, we’ll have some giveaways, we’ll discuss, we’ll revel, and in the spring Rebecca Mead and I will be hosting an awesome event at The Strand so NYC-based Toasties and well-wishers can talk about it in person to our heart’s content.
If I seem excessively amped-up about this, it’s because of how much I loved this book. Reading it was like being transported back to the most perfect, immersive experience of reading one can remember, and I think it will be a privilege and a delight to read and think deeply about two wonderful, wonderful books.
Start your engines, and begin reading Middlemarch.
***
*Not a diss on our more niche-y Emily Books Book Club.
Tags: books, middlemarch, middlemarch book club, my life in middlemarch, rebecca mead
!!!!!!!!!!!
seconded!
Exciting! I shall begin Middlemarch posthaste.
(tries to control breathing)
so so so excited. I must immediately run out an obtain a real classy edition of Middlemarch for my own.
Thank you so much for this Nicole!
I AM SO EXCITED!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! So excited, you guys, LOSING MY SHIT EXCITED. <33333 I love this.
I read Middlemarch in a crazy, morning-noon-middle-of-the-night-I’m-still-riveted tear in college. It remains one of my favorite books of all time. And I enjoyed the NYer article when it came out. In summary: EXCITED!
Just sorry that My Life doesn’t come out til end of January.
YES. TOTALLY IN.
What do you know, I came to The Toast today hoping for suggestions on my next read!
I just joined so I can participate. So excited!
Why must you further my love of The Toast beyond rational bounds? I am now ready to lay down my life for you people.
Love George Elliot. Love Rebecca Mead. Hate Casaubon (always have always will)!
After the group read there needs to be a joint viewing of the BBC mini (with a young, glorious Rufus Sewell)!
I just bought Middlemarch last week! And now I have incentive to read! yay
Why did I never think to just download Middlemarch from Project Gutenberg?? Yep, that’s my project tonight.
Every year around Christmas I read a classic book I missed. This year, it looks like it will be Middlemarch. I can’t wait!
Guys I tried watching the miniseries on Netflix and HATED it. But, I will dive in with the knowledge that the book is always better than the film adaptation! Please reassure me that this is a good call – I was shocked that I couldn’t get through the miniseries because usually those sorts of things are right up my alley.
The book is awesome, and I couldn’t get through the miniseries either. Definitely don’t let it discourage you from trying the book!
What are you, an animal? The series is tops! But yeah, you’ll probs like the book better.
What a wonderful idea! This summer I put together a website to support groups reading Middlemarch; it may be interesting and perhaps even useful for people joining in this group read:
http://middlemarchforbookclubs.wordpress.com/
Thanks! Guys, read it and learn from the lessons of others. We shall prevail.
glory hallelujah! Middlemarch is my ideal book, and I love it so much. Huzzah to the Toast for book clubbing it!
Middlemarch! I took a class in undergrad that was a comparison of Middlemarch and The Wire (yes really) and really liked it but also never finished it, as tends to happen when your options are between “read a vaguely difficult novel” or “watch Idris Elba for several hours at a stretch”. It has been sitting on my bookshelf since then and maybe this is the time to pull it out again.
How does one make a comparison between Middlemarch and The Wire, except that they both have a lot of characters and subplots? I mean, I could see an argument for comparing The Wire with Dickens (Bleak House springs to mind), but George Eliot?
Genuinely curious: what parallels was the instructor making?
This was ~3 years ago and I gotta be honest: by the end it mostly became a class about the Wire (because every single person, myself included, had signed up because we saw that the class was about the Wire.) The thing with Middlemarch is that it’s meant to be a very realistic interpretation of provincial life, and, significantly, provincial life at a time of significant social change. And the Wire obviously never shied away from realism.
But! A lot of the themes were quite similar. Political reform and idealism, especially, or just the state of politics in general. We drew a lot of comparisons between Lydgate and Tommy Caretti, for example, or Dorothea and the teacher guy from season 3. Self determination and chance — we talked a lot about the gang activity and especially the options (or lack of, really) the kids had coming up in their particular environment. Society and class issues, as well. I know it does sound like a stretch, but it did end up being a really interesting comparison.
Interesting — thanks!
I’ve been meaning to reread Middlemarch forever now. Hooray for a good reason to do so!
Oooooh I’m so excited! I’ve never read Middlemarch, but I would love to read and discuss with y’all.
Count me among the excitable, booky people glad to finally be digging into this one and happy to not be doing it solo!
Nicole, so looking forward. Have been wanting to do Middlemarch for some time and this is the perfect opportunity! Wahoo!
I’m teaching this right now at the University of Utah and I hope some of my students will be up for this!
YES more Utah toasts!
Oh man, I’ve had it in my mind to read Middlemarch since that very New Yorker article … count me enthusiastically in! Now I just have to decide whether to read it digitally or on paper.
Aslo and holy cow, how did you get Old Eustace Tilly to unlock this gem from behind his walled garden? What kind of powers have you, Nicole Cliffe if that’s even your real name? Can you also make happen a delivery of a steak sandwich and a velvety smooth Negroni to my desk right now? I’ll bet you can, can’t you.
Answer: I asked Random House to talk to them about it, and lo, it was done.
Okay I guess that steak and cocktail thing is all on me, huh.
You could try Catherine Cullen at Random House, she’s really a treasure.
I’m in the midst of ‘Crime & Punishment’, but ‘Middlemarch’ was next on my list. Maybe I can tag team them, forming a strange classics hybrid in my brain.
I’ve always meant to read this book (and watch the miniseries that’s on Netflix), and now I have an extra reason to do so! Thanks; this sounds fun.
I AM SO IN YOU GUYS. First read Middlemarch a couple summers ago, and I am DYING for an excuse to chatter about it all day long.
I just signed up so I could join in with this, I’m so excited! I had to read Middlmarch fo4 university and hated the first time I read it. The second time everything fell into place and I found it funny and sad and wise and epic. Cannot wait!
Guys!!!! This is so exciting. I have the most beautiful edition of Middlemarch from my favorite high school teacher who was a book collector.
I hope you have a chance to show us a photo at some point! I love beautiful editions.
Yay.
So happy about this. I’m not usually one for obsessions but I’ve been a bit obsessed with George Eliot the last few years and I’m so looking forward to hearing what both Toast readers and Rebecca Mead have to say about her.
Nicole—so excited to see eager new readers of Middlemarch! Can’t wait to hear what everyone else makes of this treasure of a book. And thank you for featuring my book—I’m thrilled to think of it finding its way to sympathetic readers via the Toast.
YES!!!!! I’m in. I’m pumped. I’ll start working on my “Are You a Dorothea, a Rosamond, or a Mary Garth?” Cosmo quiz right away. No, we can’t all be Mary Garth. (Like most academics who trick with the nineteenth century, I worry that I’m really just Casaubon. The lady kind that tries not to ruin lives.)
Hooray hooray hooray! I love Middlemarch, and somehow I hadn’t heard about My Life in Middlemarch (though I did read Rebecca Mead’s New Yorker article when it came out — which was what led me to read Middlemarch for the first time in the first place). Cannot wait.
This is so awesome! I first read Middlemarch when I was recovering from a surgery, and I have to say that sometimes I wish I were laid up again wih nothing to do bu to read it again for the first time. Although I enjoyed it the second time around too!
I agree that Middlemarch is awesome, and I say this as a person who generally doesn’t care for Victorian literature all that much.
I agree that Middlemarch is awesome, and I say this as a person who generally doesn't care for Victorian literature all that much.
This could not be any more delightful. The Toast PLUS BOOK CLUB. I wonder if I’ll find Dorothea more appealing this time around?
I jumped on the bed with excitement! The upcoming winter holiday season coincides with my annual “Middlemarch” re-read, how lovely!
I am IN for this up to the NECK and am grateful for everyone and everything. Can part of the book club one time also do a complete casting of the film of Middlemarch? I mean I know that’s not the point but Emma Thompson as Mrs. Cadwallader? Right? Etc.
I hope you have a chance to show us a photo at some point! I love beautiful editions.
I went to grab a copy from the library I work at and they’ve all been checked out. Recently.
Toassssteers?!
I’ve only read Middlemarch once, as part of a 19th century lit class as an undergrad. The professor suggested that all English majors should have a small box on their diploma that would be checked to indicate whether or not they had read Middlemarch before graduation.
In other words, I’m in.
So happy. Count me in.
I am so excited! I just encountered The Toast for the first time (through the VIDA facebook page, which I also just discovered) and THIS is happening! Amazing timing. I was about to start my own bookclub-of-one reading of Middlemarch for the first time; it’s been on my list forever and I just got the audio book to supplement my paper copy so it’s finally going to get underway. I had a couple of friends who’d expressed a Maybe level of interest in reading with me but it seemed like that wasn’t going to happen… but here you are, an all-set book club AND a new book-about-the-book to go along with it! It’s like a lovely dream. 🙂
So… do we just read and keep an eye out on the site, is that how it works?
Read, and we’ll be discussing up to chapter 12 on Dec. 2nd!
Oh my word! I was overseas at a wedding in India and THIS HAPPENS WHEN I DON’T HAVE INTERNET!?!?!?!? This is huge!