If you’ve somehow missed being hounded by me to read (first) Middlemarch and (in the New Year) My Life in Middlemarch, you can catch up here.
I am sure you have all dutifully read to the end of Volume 7? It’s a very long chunk, but ideally you hid in the room with the coats during lackluster holiday parties in order to catch up. If not, just pipe in where you can, and dedicate yourself anew to the task this month.
Now, before we get going, I’ve got a fun update about Rebecca’s NYPL event, and we’ll do some #realtalk about it, since I am also doing an event with Rebecca at The Strand on March 5th, and you’ll probably only want to attend one of them (no, I mean, you SHOULD go to both, but since they cost money, you know, let’s drill down):
EVENT THE FIRST: January 29th, 7pm, at the New York Public Library. The nice people at the NYPL have done a discount code for Toasties, so if you enter TOAST at checkout, you’ll pay $15 instead of $25, and will skip service fees. Rebecca is also going to be doing a little private meeting with Toast readers prior to the event, where you can ingratiate yourself and ask questions and get books signed (it comes out on the 28th), etc. I will not be at this one, I am in Canada.
EVENT THE SECOND: March 5th, 7pm, at The Strand (New York, again, sorry Londoners.) Rebecca and I will BOTH be at this one, and the requirement is that you either have to buy her book (I expect you will own one prior to March, and we’re also doing giveaways) or a Strand gift card of equal value, which, you know, that’s pretty reasonable. I didn’t love the idea of having any cost for the event, but I also like saying “oh, I’m speaking at The Strand in March,” and buying a book is something many of us do all the time for fun. I will be hanging out for ages at this event, it will be a mini Toast-up that can then be moved to a bar.
Okay, are we all clear now? I hope that was helpful.
On to Middlemarch!
What I loved about having such a large chunk of the novel to do this time was really getting into a rhythm with it. I tranced out with George Eliot, honestly. I got this mini foot elliptical, because my New Year’s resolution was to actually stop sitting 80% of the day, and just powered happily to nowhere while utterly engaged with the novel.
Rebecca is interested to know:
a) How your impressions of the characters have evolved so far, if at all. How about Bulstrode, in particular? She feels as though she was utterly uninterested in his inner dramas as a younger reader, but by her thirties, they seemed far more compelling.
b) If this is your first time through Middlemarch, how do you think it will end? Make your predictions now!
All right, let’s talk. Oh, and can you do me a favour? If you think you’ll attend either or BOTH of the events, can you tell me in the comments? We’re interested for purposes of giveaways and numbers and just curiosity.
Tags: george eliot, middlemarch, middlemarch book club, rebecca mead
This book is so great. I am enjoying it IMMENSELY.
Hey, I just realized this post doesn’t say how far we should read or when the next discussion post will be. Are we just powering through to the end, or…?
Just keep reading for now, I’m doing a mini post next week to tell people more about the NYPL event and stuff like that.
I REALLY WISH the events were on weekends so I could drive down.
I am also really interested in a review of that tiny elliptical machine.
And I am also enjoying the book immensely.
I like the tiny elliptical machine! It has made it very easy to get in 14K steps a day, which hopefully will make me immortal.
it looks like it would be hard to balance on! do you have it at a desk?
Nope, just my carpet. You get used to it very quickly, but I also do a lot of weird balance-stuff at the gym and for my yuppie-ass sports, so YMMV. Apparently you can also do it sitting down? There are pictures.
cool! i want one.
I dont know about predictions, but im still kind of hoping dorothea ends up with will.
I’ve been waiting for WEEKS to freak out with you all about Book 5. How creepy was it when Dorothea found Casaubon dead on the bench? The whole scene is like a gothic painting. And is Celia the smuggest of all Smug Marrieds or what? I am not sure what a “comfortable staccato” would sound like but I am sure it would get on my nerves.
It’s my second time through but I still can’t work up much sympathy for Bulstrode’s character. I get Rosamond, who does all kinds of wrongs but steadfastly refuses to perceive them as wrong. (I just finished The Luminaries, in which a number of the characters do the same thing, which feels realistic.) I get other characters, including dopey Fred, who do wrong and experience remorse and wish to do penance. But I don’t understand Bulstrode, who is aware of his wrongs but does not feel remorse or get off his high horse until blackmailed. His angst at that time doesn’t seem compelling to me.
I’m going to start watching the miniseries with some ladyfriends this weekend and I am PSYCHED. Don’t tell me if it’s a good adaptation or not!
yeah, i dont care too much about bulstrode! i think lydgate is a lot more tragic.
I think Bulstrode is super interesting, and a really creepy portrait of someone who has figured out a way to rationalize some pretty terrible actions without realizing that that’s what he’s doing. But I think his psychology is a bit less accessible partly because of the role religion plays in it. One of the things I love about this book is that some things feel so modern and others make you realize how far away the past is, and parts of the book that intersect with religion – including Dorothea’s idealism at the beginning, and Bulstrode’s self-justifications – are some of the most opaque to me.
The parts about Bulstrode’s descent that feel accessible to me are the descriptions of subtle, gradual self-justification. One quote in particular–I can’t find right now, but it talks about how there were all these little thoughts, not even real decisions per se, that Bulstrode sort of just got used to, and then after a while, he was living this hypocrisy.
I actually really relate to the religious parts, at least where Dorothea is concerned (not so much Bulstrode) which is part of the reason she is my favorite character. I, too, was an idealistic young 20 something some years ago. I can totally imagine myself in her shoes.
The spiritual kind of rescue was a genuine need with him. There may be coarse hypocrites, who consciously affect beliefs and emotions for the sake of gulling the world, but Bulstrode was not one of them. He was simply a man whose desires had been stronger than his theoretic beliefs, and who had gradually explained the gratification of his desires into satisfactory agreement with those beliefs. If this be hypocrisy, it is a process which shows itself occasionally in us all, to whatever confession we belong, and whether we believe in the future perfection of our race or in the nearest date fixed for the end of the world; whether we regard the earth as a putrefying nidus for a saved remnant, including ourselves, or have a passionate belief in the solidarity of mankind.
(That last bit wasn’t as relevant, BUT included the phrase “putrefying nidus”, so obviously I had to include it.)
(A nidus is the place in which something is formed or deposited; a site of origin – thanks, kindle dictionary.)
That’s it! Thanks!
Now, to work “putrefying nidus” into everyday conversation…
CASAUBON WAS THE WORST, UP TO AND INCLUDING HIS DEATH. Ugh.
Also, can we talk about how horrifying the phrase “disappointed of her baby” is? God, even Rosamond didn’t deserve that.
I am not all the way caught up but i CAN talk about how CASAUBON IS THE WORST. I was almost, sort of feeling bad for the guy but then … NNNOPPPE. You are a shit, dude. You deserved to die a miserable failure with no friends. Ass.
Right? There were some moments of real sympathy, and then he ended on THE LOWEST NOTE POSSIBLE.
TERRRRRRRRIBLE. God, what a small, petty, horrible man.
Celia would totally be a mommy blogger.
Also, I shamefully can never retain anything about Bulstrode. I’ve been catching up this morning (I’m behind! just like a real book club!) and a good chunk was about him and just . . . I’m now drawing a complete blank. Is he the religious one? Something about a hospital?
He’s the DAMN religious one, who Lydgate wasn’t supposed to befriend at the beginning because he would influence too much Lydgate’s vote for who the clergy for the hospital (or some such position) would be (Bulstrode is rich so people have to listen, but evangelical so no one wants to listen). And then there was some kerfuffle about the vote for that position, and it was tied, and Lydgate showed up after the votes were cast, and he was new to town, and the one clergy-guy gambled but was a jolly friendly sort, but if Lydgate voted his heart, it would be against Bulstrode, and he had to prove he WASN’T in Bulstrode’s pocket so he did so by voting WITH Bulstrode.
(I undoubtedly have the fors/againsts completely wrong.)
(The politics and religions parts are not the gripping parts for me. Give me angst and drama and gossipy neighbors!)
One of the things that’s really interesting about the narration in Middlemarch is that you get the sense that Eliot is working overtime to evince sympathy in the reader for characters for whom she herself must work to have sympathy. You can just tell she likes Fred, and she doesn’t like Rosamond, Casaubon, or Bulstrode. And there are lengthy passages encouraging us to put ourselves in all of their shoes, and think about whether we’d have behaved any better in those circumstances–but with the latter three, there are subtly snarky bits that let you know how the narrator really feels.
Yes, but I also I think she’s much more interested in those characters than in Fred or Mary. And I think she’s right! They are way more interesting. If I had to pick a least favorite character, it would probably be Fred.
I was kind of powering through Book Seven, trying to finish it before going to bed last night as if I were back in college scrambling to get the reading done before class, and then that last chapter or two! Bulstrode’s descent into ignominy and scandal!
Also, I find myself both terrified of and adoring Rosamond. She’s like Regina George in petticoats.
OMG YES
Raise your hand if you have ever been personally victimized by Rosamond Vincy. *every single The Toast reader raises hand* PERFECT.
Fred = Ashton Kutcher
Please tell me I’m wrong and give me another option because I dislike having to read this delightful book and picture his stupid man-face.
No, he is Colin Firth’s little brother! He looks like this!
That is how I imagine him and I did not even know that Colin Firth had a little brother.
OH NO AAAAUUUGH WHYYYY
Matthew Lewis = Fred Vincy.
RSVP-ing per request – I have a ticket to the NYPL event and I’ll probably go to the Strand thing too, schedule permitting. Do I have to do anything special to learn about the Toast ingratiation pre-event at the NYPL thing? I got my ticket a while ago so I won’t be labeled as a Toaster in any ticket purchase database.
Email me, I’ll give your name to my NYPL contact.
Done, thank you!
You have to arrive bearing actual toast. It can be incorporated into your attire, such as: toast-point lapels! toasty hand warmers! hat made out of toast!
I am SO FAR BEHIND due to deciding I could totes read four books at a time and finish two knitting projects over the course of a holiday in which I traveled to two different states—Casaubon hasn’t even died yet, I know, I’m the worst—but anyway, I live in NYC and will definitely be coming to at least one of these events, probably the Strand because NICOLE + MEETUP.
*Ugh, I just deleted my comment because I got ahead in reading and was speaking from the future. Pay no attention to the rip in the space time continuum.*
Anyway, I’ll be at the Strand thing. Yay! Also, social anxiety!
Fred. Oh, Fred. Wanting an occupation that “was at once gentlemanly, lucrative, and to be followed without special knowledge.” Been there, honey. (Still am there.)
I think for me Lydgate is the frontrunner for being a dickhead. Your wife does not bend to your every whim? <shocker>
I dont know! I’m farther along than book 7, but I feel really sorry for Lydgate!
Guys, I’m like 8 hours ahead of NY time so I have been waiting ALL DAY to talk about this. I finished Book 7 this morning and wanted to comment a bit before plowing on to the end!
It’s interesting to see upthread that people find Rosamond a little adorable if terrifying because I feel like this gif accurately sums up my feelings about Rosamond:
So many of the arcs in this section are about the shattering of self-delusion: Casaubon finally had to face the fact that his life’s work will probably amount to nothing, that it was in fact already out of date. Dorothea’s delusion in marrying Casaubon was quickly shattered on that terrible honeymoon and then with his terrible will. And then, I imagine she’ll have to face the fact that Lydgate is probably not worth her enthusiastic investment. It will be interesting to see how she handles that. My prediction (it is my first time reading): she’ll try see the best in him but listen to counsel before acting having learned her lesson. (Dorothea is easily my favorite character. I am so pulling for her.) Then there’s obviously ydgate’s delusion that Rosamond would be a delicate, subservient flower of a wife, and of course Bulstrode’s delusion that he could outrun his past and/or sweep it under the rug when Raffles died. Brooke’s delusion that he’d be perfect for Parliament. Crinnnge.
And then there’s Fred’s delusion that he could just waltz through life and everything would just, you know, work out, was also shattered, thanks to Featherstone’s will and Mary’s ultimatum. Even Farebrother, I would argue, and Caleb Garth, have to face this, although they handled it gracefully and wisely: Farebrother obviously hoped that Mary would choose him, and Garth obviously hoped that his deal with Bulstrode would work out, to the advantage of Fred and Mary. I wouldn’t call those delusions, but perhaps that’s why they are presented as the wisest, most respectable characters–they’ve outgrown delusions.
The difference (or, one of them, anyway) is in how each character handles the realization that s/he is wrong. Fred, Caleb, and Camden all handle it graciously and, importantly, early. Dorothea, Lydgate, and Bulstrode don’t analyze their hopes/delusions until it’s far too late: after marriage, after amassing suffocating debt, after a lifetime of convincing oneself that no one will find out.
Ahhhhh I can’t wait to see what happens next!
Yes! This is how I’ve been describing the book to people – it’s about how people react when they realize that life will not go as they expected. Some of them surprise you – Fred, the spoiled layabout, pulls himself together – while others disappoint.
Ack, sorry for the double post–it refreshed the page and my post didn’t show up so I thought it was lost and re-posted.
Guys, I’m like 8 hours ahead of NYC time so I have been waiting ALL DAY TO TALK ABOUT THIS.
First, Rosamond. She is basically the worst.
Honestly, unlike the commenters upthread, I have a very hard time relating to or liking her at all. I find her character pretty repellant, and when she acts I find myself rooting for Lydgate even more, even acknowledging his faults (and boy does he have them.)
So many of the arcs in this section are about the shattering of self-delusion and pride: Casaubon finally had to face the fact that his life’s work will probably amount to nothing, that it was in fact already out of date. Dorothea’s delusion in marrying Casaubon was quickly shattered on that terrible honeymoon and then with his terrible will. And then, I imagine she’ll have to face the fact that Lydgate is probably not worth her enthusiastic investment. It will be interesting to see how she handles that. This is my first time reading, so my prediction is that she will be open hearted but consider the counsel of others (Celia, James) before acting on Lydgate’s behalf, given her experience with Casaubon.
Then of course there’s Lydgate’s delusion that Rosamond would be a delicate, subservient flower of a wife, and Bulstrode’s delusion that he could outrun his past and/or sweep it under the rug when Raffles died. And Brooke’s delusion that he’d be perfect for Parliament. (Crinnnge!)
Then, less disastrously, Fred’s delusion that he could just waltz through life and everything would just, you know, work out, was also shattered, thanks to Featherstone’s will and Mary’s ultimatum. Even Farebrother, I would argue, and Caleb Garth, have to face this, although they handled it gracefully and wisely: Farebrother obviously hoped that Mary would choose him, and Garth obviously hoped that his deal with Bulstrode would work out, to the advantage of Fred and Mary. I wouldn’t call those delusions, but perhaps that’s why they are presented as the wisest, most respectable characters–they’ve outgrown delusions.
The difference (or, one of them, anyway) is in how each character handles the realization that s/he is wrong. Fred, Caleb, and Camden all handle it graciously and, importantly, early. Dorothea, Lydgate, and Bulstrode don’t analyze their hopes/delusions until it’s far too late: after marriage, after amassing suffocating debt, after a lifetime of convincing oneself that no one will find out.
I can’t wait to see how it all enddddds!
I can’t even listen to the Rosamond and Lydgate chapters without yelling at the audiobook. She infuriates me on some basic level. Yes, he’s partially to blame, but undercutting him behind his back at every instance? Nope. Bulstrode is worse, but she’s a close second.
I think it makes a difference –to me, at least, in how I relate to the characters– that Bulstrode’s sins were in the past and he’s made some sort of effort, whatever his original selfish intent, to live as an upstanding citizen and be good to his wife and family here and now, whereas Rosamond is literally just looking out for herself and casually destroying Lydgate just because she doesn’t like to be ANNOYED. Also, Bulstrode is now paying for his sins–I’ll bet my Sunday bonnet that Rosamond won’t have to. dfjoasd;foafjsakdnejneriagjdfakfdsa i just cannot with Rosamond.
Huh, that’s interesting. I found Bulstrode to be more relatable after learning about his past – for the first part of the book he’s just a rich holier-than-thou bully. It’s not until you learn what he did to Ladislaw’s mother that you realize why it’s psychologically necessary for him to believe he is more religiously correct than everyone else.
Rosamond is absolutely completely infuriating. But I think she’s understandable. She has the same sense of entitlement to a particular level of comfort that Fred has, without the feeling of obligation to be straightforward and frank in her actions. I have much more natural sympathy for Lydgate, but I think in some ways Rosamond’s response to her husband’s attempts to impose his will on her and completely deny her agency are more natural & life-affirming than Dorothea’s in a parallel situation. I mean, she does dumb sneaky counterproductive things, but at least she does something.
Perfect .gif because now I am imagining Fred as Jean-Ralphio, living a baller lifestyle on the expectation that he will suddenly come into money, and Rosamond as Mona Lisa, greedy and entitled and manipulative.
I guess that makes Lydgate Tom, which works for me, because though I love the way both characters are drawn I’d avoid both of them like the plague at a party.
Noooo Fred is the best! I’d say Fred is actually more like Tom – looking for the quick buck but gradually realizing it’s not so easy.
This kinda works – Dorothea is Leslie Knope, Celia is Anne. Ladislaw works as Ben – purty, talented, no fixed career aspirations, primary characteristic is adoration of the main character..
I kind of want to make April be Mary Garth, though, due to snarkiness. But then you would either have to switch Fred to Andy or have April wind up with Jean-Ralphio.
I can see Fred as Andy – essentially goodhearted, but also able to make some really awful decisions.
See, I find Rosamond fascinating to read about, and I do kind of love that instead of being this childlike, subservient wife, she is going to do whatever the hell she likes. Is some of what she does awful? No doubt! But I like that she has a personality, even if it’s kind of a terrible one.
I just feel like there’s a middle ground between subservient and sneakily undermining. But probably not for women of her time/background/education? I may be judging based on modern standards.
Oh, there absolutely is, and she behaves awfully. But I am loving reading about her awfulness and I don’t hate her like other folks seem to. Maybe she’s behaving as badly/selfishly as I wish I could.
Also, I find it really interesting that she miscarries because she goes against Lydgate’s wishes – or at least it is heavily implied that she does – and then continues to do whatever the fuck she pleases. Like, way harsh, Eliot.
Lydgate makes me just as mad (or madder) than Rosamund. Despite many opportunities, he NEVER figures out that women are real people. Even after everything that goes down with Rosamund, he still sees her as a role and a subject for him to act on — to protect, to get angry at, to cow to finally — but never as an actual person. I think the quote that makes me maddest is: “He wished to excuse everything in her if he could — but it was inevitable that in that excusing mood he should think of her as if she were an animal of another and feebler species. Nevertheless she had mastered him.”
It’s easier for him to keep thinking of her as a lesser being whom he has failed than to accept that her unhappiness might be her own fault. In refusing to blame her he refuses to give her subjectivity — and he traps himself. If he for once called her out on her shit, giving her some responsibility, he might be able to save both of them, but he can’t (or won’t) do it.
Oh, agreed–Lydgate is terrible at marriage, too, and needs to accept that a wife is not something but someone. I’ll have to think a bit more in order to put my finger on what exactly it is about Rosamond that makes my reaction so much stronger than against Lydgate…I think her going behind his back re: money/selling the house really solidified my fury with her, so maybe it’s just that I personally cannot abide financial duplicity in a relationship!
Fred and Mary are still my favorites forever. And were my actual dad not so wonderful, I would want Caleb Garth to be my dad.
Ok favorite quotes? Favorite quotes! (Some might be from our last section, apologies!)
“It is in these acts called trivialities that the seeds of joy are forever wasted.” (When Casaubon declines to take Dorothea’s arm in the garden. Seriously, dude? Seriously?)
“She was always trying to be what her husband wished and never able to repose on his delight in what she was.” Pretty much sums up my last relationship.
“I have always been thinking of the different ways Christianity is taught, and whenever I find one way that makes it a wider blessing than any other, I cling to that as the truest…” I love this so much. And also this one: “There is no general doctrine which is not capable of eating out our morality if unchecked by the deep-seated habit of direct fellow-feeling with individual fellow-men.” So true, so wonderful.
“To most mortals there is a stupidity which is unendurable and a stupidity which is altogether acceptable–else, indeed, what would become of social bonds?” hahahahahaa love it.
“Who can know how much of his most inward life is made up of the thoughts he believes other men to have about him, until that fabric of opinion is threatened with ruin?”
I like the paragraphs where Lydgate finally starts to get it, although it made me so sad for him: “He had never liked the makeshifts of poverty, and they had never before entered his prospects for himself; but he was beginning now to imagine how two creatures who loved each other, and had a stock of thoughts in common, might laugh over their shabby furniture, and their calculations how far they could afford butter and eggs.”
I marked the “never able to repose on his delight” and “no general doctrine” quotes too.
I liked:
Making it clear that Lydgate remained bourgeois at heart: “In warming himself at French social theories he had brought away no smell of scorching.”
Caleb, trying to defend Mary inarticulately: “There’s something in what she says, though,” said Caleb, not disposed to have Mary’s sharpness undervalued. “A bad workman of any sort makes his fellows mistrusted. Things hang together,” he added, looking on the floor and moving his feet uneasily with a sense that words were scantier than thoughts.
“One must hire servants who will not break things,” said Lydgate. (Certainly, this was reasoning with an imperfect vision of sequences. But at that period there was no sort of reasoning which was not more or less sanctioned by men of science.)
“Will was not displeased with that complimentary comparison, even from Mr. Brooke; for it is a little too trying to human flesh to be conscious of expressing one’s self better than others and never to have it noticed, and in the general dearth of admiration for the right thing, even a chance bray of applause falling exactly in time is rather fortifying. ”
“Our sense of duty must often wait for some work which shall take the place of dilettanteism and make us feel that the quality of our action is not a matter of indifference. ”
“Doubtless a vigorous error vigorously pursued has kept the embryos of truth a-breathing: the quest of gold being at the same time a questioning of substances, the body of chemistry is prepared for its soul, and Lavoisier is born. But Mr. Casaubon’s theory of the elements which made the seed of all tradition was not likely to bruise itself unawares against discoveries: it floated among flexible conjectures no more solid than those etymologies which seemed strong because of likeness in sound until it was shown that likeness in sound made them impossible: it was a method of interpretation which was not tested by the necessity of forming anything which had sharper collisions than an elaborate notion of Gog and Magog: it was as free from interruption as a plan for threading the stars together. ”
“His mind glancing back to Laure while he looked at Rosamond, he said inwardly, “Would she kill me because I wearied her?” and then, “It is the way with all women.” But this power of generalizing which gives men so much the superiority in mistake over the dumb animals, was immediately thwarted by Lydgate’s memory of wondering impressions from the behavior of another woman…”
“as free from interruption as a plan for threading the stars together” — perfect!
Dorothea growing up: “Sorrow comes in so many ways. Two years ago I had no notion of that — I mean of the unexpected way in which trouble comes, and ties our hands, and makes us silent when we long to speak. I used to despise women a little for not shaping their lives more, and doing better things. I was very fond of doing as I liked, but I have almost given it up.”
And the narrator telling it like it is: “If youth is the season of hope, it is often so only in the sense that our elders are hopeful about us; for no age is so apt as youth to think its emotions, partings, and resolves are the last of their kind. Each crisis seems final, simply because it is new.”
Mrs. Cadwallader on the power of linguistics: “We have all got to exert ourselves a little to keep sane, and call things by the same names as other people call them by.”
Poor Ms. Casaubon: “who was passing through one of those rare moments of experience when we feel the truth of a commonplace, which is as different from what we call knowing it, as the vision of waters upon the earth is different from the delirious vision of the water which cannot be had to cool the burning tongue.”
And Caleb, a man of few words: “‘Why, my lads, how’s this?’ he began, taking as usual to brief phrases, which seemed pregnant to himself, because he had many thoughts lying under them, like the abundant roots of a plant that just manages to peep above the water.”
Best description ever of one of those nights you just know are going to go well/badly: “Fred did not enter into formal reasons… but there was lurking in him a prophetic sense that evening, that when he began to play he should begin to bet – that he should enjoy some punch-drinking, and in general prepare himself for feeling ‘rather seedy’ in the morning. “
I love the “call things by the same name” quote – such a pithy acknowledgement that communication is a shared endeavor and that it takes energy not to lapse into solipsism. It pairs nicely with the Caleb quote – he does a lot of thinking but doesn’t do a lot of talking, and Eliot is clear that translating thoughts into words is not automatic or effortless.
Sage advice from Caleb Garth (Fred Vincy is so lucky that Garth takes him under his wing): “You must be sure of two things: you must love your work, and not be always looking over the edge of it, wanting your play to begin. And the other is, you must not be ashamed of your work, and think it would be more honorable to you to be doing something else.”
Also, this sentence about Bulstrode seems to sum up a lot about the novel as a whole: “But the train of causes in which he had locked himself went on.”
About Lydgate (and a million other dudes I know): “He held it one of the prettiest attitudes of the feminine mind to adore a man’s pre-eminence without too precise an understanding of what it consisted in.”
About Rosamond’s suitor (I forget his name): “His chin had too vanishing an aspect, as if it were being gradually reabsorbed.”
Zing!!! “Celia regarded Mr. Casaubon’s learning as a kind of damp which might in due time saturate a neighboring body.”
I finished Middlemarch over Christmas and now I need to know – which George Elliot novel to pick up next?
Mill on the Floss!
I loved Daniel Deronda for many of the same reasons I loved Middlemarch, although the characters fall more along D&Desque Good/Evil and Chaotic/Lawful axes.
Bonus points: there is a film adaptation that has much to recommend it, including Hugh Dancy being impossibly beautiful and Hugh Bonneville being unrepentantly wicked despite his round face and foppish curls.
Is anyone still reading Silas Marner in high school? It used to be standard issue and I thought it was dry and meaningless. Then I read again years later and found it surprisingly wonderful.
As a left-coaster, I probably won’t be able to make it to either event – although I am totally impulsive and reckless enough to buy a plane ticket just to go to a reading. I really wish I could go though, and here is why. My grandmother is a retired English professor, and her best friend is a not-yet-retired English professor, and they both LOVE Middlemarch & George Eliot and are eagerly awaiting the publication of Rebecca’s book. In fact, I tried to explain the Toast read-along to them over the holidays but they were a little baffled. Anyway, I’d love more than anything to be able to get a signed copy for each of them. So Rebecca, if you are reading this, I hope you come to San Francisco at some point this year! I’ll be the one accompanied by two ladies who are clearly dressed for the opera!
Hear, hear! I delight in imagining your grandmother and her best friend (they look, in my mind, much like the mostly-retiree crowd that makes up the local chapter of the Jane Austen Society).
I’m on the West Coast, too; so tragical, I will actually BE in New York this month, just not at a time that includes the Middlemarch event. So, please, please, Rebecca, do head west!!
Gahhh I loved this crazy book so much that I powered through all the way to the end! Thank you, Toast, for motivating me to read it, it’s probably not something I’d have picked up myself.
I thought Rosamond is a great example of what Roxane Gay was writing about in her article about the importance of unlikable female characters (http://www.buzzfeed.com/roxanegay/not-here-to-make-friends-unlikable). I found her so fascinating even without “liking” her at all, how her ideas about what she’s owed are so self-serving (almost Randian!) she’s like a super ladylike sociopath. But the cool thing about getting a glimpse at her inner life is that she honestly considers herself a victim, because her sense of entitlement has never been checked before. SO INTERESTING. And important, and relevant. Because what are we telling women they should grow up to expect their lives to be like?
Yesssss. Although I can’t stand Rosamond (so far–is there hope for her and Lydgate in the last section?!?! I want there to be!) her characterization is so consistent and believable, I can’t put it down.
I love love love having such a wide variety of female characters in this book: strong, weak, selfish, passionate, foolish, loyal…sometimes all of the above.
Aaaaah thank you for linking to that, it articulates a lot better much of what I was fumbling about upthread. Rosamond is outwardly supposed to be very likeable – womanly talents, “infantine” prettiness, the epitome of what a wife should be. But on the inside? She’s more than a little monstrous. That’s FASCINATING.
YES x 1000. I love how Rosamund makes us reckon with what we want from women. Obviously she’s not what Lydgate wants (pretty doll to smile at him and do sex occasionally) but she’s also not the Strong Female Character we would probably like to see from our “enlightened” perspective. Nope, she’s just a fucking asshole….but an asshole who manages to both fulfil and completely TORPEDO the expectations foisted on her from birth (as a woman who is educated, like so many — like Dorothea! — only to be ornamental).
I also think it’s fascinating that Dorothea and Rosamond are the two Very Beautiful Women in the book. Each of them chafes under society’s expectations for women. Rosamond deals by complying sweetly outwardly but dismantling things in malicious subtle (“feminine”) ways, and Dorothea by ignoring ornamentation completely and throwing herself headlong into a relationship that she thinks will give her intellectual and spiritual fulfillment. Meanwhile, industrious, entertaining, loving, Mary, is described as quite ordinary, not someone you’d look twice at on the street. Eliot obviously wants us to think about what we expect from women.
Mary sounds super cute in the one description of her though (curly hair, thick eyebrows, etc)! I am picturing her as Maeby from Arrested Development.
This is a really good explanation! I still cannot help but find her infuriating.
Also, so interesting to read a novel with Rosamund, Dorthea AND Mary Garth all in one book. I can’t stand Rosamund (or Lydgate, for that matter), but this thread has helped me look at Rosamund in a new light, which I love. She is a piece of work. But then, so is Dorthea in her own way, even though I love her by now. But ultimately Mary Garth seems to be only one with two feet firmly planted in reality and it makes her the most resilient, I think.
“super ladylike sociopath” — I love that description!
OK IT CAME ON SLOW BUT NOW I AM COMPLETELY OBSESSED WITH THIS BOOK, I FINISHED IT OVER CHRISTMAS AND HAVE JUST BEEN INTERNALLY/SOMETIMES ACTUALLY CRYING ABOUT IT SINCE THEN, AAAAH
The thing I have been completely bowled over by is the way that Eliot will never let you off the hook — you are COMPELLED to empathize with (and, more terrifyingly, to recognize parts of yourself in) characters that you want nothing more than to dismiss or loathe, reactions which another author would encourage or tacitly allow. (You’re also forced to acknowledge the unseemly aspects of characters you would rather uncomplicatedly adore). As a result this might be the most emotionally intense reading experience I’ve ever had. I CAN’T DEAL AND YET I NEVER WANT TO STOP DEALING
Yes. So many feelings! Especially now that I’m partway through book eight and things are happening and I don’t want this book to end. I was just telling my friend about it and trying to explain how Eliot makes the internal lives of all these characters so gripping and almost epic. My friend commented that everyone thinks their own inner life is epic, but to have an author make you feel that way about someone else is terrifically good writing. (P.S. I convinced her to read Middlemarch as well.)
The reality and complexity and multi-faceted nature of every single damn person in this book! And I care, I care so much, and it makes me laugh and cringe and be introspective and be nervous about imaginary people who I already know what their fates are but I care just as much as if they were sitting on my sofa this evening telling me it all for the first time.
It’s remarkable that she made a tremendous cast of complex characters. For all that, I think that I’m most in love with the narrator — I love the wit and commentary. But the best part is the way the narrator shows you the inevitability of the choices that these people make so that the anticipation of their foolishness heightens the tension, as you say. It reminds me of Muriel Spark, though she was a lot more mean-spirited. I wonder if she was inspired by Middlemarch.
So, sometimes when I am driving around or whatever, I amuse myself by coming up with the favorite television shows of Middlemarch characters. It seems like a valid, if not important, use of my time.
Rosamund, obviously, is all about the reality tv – but don’t limit her. She might be on a Bachelor or The Voice tear, or Real Housewives, but give her an HGTV marathon and she’ll show up.
Lydgate would like to just sit and unwind sometimes with cop dramas, but Rosamund is always deleting them off the DVR all, “oh, I thought you saw that one already.”
Sir James says he never watches TV, but somehow he always knows what’s happening in Celia’s shows. (Celia is a prime time lineup gal. If there’s buzz, she checks it out. Not so much a fan of the Serious Dramas, but she knows her husband wants to watch them, plus this way she always has something to say when people Discuss them. But she’s never really all that invested, just pays enough attention to stay current.)
Will Ladislaw, on the other hand, is all about the Serious Dramas. Because they are Art. He doesn’t need to hear your interpretation of Breaking Bad, though he’ll tell you what he saw in it, if you ask, which you probably will, because you can just tell he’d have something innovative to say about it.
Now, you think Dorothea just watches The Good Wife and Downton Abbey while she does her mending or folds laundry, but when I tell you she is kind of obsessed with Scandal, are you really surprised? You are not.
Mr. Casaubon only watches the news, and it makes him restless and disgruntled.
Mr. Brooke, in addition to 60 Minutes, will hop between Fox News and MSNBC with no discernible pattern to his choices. His guilty pleasure is The Price is Right. Price is Right, you know. (Run away when he starts talking about it.)
Mrs. Cadwallader turns off the tv after Live with Michel & Kelly, because she has far too much going on with the actual people in her neighborhood to bother much with made-up ones.
Fred. Don’t you discount Fred, just because he likes sitcoms. Plenty of people like sitcoms, and besides, he really likes Parks & Rec, and was totally into Happy Endings, which shows he has some taste.
Mary Garth also loved Happy Endings. Now she mostly just listens to podcasts, and checks out the Netflix series stuff. Sometimes she catches a Law & Order rerun with her mom, who likes the tv on when she’s puttering in the kitchen.
The Bulstrode family doesn’t have cable. (Their parents haven’t figured out yet that the daughters just stream whatever they want.)
Love this! 🙂
“Now, you think Dorothea just watches The Good Wife and Downton Abbey while she does her mending or folds laundry, but when I tell you she is kind of obsessed with Scandal, are you really surprised? You are not. ”
Oh my god, this is perfect. I think Mrs. Cadwallader is also a closet Scandal fan, though.
You are undoubtedly right!
Also, how much fun are you having with the book covers? I am doing the same on my blog as I’m reading Les Mis (which was supposed to be a year-long project and… wasn’t. It took me a year to get through half of the thing. But I keep going because I have a plethora of Les Mis covers still to put up while I go on and on about Hugo’s creepy obsession with teenage girls and how very boring even a good writer’s retelling of the battle of Waterloo can be.)
My point being, all the awesome Middlemarch book covers are much appreciated.
Late reply, but I’m disappointed at how much the finish on my Bickford Smith edition (pink one pictured here) is coming off. I’ve admired them for awhile but this was the first one I bought. Is there a way to preserve the finish? Now I KNOW for sure that fake reader frenimies are just collectors bc their Bickford Smiths are in pristine condition.
I was pretty startled when my son used my Bickford Smith Pride & Prejudice for his English class last year and it held up okay, despite backpacks and note-taking and all.
(The fact that I had to run a cost-benefit analysis about letting him take that edition, which somehow was the only copy of P&P I could find in any of our not-organized-even-by-color bookcases, will not surprise anyone.
The fact that he was happy to use a fancy “girly” book at school speaks to my superb gender-issues-awareness parenting, I’m sure.
The fact that his school won’t let him use ebooks instead of paper is irritating, especially since the middle school will let his brother use them.
The fact that I let him take the Bickford Smith instead of going out to buy him a cheaper paper copy is, all told, the actual surprise of this story.)
Hurrah! I just bought a TOAST-discounted ticket to the NYPL event because:
1) I adore NYPL Live! events
2) it’s a good spurring impetus to finish Middlemarch by then and
3) get signed/started on Rebecca’s book.
I’m terribly far behind. (Got distracted by Hild over the holidays.) I’ve read it before, but I wanted to do a thorough re-read. I’ll try to catch up before our next book club thread, though!
I’m going to be at the NYPL event, and possibly the one at the Strand, as well, depending on how that weekend shapes up. So excited for both the events and the Toast-ups!
I have a ticket to the NYPL event with Rebecca Mead and would love to join the Toast meeting prior: Is that possible? Thanks!
Hey, I just realized this post doesn't say how far we should read or when the next discussion post will be. Are we just powering through to the end, or…?
I don’t know how anyone is READING with SHERLOCK back on the air…but I have already read Middlemarch so I am okay 🙂 And I will catch back up once I’m plunged back into that dreadful hiatus time between Sherlock seasons AKA Years and Years of My Life.
Anyway, I plan to attend the Strand event. Even though it is a weeknight, and I will have to call in sick Thursday to do it. Because that is how much I love Middlemarch, and the Toast.
I’m coming to the NYPL – bought my ticket and all! What are the details for pre-Toasting?
I’m planning on coming to the event at the Strand. Can’t wait!