Justed started reading Middlemarch today. I gather this was George Elliot's best book. It looks like it will take longer to read than I thought. It has eighty-six chapters, not including the prologue and finale. It is not easy reading either.
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Justed started reading Middlemarch today. I gather this was George Elliot's best book. It looks like it will take longer to read than I thought. It has eighty-six chapters, not including the prologue and finale. It is not easy reading either.
It is worth it though, even if I always find I get more out of George Elliot with the second reading.
It's a very enjoyable book and once you get into the swing of his prose, it is a lot more easy to read. (A bit like reading Gibbon.)
The characters are also very well portrayed in a backdrop of a Victorian hopes, fears and aspirations.
Keep at it.
Regards
M.
Her prose. George Eliot was a woman.Quote:
Originally Posted by MANICHAEAN
Ha. Well, entries for Obvious Statement of the Year 2013 have just closed, but I'm sure you could submit this as an early entry into this year's competition, kev... :)Quote:
Middlemarch - have just noticed it is very long
Even though I'm a slow reader, Middlemarch was a joy to read, as was the ever so poignant The Mill on the Floss. Eliot's best characters are thoroughly believable. I particularly enjoyed the exquisite relationship between Fred Vincy and Mr. Caleb Garth.
It's easy reading alongside the equally brilliant Henry James.
I have started reading the novel but the Victorian England as incomprehensible and particularly the manners and mores, the cultural fabrics, their language and their beliefs and one has to be part of the society or cultural setting or heritage to find the book written within that frame and on their socio- cultural themes. I do not like her the way I like Dickens though he too was a writer of the nineteenth century he is somewhat familiar and his stories have internationally been popularized. I did not like even Austin. Russian stories written in the ninetieth century are more ubiquitous and I enjoy reading them more than those written by British and American writers and one book I like of America exceptionally is Gone with the Wind
I suppose it can seem like anthropology, especially to someone who is not a native.
Apologies 5th Element. I knew it but was not concentrating enough on the gender!!
I have just finished the first part, so only another 74 chapters to go. The humour is laugh out loud, but sometimes I struggle to follow the narration. It's an odd book. What would you call this sort of book with a large set of loosely connected characters and story strands? It is too knowing for a romance. It is not an adventure. It is not exactly a comedy. Perhaps satire best describes it. It reminds me a little of New Grub Street.
LOL, Good Luck! It's long and quite tedious, at least I found it so, but it is truly one of the greats.Quote:
Originally Posted by kev67
While the book deals with a variety of story strands in the lives of its characters, I would rate the connections as tightly intertwined rather than loosely connected. Consider, for instance, the relationship between Fred Vincy and Caleb Garth. Fred is Rosamund's brother and shares some of her unsavoury traits. Caleb's sister and, later, Fred's aunt were married to the stone-cold Peter Featherstone, whose favourite nephew is self-absorbed Fred. Another sister of Mr. Vincy, Harriet, is married wealthy banker, Nicholas Bulstrode, who becomes entangled with Lydgate. Harriet is psychologically most interesting.Quote:
Originally Posted by kev67
The book is less satire than an uncomfortable psychological cross-section of all humanity!
I wonder whether this book called be called a melodrama. I once listened to a lecture, not about literature, where the speaker said that there were basically four types of story. It was very interesting. After dredging my memory, I think the four story types were quest, ironic, downfall and melodrama. A quest is any sort of adventure or romance. A downfall plot is one in which the main protagonist cannot escape his/her doom. An ironic story is a bit difficult to describe. I think it is a plot like 1984 or the film Get Carter. The good guys don't win. Evil triumphs. The protagonist loses your respect. That just leaves melodrama. Melodrama is usually taken to mean a story in which characters over-react emotionally, but I believe it also means a plot which interweaves a lot of character plot lines.
I am still puzzling what sort of plot you would could Middlemarch. Could it be described as a roman fleuve? It is not listed as an example in the Wikipedia definition.
A Novel of Manners, perhaps?
Quote:
The novel of manners is a literary genre that deals with aspects of behavior, language, customs and values characteristic of a particular class of people in a specific historical context. The genre emerged during the final decades of the 18th century. The novel of manners often shows a conflict between individual aspirations or desires and the accepted social codes of behaviour. - Wikipedia