Book Club

[MoJoV]

Has anyone slogged through Middlemarch by George Eliot?( Mary Ann Evans). 794 pages.  I've tried years ago and will try again soon. George Eliot was a woman bucking the norms of the middle 1800's in England. The main character resembles herself.

Sad that women had to hide their identities to become published authors. The Bronte sisters all had pen names.

[blueroses47]

I did slog through Middlemarch.  Maybe 6 or 7 years ago.  I had had it on my bookshelf for a good 25 years and just never got around to it.

Every decade or so since I've retired, I tell myself I am going to read some of the famous classics that I never got to when I was younger.  Around the time I read Middlemarch, I also read The Count of Monte Cristo, Frankenstein, Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde, Huckleberry Finn. Maybe one or two others I can't recall now. Oh, Winesburg, Ohio, because I read it's on lots of book lists of writers' favorites, and I remember a high school teacher praising it.

Well, the only one of the lot that I actually enjoyed was Middlemarch, but I didn't love it, and can't remember anything about it.

Maybe I'm too old now, and need to admit that I prefer fun things, contemporary mysteries and current best sellers.  I'm reading the Ann Cleeves  Vera Stanhope series right now and I love them.

In my youth I was quite a serious reader, and enjoyed everything, but my old brain is too tired these days.

[teganslaw]

I started readng Middlemarch but gave up halfway through the book. It was too slow moving and the characters didn't interest me. "Slogging" is a good word for trying to read this. 

[Q-Checker]

I enjoyed Middlemarch years ago in a Great Books discussion group. I highly prefer great literature to quickie junk reads. I have to "put more into it." but I get way, way more out of it.  Quality writing to me is a fine art and a thing of beauty. We all read for different reasons. To each his own.

[Ruby Laine]

I have wanted to read this for years, I guess I need to do it now. However, I have slogged through 800 pages of Mysteries of Udolpho by Ann Radcliffe. I believe she used her real name for most of her books. 

It felt like 600 pages of description, 150 pages of story with all the mysteries, and there were many, and a page and a half of explanation and clearing up the mysteries!  But I have to say, I really did like that book!

So I'm going to read Middlemarch this winter. Thanks for reminding me!

[walkingal]

---

@Q-Checker wrote:

I enjoyed Middlemarch years ago in a Great Books discussion group. I highly prefer great literature to quickie junk reads. I have to "put more into it." but I get way, way more out of it.  Quality writing to me is a fine art and a thing of beauty. We all read for different reasons. To each his own.

---

Agree.  I have not read Middlemarch.  I have read it is considered by many to be her best work.  

[smoky22]

I did enjoy Middlemarch, although I agree it's not an easy read because of the old fashioned style.  There are a lot of characters and it does require patience as each of their stories unfold.  As far as the main character Dorothea is concerned, I always think of the old adage, "Marry in haste, repent at leisure."

I can understand the reluctance to read it.

[insomniac2]

I love reading old books, but I thought this one was fairly dull---not  worth the time spent reading it. 

[Oznell]

@MoJoV ,  it was decades ago, but I was extremely impressed with "Middlemarch"--  I consider it to be a many-leveled masterpiece, and it's my favorite of her books, along with the fascinating "Daniel Deronda".  ( I can't remember if I've read anything else of hers!)

Eliot is so masterful, the way she conveys all these different personalities in Middlemarch, and the way they fit into the complex hierarchy of English society at the time.

Dorothea was too idealistic for her own good, but still, a marvelous creation.  I remember being so repulsed when she married Casaubon, that hollow pedant!  But, things worked out.

I'm forgetting a lot of the characters, but the other standouts to me were the Garths-- sturdy Caleb, and his insightful, interesting daughter Mary.  I like that Eliot is giving an in-depth look at lower middle class characters, of high worth, and admirable qualities, and their upward strivings. 

Another thing I liked about the book, was the deep feeling Eliot clearly has for the land, as well as the people-- they are all inextricably intwined, in her magisterial view. 

I'm sure you'll be able to get through it-- take it in easy stages.    

[shoekitty]

To me the only way to get through it , and really enjoy, is to rent it from audible. Juliet Stevenson does a reading that is amazing and brings book to light. Book is long, involved. Great expose on some of the horrors of working in factories in those days.  I could never read it again, depressing for me like Mansfield Park, Little Dorrit, and the all time depressor of all...Tess of the A'urbourvilles. Lol. They are all must reads IMO, but for me, once is enough. You never forget them. lol