World Library Top 100 Books of All Time discussion
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Middlemarch
George Eliot: Middlemarch (no spoilers tread)
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I am a bit into part 2 now (p 123). Not overjoyed. Maybe I had my expectation too high. The dialogue is great. Each character have there own style of speaking. Mr Brooke may seem like an exaggeration – but I know a person who almost speaks that way (English as a second language, though). But the plot? We have like 20 pages plot on 123 pages so far. How are you doing? Is anyone else reading it now?
I am almost half way trough the book now. The story is moving much faster than in the first part. I like the writing better. Specificity there are much less long explanatory descriptions with little content – felt like mostly word showing.
J_BlueFlower wrote: "I am a bit into part 2 now (p 123). Not overjoyed. Maybe I had my expectation too high. The dialogue is great. Each character have there own style of speaking. Mr Brooke may seem like an exaggerati..."I did get the e-book from Project Gutenberg and started the first book. Sorry I am not keeping up with you. I am reading EMMA for another online book club.
I am glad I read it for a college course, as it is one of those daunting books, at least for some people, that they think they must read but 'can't get into.'
For tendentiousness, I think George Eliot is ten times worse than Jane Austen.. well, maybe that's not a fair comparison. I think she thought she was improving over, say, ADAM BEDE by 'addressing real issues,' or however she would have phrased it, whereas I do not, as a reader, appreciate being led so thoroughly.
Take all this with a grain of salt. I am probably being unfair. She does a subtle job of giving the reader the true picture of Cassaubon contrasted with Dorothea's illusions about being married to him "He looks like the portrait of Locke," etc.
No problem. I know exactly how it is when you don't like reading more than one book at the time – at least not more than one fiction book. I am on page 452 (about 53%). I have gotten into the book now. The storyline to page ratio is much better here than the first hundred pages.
Read chapter 54 yesterday. So far it seems like the high point of the book with a modern plot building behind. (It seems to me that the newer the book the more intricate a plot with more twists and turns). Here we have Dorothea and character A (no spoilers here!). Dorothea thinks A knows something. We know that A don't, so all he's remarks has to be read in both lights: What does he actually mean and what does Dorothea make from them.
I can recommend Librivox audiobook:https://librivox.org/middlemarch-vers...
About 50% of my Middlemarch reading is this audiobook.
The reader is good (though not fantastic). At one point there is thunder in the background. (I was doing garden work on a clear day while listening. It was confusing but funny when I figured it out.)
Disgust of all non-English: "Any cursed alien blood, Jew, Corsican, or Gypsy" (chap 71)That is just SO funny!
I wonder if any one ever was fooled about “George” being a man? Mrs Bulstrode changes her cloths to match her mood (chap 74). There is even a little hint about man and wife writing each others books in the last chapter.
J_BlueFlower wrote: "I wonder if any one ever was fooled about “George” being a man? Mrs Bulstrode changes her cloths to match her mood (chap 74). There is even a little hint about man and wife writing each others book..."My guess is that "George Eliot" was know to be a woman's pen name, a la George Sand. Though the only contemporary criticism I am familiar with is Henry James:Views and Reviews
Sorry I am so far behind. I am still reading EMMA, two chapters a day over at the Amazon Book Forum.
Wikipedia: “She used a male pen name, she said, to ensure that her works would be taken seriously.“
First though when I started reading was that how obviously it is a female writer. I have never seen a man spend a full page about dress trimming and why someone would wear what.