Chicks On Lit discussion

Looks like Middlemarch won. As soon as I get the book I will set up the schedule. We will begin sometime around January 17th.

I hope you all have a wonderful holiday season.

Thank you, Meg, I will have to order it too. Since your wish was for Cloudsplitter, and it looked good to many, too, why don't we follow up Middlemarch with Cloudsplitter?

I hope that happens because I would really like to read Cloudsplitter too.

Enjoy your month and have a wonderful holiday.

Yay, I actually own this one! Looking forward to it Meg, I've always wanted to read a brick with you guys and haven't been able to in the past due to scheduling constraints. This is exciting!

Yay, I am so happy you are going to join us.

Do you aim for a certain number of chapters per week usually, Meg? Or a certain number of pages?

I have been reading the Intro to Daniel Deronda. Written well, very thought prevoking and very insightful in understnding Elliot's work. There is some excellent information about the writing of Middlemarch touched on in the intro. Meg maybe I could highlight some info and message it to you and you could see if you would like to post it?
I am definately intrested in reading Cloudsplitter as well.
I am not sure about reading Middlemarch yet. I keep getting books from the library I have requested and I wait along time for them sometimes, so sometimes I like to read those when they come.
Have a wonderful holiday and Merry Christmas Meg and everyone.

I would love the information that you have Rebecca. I hope you will join us with Middlemarch and hope that Cloudsplitter will be the next book after Middlemarch.

Merry Christmas to you too Rebecca.

LAURA we generally aim at 100 pages per week. If it is a really difficult read we might go slower.

Thanks Meg. :)

I believe I'll try to join in on this one. We'll have to see though because I'm going to start Atlas Shrugged in a few days and who knows how long that will take. And I have a couple of reads for another group. Keeping my fingers crossed though.

Hope you make it with us. We aren't starting for another month,

Meg - I thought I would stop in here and spread some comfort and joy, comfort and joy, and good tidings of comfoooooort and joooooooooooy!

:)

(((((((((((MEG)))))))))))

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to All!

Merry Christmas to you too Laura!! :)
and
to everyone else!!

Ho-Ho-Ho!!!

I hesitate to say that I'm going to read this with the group also because I thought I would read the last one with you and didn't!! We'll see! But I do enjoy reading your conversations!

Christmas ((((((hugs))))) and cheers to all my COL reading buddies. I hope you have the best of the holiday season and that Santa brings you everything you ever wanted.

Meg, you took the words right out of my mouth!

I think I'll jump on the bandwagon to read this classic!

Got word this morning that my copy from paperbackswap is in the mail. Let's hope it gets here by Jan 17 so I can start reading!

My PBS person bombed, I am back to square one. I am sure I will find the copy really soon.

Glad you are joining us Tanja

Are we reading any particular version? I believe mine is the Penguin edition.

Laura, That's the version I have.

I don't think it really matters which version you get as long as it is unabridged

Ooh yey - I'm reading that at the moment! - I think I'll pop into the discussions when they begin too if thats OK!

Ally

We would love to have you Ally

I found the ebook version and downloaded it to my ereader! I might need to get a head start to prepare for when I will inevitably fall behind!

You are funny!

On the cover of my Middlemarch is a woman arching her back. Is this a good sign??? Is this how we will feel when we are done reading it?? :) Maybe that is why I can't find my edition to post to my bookshelf. :)

Rebecca, what happens when you put the ISBN in the search field?

It comes up with the Bantam classic but the cover is not the same. Do I enter with or without the dashes?

Well, you just must be special. I don't think it matters about the dashes.

Tiffany wrote: "I found the ebook version and downloaded it to my ereader! I might need to get a head start to prepare for when I will inevitably fall behind!"

Getting a headstart sounds like a very good idea for this one.

Some Background

For the town in New Zealand, see Middlemarch, New Zealand.

Title page of the first edition, Volume 1, published by William Blackwood and Sons in 1871Middlemarch: A Study of Provincial Life is a novel by George Eliot, the pen name of Mary Anne Evans, later Marian Evans. It is her seventh novel, begun in 1869 and then put aside during the final illness of Thornton Lewes, the son of her companion George Henry Lewes. During the following year Eliot resumed work, fusing together several stories into a coherent whole, and during 1871–72 the novel appeared in serial form. The first one-volume edition was published in 1874, and attracted large sales.

Subtitled "A Study of Provincial Life", the novel is set in the fictitious Midlands town of Middlemarch during the period 1830–32. It has a multiple plot with a large cast of characters, and in addition to its distinct though interlocking narratives it pursues a number of underlying themes, including the status of women, the nature of marriage, idealism and self-interest, religion and hypocrisy, political reform, and education. The pace is leisurely, the tone is mildly didactic (with an authorial voice that occasionally bursts through the narrative),[1:] and the canvas is very broad.

Despite the fact that it has some comical characters (Mr. Brooke, the "tiny aunt" Miss Noble) and comically-named characters (Mrs. Dollop), Middlemarch is a work of realism. Through the voices and opinions of different characters we become aware of various broad issues of the day – the Great Reform Bill, the beginnings of the railways, the death of King George IV and the succession of his brother, the Duke of Clarence. We learn something of the state of contemporary medical science. We also encounter the deeply reactionary mindset within a settled community facing the prospect of what to many is unwelcome change. The eight "books" which comprise the novel are not autonomous entities, but merely reflect the form of the original serialisation. A short prelude introduces the idea of the latter-day St. Theresa, presaging the character Dorothea; a postscript or "finale" after the eighth book gives the post-history of the main characters.

I read Middlemarch some ten years back and am hazy regarding the details. I am looking forward to reading it again

Great, glad you are joining us.

Coincidence - I joined this group today because it looks good, and I've just started Middlemarch! So I'll join in, if I may...?

Hurrah!!! Of course!

Can we start whenever we want Meg?

You can start when you want, I haven't posted the reading schedule because I haven't received my copy from PBS yet. When I post the schedule we talk about that part of the book as we go along.

Happy reading!

Still looking forward to this...Are we going to start discussing it on the 17th? Or what?

My PBS copy arrived today. Yippee!!!

Yay my book finally arrived!

Ok here is the schedule:

January 16: start reading! Read Book One
January 23: discuss Book One read Book Two
January 30: Discuss Book Two read Book Three
February 6th: discuss Book Three Read Book Four
February 13th: discuss Book Four read Book Five
February 20th; discuss Book Five read Book Six
February 27th: discuss Book Six read Book Seven
March 6th: Discuss Book Seven and read the rest of the book
March 13th: discuss the final part of the book

I have a Bantam classic version. It doesn't say if it is unabridged or not???

I hope I can keep up with all of you! I'm looking forward to this. :)

Laura if people are having trouble with the schedule we take a week to catch up. It is very relaxed in here.

Rebecca, how many pages are in your book?

795 total

then it is unabridged

Some more background information:

Middlemarch was first published in 1871 and 1872, as a serial novel in eight parts, which came out every two months. This was Eliot's most comprehensive and sweeping novel to date, and was intended as a study of provincial British life. Eliot worked on several different stories, starting with Lydgate and his trials as a young doctor; then she worked on Dorothea's story, writing the first ten chapters as they appear in the finished book with only this character and her world in mind. Eliot then decided to build a world around these two characters, and create a more sweeping portrait of an entire town and its various inhabitants; Lydgate and Dorothea acted essentially as the core of the novel, as two somewhat similar figures who were the soul of the novel. Both are alike in their unhappy marriages, their social aspirations, and the way in which they react to societal pressure.

The novel, when it first appeared, was a huge success, both with critics and readers; it made Eliot's name as one of the greatest novelists in Britain, and her fame spread. Her intention with the novel was to analyze recent political, social, and economic threads through a series of personal accounts. The characters and stories told within the novel are meant to show how people are affected by historical change while it happens, and how progress happens in people's lives. Eliot manages to weave in the Catholic emancipation, the death of George IV, the dissolution of Parliament in 1831, the outbreak of cholera in 1832, and the passage of the Reform Bill later that year. Eliot manages to weave these things into the concerns of the characters and the narrative; they are not the focus of the novel, but are balanced with the novel's literary concerns.

One of the most widespread concerns in the novel is change, and how people react to it. All the historical concerns in the novel are involved in this, as are people's reactions under stress, and to progress in their society. Eliot is able to show people acting naturally in close detail, and present criticism on them, while still allowing the readers to form their own opinion of them. Overall, every character in this novel are human; each of them can be liked or disliked according to their personal foibles and flaws. But Eliot's point is that we, like they, are human; we can only judge them as we judge ourselves. She is not totally impartial in the narrative, which would be impossible in making criticisms; but there is still plenty of room for people to make up their own minds, and interpret the characters in their own way.

Elizabeth wrote: "Thank you, Meg, I will have to order it too. Since your wish was for Cloudsplitter, and it looked good to many, too, why don't we follow up Middlemarch with Cloudsplitter?"

Roses by Leila Meacham looks good also.

Did anyone get that we will finish Middlemarch in the middle of March? I just thought that was funny.

LOL

I saw that, but it didn't register. Hahaha! I can't tell you how genuinely excited I am about this!