Middlemarch - April CC Book Club Selection

[Mary13]

Our April selection—yes, April—will be Middlemarch by George Eliot. We chose this book early because it is quite an undertaking — anywhere from 600 to 800 pages depending on your font. It will be a challenge, but we’ll read it together and enjoy ourselves, or die trying. No really, it’ll be fun.

An English professor by the name of Rohan Maitzen, from Dalhousie University in Nova Scotia, has created a wonderful site for people doing what we are doing. I can’t post the link because CC blocks it (I’m guessing because it’s Word Press), but if you google “Middlemarch for Book Clubs - Ideas for Reading,” it should pop right up. Professor Maitzen has also made the Kindle version of her reading guide available for free on Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Middlemarch-Book-Clubs-Reading-Discussion-ebook/dp/B01EXRTUBK

Rohan Maitzen’s guide includes questions for each chapter, reading tips, information about George Eliot, and links to other sources and discussions, all of which will help us on our journey.

Middlemarch is considered George Eliot’s masterpiece — “George Eliot” being a pseudonym for Mary Ann Evans. I’ll let Amazon sum it up:

Set during the early part of the 19th century, George Eliot’s “Middlemarch” is a work of epic scope that centers on the intersecting lives of the inhabitants of the fictitious titular town of Middlemarch. The themes of the novel are as numerous as its characters. Through the narrative of the story, the author addresses the status of women, the nature of marriage, politics, religion, and education in the 19th century. The story is principally concerned with the lives of Dorothea Brooke, an energetic, intelligent, wealthy young woman and of Tertius Legate, an idealistic, talented, yet naïve young doctor.

The late writer and literary critic Sir V.S. Pritchett wrote, “No Victorian novel approaches Middlemarch in its width of reference, its intellectual power, or the imperturbable spaciousness of its narrative…. I doubt if any Victorian novelist has as much to teach the modern novelists as George Eliot… No writer has ever represented the ambiguities of moral choice so fully.”

Discussion begins on April 1st. Please join us!

(P.S. For those wondering what happened to the February selection, fear not…discussion begins February 1st and can be found here: http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/parent-cafe/2167439-educated-and-cheaper-by-the-dozen-february-cc-book-club-selection-p1.html)

[garland]

Oh my! You may have finally hooked me (I always admire what you do, but have never lined up my own reading with the club’s).

Middlemarch is my favorite book! Have read it multiple times–now I’ll just have to squeeze in a reread before April–can’t wait!!!

[HarrietMWelsch]

Too funny. It’s tied for my all-time favorite too, @garland (with OUR MUTUAL FRIEND). Thrilled to have the excuse to re-read. Thanks!

[Mary13]

Yay! We are going to need some “seasoned” Middlemarch readers to help us.

[VeryHappy]

Wow. I haven’t read it even once, and I’m a bit intimidated, but if people have already read it and want to read it again, I’m impressed!

[mathmom]

I read it at 19 when I was travelling alone in Europe doing thesis research. (I read a lot of long Victorian novels that summer!) I loved it. I tried rereading it in my 30s when I had a house full of babies and got bogged down. I’m looking forward to finally rereading it when I am less distracted.

[garland]

@HarrietMWelsch --Our Mutual Friend is my favorite Dickens, tied with Bleak House!

[Midwest67]

==beads of sweat form on my forehead from flashbacks to HS English class where I floundered==

[HImom]

I’m #1 on waitlist for Middlemarch!

[VeryHappy]

There’s a waitlist for an 800-page novel?!

[garland]

If she’s no. 1, it’s a very short list!

[HouseChatte]

Never participated in a book group before, but I remember actually liking Silas Marner in high school – it was one of those books I wished I could have been reading without it being an assignment. So I gulped and ordered a used copy of Middlemarch online this afternoon. It’s taking a slow boat from the UK; may have to start on gutenberg.org before my hard copy gets here.

Thank you for posting the Maitzen links. The hand-holding will definitely help.

[Mary13]

Welcome, @HouseChatte! I’m glad you’ll be joining us!

[jerseysouthmomchess]

I’m sure many of you will be curious about NY TIMES article books that changed readers lives. …middlemarch and little women

First one listed Middlemarch

Middlemarch

George Eliot’s “Middlemarch” has changed my life, and changed me, in countless subtle ways. I first read it at 25, when an older and wiser friend told me that a woman we both cordially loathed was “just like Rosamond Vincy” in the novel. On first reading, I hated the book. But I trusted my friend’s judgment, so I tried again a few years later.

On the second reading I was hooked. My error the first time around was to read “Middlemarch” as one would a typical novel. But “Middlemarch” isn’t really about plot and dialogue. It’s all about character, as mediated through the wise and compassionate (but sharply astute) voice of the omniscient narrator. The book shows us that we cannot live without other people, and that we cannot live with other people unless we recognize their flaws and foibles in ourselves. And each of us makes the world a better place by honoring our duties to other people and being humble about our own importance in the grander scheme of things.

I go back to “Middlemarch” every year, and have done so for 25 years. Rereading the book makes me a better, kinder and less judgmental person. And there is nothing more important than that.

Heather MacIvor
Windsor, Ontario

Little Women

I called Louisa May Alcott’s “Little Women” my personal bible after I read it for the first time as an 11-year-old. An introvert with an active imagination, I read voraciously and wrote short stories and poems, dreaming of an illustrious career that would allow me to see the world. I quickly found a kindred spirit in Jo March, who, like me, loved to read and write, and, most inspiringly, dreamed of a life of adventure beyond what was expected of women at the time. She let nothing and no one, not restricting societal conventions nor the boy next door, stand in her way. As I struggled with bodily insecurities and finding my place in the world, I saw in Jo the confidence that I felt lacking in myself.

After my first tour of Orchard House, Alcott’s home where she wrote “Little Women,” I became a volunteer at their annual holiday program, where, by acting in skits alongside other girls my age, I found my voice. Additionally, I found a sisterhood of others who also grew up with “Little Women” as their guidebook, and following Alcott’s and Jo’s example, I became the “little woman” 11-year-old me hoped I would be.

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/01/18/opinion/letters/influential-books.html?smid=nytcore-ios-share

[garland]

That’s a wonderful article! Not just for about this book. So many really good tributes.

[mathmom]

That NYT article also gave a shout out to Camus’ L’Etranger/The Stranger.

[VeryHappy]

I got Middlemarch out of the library and began to read it. And I have serious doubts I’ll be joining the discussion in April.

[mathmom]

It’s pretty dense. I’m on track so far. (Reading limited mostly to the gym and on commute to NYC one day a week.)

[Mary13]

@VeryHappy…because it will take too long to finish or because it’s not your cup of tea? (I haven’t started it yet.)

[VeryHappy]

So far (which I’ll grant you is barely the first few pages), because it’s not my cup of tea. If I wanted to, I could easily get through it, but I’m not sure it’s for me. I’ve not given up completely, though.