Skip to main content

George Eliot Wrote Rather Long Books

The many phases of George Eliot. First you think 'Oh, a dude.' But no. Then 'Wait, which is George Eliot and which is George Sand? And why was 'George' the preferred pseudonym for mid-19th c. ladies?' And then 'Middlemarch is SO LONG OMG' and then 'Middlemarch is SO AWESOME OMG.' Then 'Wow, that was not an attractive woman.' THEN, 'I shall now be reading all her books.'

I grant that this might not be the order for everyone. And I still have The Lifted Veil and Daniel Deronda, but I have read EVERYTHING ELSE she wrote. Which I will now be discussing.

Middlemarch - I read Middlemarch when I was 19 and got very, very into it. Its heroine, Dorothea Brooke, is my favorite literary heroine. Marian Halcombe now is a close second, but Dorothea is basically me at a very very conservative Christian age 19. 'Oh, I like horseback riding? Maybe I should give that up for God then...' And wanting to marry a great man in order to help him with his work? Yeah. THAT WAS A THING I WANTED TO DO. And Middlemarch is all "Yeeeeeah, no. Don't do that." Plus the characters are basically all complex and amazing and it should just be read.

Adam Bede - George Eliot is very, very into Masculine Men of the Land, with clear brows and penetrating eyes and big hands who make things. So that's kind of what Adam Bede's all about. Oh, and good people making bad decisions with far-reaching consequences. Also Methodists.

Scenes of Clerical Life - I love this book's face off. It was the first thing she published. It consists of three short stories, and they are all awesome and adorable. I bought a 1907 edition when I went to NYC this year, which is a thing I've been looking for for SEVEN YEARS. It was a good moment.

Me: "I GOT A 1907 TWO VOLUME EDITION OF GEORGE ELIOT'S SCENES OF CLERICAL LIFE."
My mom: "Well. I'm sure that was about to be snatched up."

The Mill on the Floss - I loved Mill on the Floss until the last third, where it started SUCKING.

Felix Holt the Radical - I have a theory about this book (which is about the Reform Act of 1832 -- THRILLING STUFF). And that theory is that Eliot saw the misogynistic shitstorm that was Our Mutual Friend and went 'Oh no no no, I will do this but do it right.' And from that came Felix and Esther and general awesomeness.

Romola - Ugh. Yeah. This book. No.

One thing I find hilarious about George Eliot is that she wrote a lot about the country, and people praised this, but her brother was like "No no -- do not be fooled. When we lived on the farm, she did nothing. There was no charming milking-the-cows scene. She just sat around." Brothers.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Minithon: The Mini Readathon, January 11th, 2020

The minithon is upon us once more! Minithons are for the lazy. Minithons are for the uncommitted. Minithons are for us. The minithon lasts 6 hours (10 AM to 4 PM CST), therefore making it a mini readathon, as opposed to the lovely Dewey's 24 Hour Readathon and 24in48, both of which you should participate in, but both of which are a longer commitment than this, the Busy Watching Netflix person's readathon. By 'read for six hours' what's really meant in the minithon is "read a little bit and eat a lot of snacks and post pictures of your books and your snacks, but mostly your snacks." We like to keep it a mini theme here, which mainly means justifying your books and your snacks to fit that theme. Does your book have children in it? Mini people! Does it have a dog! Mini wolf! Does it have pencils? Mini versions of graphite mines! or however you get graphite, I don't really know. I just picture toiling miners. The point is, justify it or don't...

Book Blogger Hop, Pt II

All right. The question for this week is:  "Do you read only one book at a time, or do you have several going at once?" Oh-ho my. I have an issue with book commitment. I start a new book, and it's exciting and fresh, and I get really jazzed about it, and then 20% of the way through, almost without fail, I start getting bored and want to start another book. I once had seven books going at the same time, because I kept getting bored and starting new ones. It's a sickness. Right now I'm being pretty good and working on The Monk , Northanger Abbey , Kissing the Witch , and I'm about to start Waiting for the Barbarians since my friend lent it to me. But The Monk and NA are basically books I only read when I'm at work, so I don't see it so much as working on four books, as having books in different locales. Yes. This entry wasn't as good as some of the others, but I shall rally on the morrow. Yes I shall.

Harry Potter 2013 Readalong Signup Post of Amazingness and Jollity

Okay, people. Here it is. Where you sign up to read the entire Harry Potter series (or to reminisce fondly), starting January 2013, assuming we all survive the Mayan apocalypse. I don't think I'm even going to get to Tina and Bette's reunion on The L Word until after Christmas, so here's hopin'. You guys know how this works. Sign up if you want to. If you're new to the blog, know that we are mostly not going to take this seriously. And when we do take it seriously, it's going to be all Monty Python quotes when we disagree on something like the other person's opinion on Draco Malfoy. So be prepared for your parents being likened to hamsters. If you want to write lengthy, heartfelt essays, that is SWELL. But this is maybe not the readalong for you. It's gonna be more posts with this sort of thing: We're starting Sorceror's/Philosopher's Stone January 4th. Posts will be on Fridays. The first post will be some sort of hilar...