She locked herself in her room. She needed time to get used to her maimed consciousness, her poor lopped life, before she could walk steadily to the place allotted her. A new searching light had fallen on her husband’s character, and she could not judge him leniently: the twenty years in which she had believed in him and venerated him by virtue of his concealments came back with particulars that made them seem an odious deceit. He had married her with that bad past life hidden behind him, and she had no faith left to protest his innocence of the worst that was imputed to him. Her honest ostentatious nature made the sharing of a merited dishonor as bitter as it could be to any mortal.
But this imperfectly taught woman, whose phrases and habits were an odd patchwork, had a loyal spirit within her. The man whose prosperity she had shared through nearly half a life, and who had unvaryingly cherished her—now that punishment had befallen him it was not possible to her in any sense to forsake him. There is a forsaking which still sits at the same board and lies on the same couch with the forsaken soul, withering it the more by unloving proximity. She knew, when she locked her door, that she should unlock it ready to go down to her unhappy husband and espouse his sorrow, and say of his guilt, I will mourn and not reproach. But she needed time to gather up her strength; she needed to sob out her farewell to all the gladness and pride of her life. When she had resolved to go down, she prepared herself by some little acts which might seem mere folly to a hard onlooker; they were her way of expressing to all spectators visible or invisible that she had begun a new life in which she embraced humiliation. She took off all her ornaments and put on a plain black gown, and instead of wearing her much-adorned cap and large bows of hair, she brushed her hair down and put on a plain bonnet-cap, which made her look suddenly like an early Methodist.
Chapter 74
I have almost no memories from my first read through of Middlemarch in my mid-twenties. I can remember which house I was living in and who recommended it to me, which fixes the date somewhere between 1994-1996. I wanted to like it, I thought I would like it, but in the end I was left feeling underwhelmed.
When Nick announced his #EliotReadalong for 2023 I had no plans to reread Middlemarch. I simply couldn’t summon up enough enthusiasm to go there again. My focus instead was to read for the first time those Eliots lingering on my TBR shelves. But as the 27th of July approached the pleasure and anticipation of a #slowread kicked in. If I was ever going to find my way into the love and admiration that so many others have for Middlemarch, then a #slowread was the solution.
It was and it wasn’t.
The long passage I have quoted above proved to be my personal stand-out moment during this reread. I had to wait until the final volume for it, but thankfully it was there. Up until this passage (about a woman, a wife, who when faced with a major difficulty within her marriage decides to stand by her man) I was still feeling rather underwhelmed. But this scene moved me immensely.
It made me look back over the entire story through the lens of marriage and partnership.
So many of the books we read are all about the first meeting, the romance and the lead-up to a wedding. Jane Austen is certainly prone to this with her main characters (although if you pay attention to her secondary characters you can observe a whole other discussion about good and bad marriages).
In Middlemarch, the entire story revolves around marriage – from the adjustments young people make as they enter into marriage for the first time, to the longlasting marriages of the older couples as well as those who do not enter the marriage market at all. Eliot shows us how idealism, romanticism and economic necessity play their part. We see the disillusionment, the negotations and compromises. Eliot highlights the importance of friendship and respect and communication. We see mismatched couples making do, barely getting by, deeply unhappy and those who make better choices yet still have to learn how to accommodate each other, finding a healthy give and take as they proceed through life together. We see couples who deeply understand and enjoy each others company and those who don’t.
Mrs Bulstrode is a fine example of one of the many secondary characters that inhabit Middlemarch, and for me it was these minor characters who made the story worthwhile – Mrs Cadwallader, Celia, Mary Garth, Mr Farebrother, Caleb Garth and finally Fred Vincy. It was their relationships I found the most satisfactory to watch.
Karen @Booker Talk mentioned in an earlier post that it took a third read through of Middlemarch before it truly clicked for her. Perhaps it will be the same for me? Certainly, reading Rebecca Mead’s The Road to Middlemarch at the same time as the #slowread was a worthwhile thing to do…but more of that later.
I believe there are a number of TV and film adaptations of Middlemarch as well. Do you have a favourite one to recommend? A good biography about George Eliot would also be of interest.
But for now, that is the end of my journey through Middlemarch and my time with George Eliot. I have no more unread Eliots on my shelf. A big thank you to Nick for instigating and hosting the #EliotReadalong and to all of you for commenting and encouraging me along the way. Although Middlemarch is not a personal favourite, it was not a dud either. I got a lot out of my time with Dorothea, Ladislaw and Will et al. Doing a deep, deliberate dive into one book and one author is always a fascinating experience.
Middlemarch now takes its place alongside the other memorable #slowreads Moby-Dick, War and Peace, The Count of Monte Cristo and Les Miserables.
Posts:
- Middlemarch Chapter-a-day readlaong begins
- Sweet-apple | Sappho
- Miss Brooke
- Old and Young
- Waiting For Death
- Three Love Problems
- The Dead Hand
- The Widow and the Wife
- Two Temptations
| This post was written on the traditional land of the Wangal clan, one of the 29 clans of the Eora Nation within the Sydney basin. This Reading Life recognises the continuous connection to Country, community and culture of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples. They are the traditional custodians of the lands, seas, and skies on which we live and they are this nations first storytellers. |
This Reading Life 
My memory of Middlemarch…did not get off on a great start.
It was the first book we studied in my first year of college.
the first few months at new school were daunting and to make matters worse
I needed “more critical thinking skills”…I as told! So I did finally read it as an adult.
I will not be beaten by George Eliot!
On another note…the link to add reviews #AusReadingMonth23 in your post “October Books” does not work….so I’ll post Kylie Tennant’s books here, oke?
#AusReadingMonth23
Tennant, K. | The Man on the Headland (NancyElin – non-fiction)
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Perhaps the link does work, sorry, the problem was on my side!
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Carbon-based error as Mr Books likes to say 😂
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It’s interesting just how many readers have struggled to find their way into Middlemarch.
I never had a linky for AusReading month – I didn’t like the update they did a few years back and now just use comments for links. Thanks for another KT review – I’ll add it tomorrow morning when I’m on the laptop.
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I could not have read Middlemarch without help …Cliff Notes, Sparknotes. 🙂
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That’s how I feel about The Road to Middlemarch
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It’s been many years since I watched/read these, so they could be terrible recommendations! But I remember liking the early 90s BBC adaptation with Rufus Sewell and Juliet Aubrey, and George Eliot: The Last Victorian by Kathryn Hughes. But huge disclaimer that I looked at both in my early 20s so I could have a very different opinion now 😀
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Thanks! The Juliet Aubrey version seems to pop up first whenever I duck,duck,go. It has that BBC look and feel about it. And I’ll check at work today to see if the book is still in print.
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Wow, you’ve now read all of Eliot? That is so impressive! I also read Middlemarch in my mid-20s but I enjoyed it. I think I would again now, but Daniel Deronda sits on my shelf and reproaches me so I need to read that first…
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Not quite! Romola and Daniel Deronda have never been on my TBR shelf, so I haven’t read them (yet). Maybe I will one day.
At the moment I’m trying to only read the books already on my shelves.
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That is a wonderful quote, and (because I’ve read MM 3x and loved it more each time) I remember the context. (And her dinner plates.)
She was never a character I liked and admired and yet George Eliot who would almost certainly have disliked women like that too, shows us something that made us, her readers, grow in character ourselves.
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Mrs Bustrode was not a character that I admired either or even took much notice of…until this scene.
I felt sorry for her that she did not love her husband but she obviously took her weddings vows seriously, feeling a sense of loyalty and responsibility that Rosemary Vincy did not/could not emulate.
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Yes, exactly, that’s the author’s genius!
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I agree the book is all about marriage and loyalty – the fact that Mrs Bulstrode was so ignorant of her husband’s past (and, it sounds like, his present) and was loyal while Rosamonde, the cause of her husband’s extravagance, was not. I couldn’t get into the book on my first try years ago and gave away my copy. I found another a year or so ago and eventually persuaded my book group to read it over two months. Not everyone was a fan but we had two of our best discussions. We all wished that Dorothea had married the doctor!
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I’ve enjoyed your account of Middlemarch. I enjoy all your slow reads. The one I did was such hard work I’m not sure I’d ever do another, but do you have another in mind?
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Thanks Bill I do enjoy them, but they also have the tendency to be all-consuming. I will wait to see wait Nick proposes for 2024 and if he picks something I’m not interested in or have on my TBR I may consider Letty Fox. It’s so big and threatens me with its size every time I walk past my TBR shelves!
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IMO Letty Fox is Stead’s best. The problem might be that it really rocks along (Lettie just doesn’t take a breath), and you won’t know where to stop. I’ve been looking at House of All Nations, 800pp, but haven’t been brave enough to start.
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I’ll take that into consideration then Bill. Certain books lend themselves to a slow read more than others. I once started a slow read with the Lord of the Rings, but ended up galloping through once the action picked up.
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That is an incredibly powerful passage and is one of the reasons why Middlemarch remains one of my all-time favorite novels. Not only is the narrator eloquent, she is also so compassionate and embracing and understanding. I first read MM in my second year of college and loved it, and I’ve read it at least fives times since then. Sometimes a book just resonates. This one speaks to me, and I loved this village and its very flawed inhabitants, though Rosamond I can do without!
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Wow six plus times with Middlemarch. You give me hope that another reread at some point might unlock the key. Although my Jane Austens are calling louder and louder for attention, so they will have to come first 🙂
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I think I’ve read it six times too and it never disappoints because I always find something in it that I hadn’t noticed or appreciated previously.
I loved the scene you quote, Mrs B’s sense of fortitude and humility is so powerful and a strong contrast to the behaviour of Rosamund when married life turns out not to be as rosy as she imagined.
As for adaptations, I can only cast another vote for the wonderful BBC adaptation in which Juliet Aubrey conveys the naivety of Dorothea maginificently
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Thanks Karen – now I just have to find time to watch it!!
And I know exactly what you mean with rereading and finding something new each time. I’ve read Jane Austen, particularly P&P more than I can count! And I still find something new with each read.
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I started rereading Middlemarch this year but lost track of it; I’d been enjoying it very much (I did on the first go, too, unlike you, although we were about the same age it seems) so I might simply restart in January. So many layers. Are you still reading the Rebecca Mead, too, then?
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I finished the Mead before Middlemarch, but I just haven’t got around to reviewing it. My blogging schedule is WAY behind! It was worthwhile to read them concurrently though – it added to the experience.
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