NOTES ON “MIDDLEMARCH” (2)

Powerline Blog ^ | March 13, 2015 | Scott Johnson

[C19fan]

Though Middlemarch has a large cast of characters involved in intricately related plots, Dorothea Brooke stands out as the book’s heroine. The narrative begins and ends with her. Book I of the novel’s eight Books is “Miss Brooke.”

She is a young woman of simple beauty and surpassing decency. She yearns idealistically to benefit humanity, or subordinate herself as the helpmate of a great man like John Milton in his blindness. Yet she is exceedingly foolish.

[C19fan]

Casaubon was a real dinosaur in the book. His whole scholarly work was a throw back to the 18th century when Enlightment thinkers focused on universals. In this case, Casaubon was trying to find a universal religion. The novel takes place in right before the Reform Act of 1832. Scholarship has shifted thanks to the Romantic Nationalism and thinkers such as Burke to explore the particulars rejecting the idea of universals. Laidslaw mentions the Germans. The Germans were focusing on folklore and the how society developed organically.

[IronJack]

You seem to be really taken by this book. It’s not generally considered one of the greats of Victorian lit, but it does seem to have earned a latter-day revival. It will be my next classical endeavor, as soon as I complete Livy’s “History of Ancient Rome.”

[BunnySlippers]

I’m a big fan of anything by Trollope.

I’m in the process of re-reading now.

[Cedar]

I really enjoyed the BBC production of “Middlemarch.” I haven’t read the book, but most likely it’s even better.

[C19fan]

There have been stories about a movie version in development but it seems to be dormant.

[C19fan]

I enjoy the historical references and background. There was a reason Eliot chose that particular time with a lot of changes about to be unleashed.