Ordinary PeopleMiddlemarch
George Eliot
Penguin Classics
The problem with reviewing a "classic" novel is that everything relevant, interesting, or even slightly thought-provoking has already been written. Virgina Woolf once said that Middlemarch is a "magnificent book which, with all its imperfections, is one of the few English novels written for grown-up people." Um, yeah. Given enough time, I'm sure I would have come up with that line. Really.
Middlemarch, which was originally produced/written as a serialized novel, reads very much like the script of a daytime soap opera. The plot focuses on the stories/character development of three main families -- the Brookes, the Vinceys, and the Lydgates. The novel is set in a fictional Midlands town during the early 1830s, and like a modern-day soap, the different narratives intertwine and add all sorts of complication to the characters' lives. Also like a daytime soap, the novel explores contemporary social themes -- in this case, religion, class mobility, political reform, the status of women, the nature of marriage, love vs. passion, and individuality (self-interest) vs. the social good. Middlemarch is a big book about big ideas. The fact that it is also a delightful read is just a bonus.
And, while I don't normally talk about the author, I'm going to make an exception in this case. George Eliot, or Mary Ann Evans as she was also known, was an extraordinary woman. Shunned by "polite" society because she lived unmarried with her partner, George Henry Lewes, she was one of England's leading Victorian writers and intellectuals. Even though women were publishing at the time, she took a male pen name to ensure that her novels were taken seriously. At the heart of most of her writing was the belief that it is the mundane and ordinary that prove to be the most interesting. Middlemarch is a brilliant example of this belief. Four extraordinary ordinaries out of five.
George Eliot
Penguin Classics
The problem with reviewing a "classic" novel is that everything relevant, interesting, or even slightly thought-provoking has already been written. Virgina Woolf once said that Middlemarch is a "magnificent book which, with all its imperfections, is one of the few English novels written for grown-up people." Um, yeah. Given enough time, I'm sure I would have come up with that line. Really.
Middlemarch, which was originally produced/written as a serialized novel, reads very much like the script of a daytime soap opera. The plot focuses on the stories/character development of three main families -- the Brookes, the Vinceys, and the Lydgates. The novel is set in a fictional Midlands town during the early 1830s, and like a modern-day soap, the different narratives intertwine and add all sorts of complication to the characters' lives. Also like a daytime soap, the novel explores contemporary social themes -- in this case, religion, class mobility, political reform, the status of women, the nature of marriage, love vs. passion, and individuality (self-interest) vs. the social good. Middlemarch is a big book about big ideas. The fact that it is also a delightful read is just a bonus.
And, while I don't normally talk about the author, I'm going to make an exception in this case. George Eliot, or Mary Ann Evans as she was also known, was an extraordinary woman. Shunned by "polite" society because she lived unmarried with her partner, George Henry Lewes, she was one of England's leading Victorian writers and intellectuals. Even though women were publishing at the time, she took a male pen name to ensure that her novels were taken seriously. At the heart of most of her writing was the belief that it is the mundane and ordinary that prove to be the most interesting. Middlemarch is a brilliant example of this belief. Four extraordinary ordinaries out of five.
No comments:
Post a Comment