Middlemarch, finally!
I'm 50% of the way through and it's good but I don't entirely see the hype. Brontë is more atmospheric, Austen funnier and more incisive, Dickens more immersive. But I've still got a way to go.
I'm 50% of the way through and it's good but I don't entirely see the hype. Brontë is more atmospheric, Austen funnier and more incisive, Dickens more immersive. But I've still got a way to go.
Also, Eliot's language is incredible. On one hand, it's a lot more difficult to read than Austen, but on the other, it's so descriptive while still often being laced with a sense of beauty. Really wonderful prose.
The character arcs of Lydgate and Causabon are some of the best depictions of the collision of personal ambition with social obligation I've ever read. As someone with their own ambitions, I'm a bit haunted by that part of the story.
It's also occasionally funny. The uncle is pretty funny and a good demonstration of someone who's mind is curious and too unshaped to ever utter a coherent thought.
It's less focused than a Bronte novel but I love its wider lens.