Middlemarch Highlights

By far this books has the most satisfying epilogue I've ever read.

George Eliot begins her Finale chapter by writing:
"Every limit is a beginning as well as an ending. Who can quit young lives after being long in company with them, and not desire to know what befell them in their after-years?"
Isn't that so true of a good book?
Further down the page she writes, "Marriage, which has been the bourne of so many narratives is still a great beginning...It is still the beginning of the home epic---the gradual conquest or irremediable loss of that complete union which makes the advancing years a climax, and age the harvest of sweet memories in common."

When I started this book, ohhh, several weeks ago, I had no idea it was about marriages and life in the English countryside.

A few other quotes to read and re-read:

"We are on a perilous margin when we begin to look passively at our future selves, and see our own figures led with dull consent into insipid misdoings and shabby achievement." (pg. 783)

"We mortals, men and women, devour many a disappointment between breakfast and dinner-time; keep back the tears and look a little pale about the lips, and in answer to inquires say, 'Oh, nothing!' Pride, helps us; and pride is not a bad thing when it only urges us to hide our own hurts---not to hurt others." (pg. 62)

"A human being in this aged nation of ours in a very wonderful whole, the slow creation of long interchanging influences; and charm is a result of two such wholes, the one loving and the one loved." (pg. 409)

On choosing a profession:
"You must be sure of two things: you must love your work, and not be always looking over the edge of it, wanting your play to begin. And the other is, you must not be ashamed of your work, and think it would be more honourable to you to be doing something else. You must have pride in your own work and in learning to do it well..." (page 562)

And finally, a TOP 10 list that isn't exactly a top 10 list, but a list of 10 characters in order of favorite to least favorite because every end of the spectrum regarding character and character development is included in this book.
1. Dorthea Brooke
2. Will Ladislaw
3. Caleb Garth
4. Fred Vincy
5. Mary Garth/ Dr. Lydgate (tie)
6. Sir James
7. Cecilia Brooke
(the above are "good")
(the following are "not so good")
8. Raffles/Mr. Casaubon (tie)
9. Bulstrode
(Actually, I don't mind those three. Their actions were key in great development for others. But, their personalities just grated.)
10. Rosamond Vincy
(Was she a prototype for Rosalie?)

I'd really love to hear from you if you'd read this book and tell me what you think. :)

That is all. Won't say anymore because it will give it all away!!!!