Middlemarch - finished

Finally finished Middlemarch last night and I found myself surprised at its relevancy today. Obviously we don't really have the same social situations as we do now, but some of Elliot's ideas regarding marriage and idealism still ring very true today.

The quick summary: Dorothea and Ladislaw end up married, impoverished, but happy. Mary and Fred end up together (yay!) and live a modest life. Lydgate and Rosamond eventually end up financially secure but Lydgate dies at the age of 50 and gave up all the ideals he came to Middlemarch with. Bulstrode goes into exile but his wife stands by him.

Idealism plays a huge part in the novel. Dorothea and Lydgate are the characters with the best intentions. Dorothea only wants to do good in the world. She's really a great character on the border of insufferable if she weren't written as someone with such a pure heart and a desire to help others. Lydgate wanted to make great strides in medicine through his experimentation but ended up getting a small fortune treating rich patients of gout. This is what we find out in Eliot's epilogue and it's very sad. I had conflicting emotions. I appreciated Lydgate's attempt to make it work with Rosamond and his realization that he held both their happinesses in his hands. In the end, however, neither of them was ever really truly happy. And really Rosamond is so awful you want her to get her comeuppance at the end but it never comes.

Marriage and compatibility are also large themes in the novel. Dorothea's marriage to Cassaboun is doomed b/c he's old and crappy and she's young and wonderful. In her attempt to do what she thinks is for the greater good, she ties herself to a man whose work amounts to nothing and who's definitely not as good a person as she is. She finds a better match in Ladislaw who shares her idealism and with her support is able to make something of his life in politics.

My favorite couple, Fred and Mary, end up happily married in a relationship that seems to resemble Mary's parent's marriage. They are well-matched and have similar temperaments, but balance each other out as well. There's a cute part that Eliot puts in where Fred publishes a farming book but everyone thinks Mary did it and Mary publishes a children's book but everyone thinks Fred did it. So they're perfect for one another!

In the end, a good novel. I'm glad I read it and I'll definitely keep it in mind for future courtships.

Middlemarch continued

After spending a day in jury duty, I burned through almost a quarter of the book. Considering it's 838 pages, I'd say that's not too shabby.

I've really gotten into the book. Whereas it used to be the book on my nightstand that put me to sleep at night, it is now the book that keeps me up way past my bedtime. I've avoided reading the introduction because I didn't want to spoil the plot. It's hard when I could so easily wikipedia this sucker and find out what happens, but I think that would hinder the joy in reading it since I would be paying far more attention to finding foreshadowing than to what's actually happening in the novel.

So far, Dorothea's married Cassaboun. I don't know why Eliot opened the book with the relationship between these two. They are the most tiresome. Cassaboun marries Dorothea because he feels he should get married and Dorothea marries Cassaboun because she wants to be the woman behind the great man and his ideas. Then they go on a disastrous honeymoon to Italy where Cassaboun ignores her the whole time and Dorothea realizes that marriage to him isn't what she thinks it's going to be. However, Eliot does introduce Cassaboun's more interesting cousin, Ladislaw, who's taken an interest in Dorothea. We'll see how that pans out since he's come to Lowick to visit with Dorothea's uncle, Mr. Brooke, much to Cassaboun's dismay. But not really dismay since Cassaboun's too boring to be dismayed.

More interesting are the romances between Lydgate and Rosamond and Fred Vincy and Mary Garth. Lydgate and Rosamond are interesting in that he was a reluctant suitor to her, leading her on when he knew he didn't want to get married yet and she thought that they were basically engaged. Lydgate realized, however, that he wanted to marry Rosamond when he came to run some errand at her house and he realized he hurt her feelings by ignoring her. I guess this the 19th century equivalent of putting a ring on it. I'm excited to see how their marriage turns out considering that he's an orphan country doctor and she's the mayor's daughter. Something tells me she won't take too well to having much less to live on.

Fred and Mary, so far, are my favorite couple. I'm right at the part where Fred's uncle Featherstone dies. Featherstone has a large fortune and it seems as if he's going to leave it to Fred, which would allow him the means to marry. But if he doesn't give his fortune to Fred, then he's without a living and will have to find some occupation. Mary is the girl next door who Fred's always known, but now comes to love. These are always my favorite couples. Mary's sensible and she's basically told Fred that she won't marry him unless he becomes a responsible man. I hope these two end up together.