Missed out!

I'm sorry I couldn't make it to Book Club last night. I was looking forward to the discussion of a fascinating book! Unfortunately May for means trying to fit in about 4 events every night, and even my attempts to come late were thwarted by extra innings at a baseball game. Now I feel a void in all my planned discussion topics for the book...I guess I will have to make my husband read it so I can talk to someone about it.

Past Book Club reads

I really think it would be a good idea to begin an archive of what we've read over the past 5 years. What if everyone brings a list of what they personally have suggested for reading over the years to Amanda's house on Wednesday night, and then we can compile it and give it to Clara to post here. We can then play "Fill-in-the-Blanks" if we need to, as well. What do you think?

Middlemarch in May

Apparently the weather this month is cooperating to help us feel more of an English countryside atmosphere. I apologize for any influence my book choice may have had on the weather, but hopefully by next week, things will be a bit more warm. Just as a reminder, book club will be held this coming Wednesday (25th) at my place at 7 p.m. For any of you who need my address, or don't know how to get here, just email me and I'll send my address to you. (I feel a little funny about posting in on the web.)

In the meantime, I wanted to share some of my latest finds from the book. Some of the writing is just so darned romantic, I love it!

From a conversation between Will Ladislaw and Rosamond:[from Rosamond]:

'I quite envy your acquaintance with Mrs. Casaubon. Is she very clever? She looks as if she were.'

'Really, I never thought about it,' said Will, sulkily.

'That is just the answer Tertius gave me, when I first asked him if she were handsome. What is it that you gentlemeen are thinking of when you are with Mrs. Casaubon?'

'Herself,' said Will, not indisposed to provoke the charming Mrs. Lydgate.

'When one sees a perfect woman, one never thinks of her attributes--one is
conscious of her presence.'

'I shall be jealous when Tertius goes to Lowick,' said Rosamond,
dimpling, and speaking with aery lightness. 'He will come back and think nothing
of me.'

'That does not seem to have been the effect on Lydate hitherto. Mrs.
Casaubon is too unlike other women for them to be compared with
her.'

And please bear with me on another:

"Everything seemed dreary . . . even the spring flowers and the grass had a dull shiver in them under the afternoon clouds that hid the sun fitfully: even the sustaining thoughts which had become habits seemed to have in them the weariness of long future days in which she would still live with them for her sole companions. It was another or rather a fuller sort of companionship that
poor Dorothea was hungering for, and the hunger had grown from the perpetual effort demanded by her married life. She was always trying to be what her husband wished, and never able to repose on his delihgt in what she was. The thing that she liked, that she spontaneously cared to have, seemed to be always excluded from her life; for if it was only granted and not shared by her husband it might as well have been denied. About Will Ladislaw there had been a difference between them from the first, and it had ended . . . This afternoon the helplessness was more wretchedly benumbing than ever: she longed for objects who could be dear to her, and to whom she could be dear. She longed for work which would be directly beneficent like the sunshine and the rain, and now it appeared that she was to live more and more in a virtual tomb, where there was the apparatus of a ghastly labour producing what would never see the light. To-day she had stood at the door of the tomb and seen Will Ladislaw receing into the distant world of warm activity and fellowship--turning his face towards her
as he went."

What great writing!

Middlemarch Quotes

I was doing a little bedtime research and came across this review from the Atlantic Monthly, April 1873, by Arthur George Sedgwick.  I love the Internet.  
http://www.theatlantic.com/past/docs/unbound/classrev/middlema.htm

Here are a couple of his thoughts:

"That she is an acute delineator of character, a subtle humorist, a master of English, a universal observer and a comprehensive student, a profound moralist,--all this is part of her established reputation."

"The destiny which surrounds her characters, which leads to their several allotted ends ............... is the compounded destiny of natural laws, character, and accident which we call life. It leaves nothing out of view; neither the material nor the moral forces; neither the immutable fixity of physical succession, nor the will. Man is, in these novels, neither a creature who controls nor who is controlled by nature; he is himself part of nature."

And here are a few of my favorite quotes from the narration of the book:

"Has anyone ever pinched into its pilulous smallness the cobweb of pre-matrimonial acquaintanceship?"

"Sane people did what their neighbors did, so that if any lunatics were at large, one might know and avoid them."

"Mary was fond of her own thoughts, and could amuse herself well sitting in twilight with her hands in her lap; for, having early had strong reason to believe that things were not likely to be arranged for her particular satisfaction, she wasted no time in astonishment and annoyance at that fact.  And she had already come to take life very much as a comedy in which she had a proud, nay, a generous resolution not to act the mean or treacherous part."

"If youth is the season of hope, it is often so only in the sense that our elders are hopeful about us; for no age is so apt as youth to think its emotions, partings, and resolves are the last of their kind.  Each crisis seems final, simply because it is new.  We are told that the oldest inhabitants in Peru do not cease to be agitated by the earthquakes, but they probably see beyond each shock and reflect that there are  plenty more to come."

"Her finely-touched spirit had still its fine issues, though they were not widely visible.  Her full nature, like that river of which Cyrus broke the strength, spent itself in channels which had no great name on the earth.  But the effect of her being on those around her was incalculably diffusive:  for the growing good of the world is partly dependent on unhistoric acts; and that things are not so ill with you and me as they might have been, is half owing to the number who lived faithfully in hidden life, and rest in unvisited tombs."

OK, I love this book and have read it several times.   I am jealous of Eliot's ability to use the stories and lives of her individual characters to illustrate broad truths about human nature and interaction.  I also must share, that I love her sentence structure and masterful use of punctuation. :)  The use of the semi-colon is a lost art, and the comma is somewhat neglected these days, too. 

Happy reading!

PS  The Jane Eyre outing really helped me put to rest my  'issues' with Charlotte Bronte.  I used it as an excuse to play hooky from wedding prep to reread the book, do a little research, and to discuss it in the car-thanks for listening, friends.  I still don't love it, but I think I understand it better- and, the movie was lovely. 

A Date with Shakespeare

The final dates for the Shakespeare getaway, (and whatever else you'd like to do in St. George getaway!) will be August 4-7. So, put it on your calendars and get your fake tans ready, 'cuz Dixie, here we come!

Thursday movie night to see Jane Eyre!

Hello Ladies,

I just returned home from China on Friday night, and immediately called Emily the next day to figure out a time to see Jane Eyre. In order to keep family distruptions to a minimum, we thought that going Thursday night (May 5) at about 9:30 p.m. might work. That way, we could put our kids to bed and head out.

Fortunately enough, Jordan Commons is now carrying the film, so we won't have to drive too far. So, who's in? I've heard it's really good . . .

Amanda

p.s. - Speaking of film adaptions of classics, I just saw the preview of the Atlas Shrugged, Part 1. Though I've always been fairly skeptical of how one could adequately adapt that book to film, the preview honestly looks awesome! We might need to later do another book club movie night, part deux.