Middlemarch, by George Eliot
I don’t want to review this book per se. There is a LOT to say, but I’m not really qualified, and there are George Eliot scholars out there who can do a much better job. In fact, one of them – an actual George Eliot scholar – is coming to our book club meeting …. SQUEEE!! Instead, with the help of a few mocked-up timelines, I want to talk about things that surprised me, several of which were things that maybe shouldn’t have.
ASIDE: I just want to say how much I love timelines. I love way they provide visual representations of events in relation to each other in a way that my brain seems incapable of doing. I wish high school history had been taught this way, instead of memorising a list of events related to Napoleon’s rise and fall (what year did he get exiled to Elba, again? I have no freaking clue!) My favourite timeline ever was found in the Star Trek: Experience attraction at the Las Vegas Hilton, although I’m sure that’s a surprise to exactly no one. /aside
One surprise for me was how knowledgeable George Eliot was on current directions in medical science, particularly in the treatment of specific illnesses such as fevers. She was also well versed in a trend towards what I will call the Separation of Diagnosis and Dispensation. But, then again, Mary Shelley was extremely well informed on the topic of medical science, and Frankenstein was published the year after George Eliot was born. So perhaps it was not uncommon to be so learned.
It also surprised me that in the time of the early 1830’s they would be building a railway across the country, but as the timeline reveals, the first railway actually opened in the mid-1820’s. In the 1830’s, it appears a bit of a publicity stunt was held, where a race horse was pitted against a steam locomotive (the horse won). Apparently we humans have a strange and long-standing tradition of racing incongruous things – during Shark Week 2017, Discovery held a race between Michael Phelps and a great white shark (sort of).
And then there is George Eliot’s knowledge and awareness of the political situations in Great Britain, and how she weaves these into her story. During the time frame of the book, Britain passed a parliamentary reform bill that addressed several inequalities in the voting structure and enfranchised hundreds of thousands of voters. But again, many interesting political events were happening during her life that may have contributed to her interest, including Catholic emancipation, Napoleon declaring himself emperor and anti-slavery movements, including the American civil war.
Finally, I am curious as to why George Eliot felt it necessary to publish her books under a male pseudonym, when so many important books by women were published during her life, like Pride and Prejudice, Frankenstein, Jane Eyre, Little Women to name just a few. Maybe it’s because her book shows such depth of knowledge on topics women were not expected to know or understand? I am hoping our honoured book club guest can speak to this.
Rating: Buy it! Fair warning, it’s 800 pages of Victorian-style writing, and if you are going to read it, you are best advised to set yourself a modest daily goal. But it’s absolutely worth it in the end.
LOVE the timelines! Thanks for posting….