How To Read Middlemarch (Pt. 1)

A Handy Guide to (Bridget Jones Voice): 'one of the greatest works of fiction in the English language'

Preface: We are reading Middlemarch for Better Book Club because it was mentioned in our last Better Book Club read, The Fraud by Zadie Smith (see last month's roundup for some thoughts on that). Eliza mentions that she thinks George Eliot is a good writer so Emma said 'has anyone actually read Middlemarch?' and now here we are.

1) Get a copy of Middlemarch.

This is harder than you might think. There are fraud copies of the ebook floating around, as well as various print editions, some annotated, some not annotated, some with bonus content, some without, etc. The ebook version that I started on was not annotated but after reading this article about choosing an edition and visiting just about every bookshop in Sydney looking for the right one I found the Oxford World Classics Edition (thanks Gleebooks!). One of the things we never do in Better Book Club is check the page length before deciding on a book. We have never learned from our many mistakes!!

2) Get other copies of Middlemarch

I also have an ebook of the Norton Critical Edition because when I'm done with the book I would really like to read about it. I couldn't find the contemporary (Elliot time) reviews version but I am looking forward to the contemporary (me time) essays in the version I got. So I have 179 pages of essays and reviews to read once I'm done with the actual book, because if there's one thing I love it's extra-credit work. I recently looked at new Kindles on Amazon to see how much they cost these days and suddenly my Kindle starts misbehaving, going non-responsive, and resetting randomly? Curious and curiouslier.

3) Start reading Middlemarch:

Here are my thoughts so far:

Book 1: Okay, well this is a funny little 'who will she marry' plot. I'm laughing to myself imagining all the Victorians clutching their pearls and gasping and fainting at all the zingers. Very much admire Elliot's use of extremely long sentences as I am a fan of the same. If you have read State Highway One, maybe you will agree. Before you mention Ducks, Newburyport, I think that will be later this year reading. Reminder that this book is set 40 whole years before she wrote it! It was historical at that time. Now that would be setting a book in 1984, which is just, idk, fuck.

Book 2: What is going on. I am only reading the words. This book feels like kind of a chore. I am telling people what I am reading. They say 'Oh, Middlemarch! I love Middlemarch! It's so funny!’ I say ‘oh have you read it?’ They say ‘no, but that’s what I’ve heard.’ It is funny, but also that is all anyone seems to have to say about it. Or 'What is that?' On hookup apps my only two listed interests are 'Books' and 'Dick' so people sometimes ask me what I'm reading. Middlemarch is the perfect response!! It makes you sound slightly learned and also lots of people have heard of it, or if they haven't heard of it they don't care, so you don't need to go into any more detail like 'What is the plot?' 'Who are the characters?' and 'Tell me more about the Great Reform Act of 1834'

Book 3: More of a plot happening here. Some good but slightly predictable setup involving a racehorse and a sum of money. I actually enjoyed this part. I'm not saying I'm not a good reader, I think I am a reasonably good reader, but sometimes I wish big books like this (and I am looking at you, most Russians) would just give you a quick little primer on who are the important characters and who are the ones not to care about, and what are the important plot strands and what are the ones that need less attention etc. Is that what the Introduction is for? I don’t know, because I haven’t read it! I always read the Introduction after the novel because often they assume you’ve already read the book, especially if it’s a classic, and they’re full of spoilers. Anna Karenina jumps in front of a train!? THAT’S THE ONE THING I DIDN’T WANT TO KNOW!

4) Time for some homework!

Tell me more about the Great Reform Act of 1834, you say? Love to. Via this podcast about it thanks to my friends at The BBC and to my sister who is really good at digging up useful secondary material. In my head they all look exactly like Mary Beard, and it's actually both funny and refreshing to listen to academics and not comedians or journalists on a podcast for a change. (99% of my podcasts right now are either Bear Brook Season 2, or Nymphowars, both of which you should absolutely check out.) The BBC Podcast was extremely helpful and I was in a good place to listen to it because in Book 4 they really start getting into the politics of it all (or maybe they already did and I just skimmed over those parts because I didn't understand them). It was a little depressing listening to the podcast because you really get the sense that Britain is just this dumb country incredibly slow to change anything because they're so addicted to their own mythology that change or progress is like, offensive to those in power (who of course are never going to give it up), and that in my lifetime we will maybe never see them make any kind of substantial progressive change like voter reform or whatever unless someone starts chopping off heads, which I am broadly in favour of. I moved to England in 2010 just after the Tories won the election and it has been nothing but depressing regressive shit from them for the past 13 years. After 6 years I called it quits and moved to Australia but of course I still watch their politics closely, usually through my fingers. In 2015 when they won again I was sad about the outcome and my (now) ex was like 'I doubt the outcome of this election is going to affect you personally in any real way' or some shit and it's like lololololol there's your whole worldview but also I think about that 2015 election and get so worked up still. When I'm famous enough to be asked that 'who would you have over for dinner, living or dead' question it's just going to be a list of Tories I hate so that I can poison their food. Maybe I should get therapy or something?!?!?! Most people are not like this I think!

5) Continue reading, feeling slightly refreshed:

Book 4: Okay there's quite a lot of plot and politics in this part. It is kind of getting going now. Still lots of zingers and I have trouble with the characters. Next time I am drawing a diagram for help with this shit. Victorians didn't have 100 000 distractions all day every day. They probably just walked around all day thinking 'ooooh I wondere what will happene nexte inn Middlemarch! That laft chapter had me pofitively giggling 'til I almoft did fanite.' and then run off to get their humours checked or whatever.

6) Have a Middlemarch Middle-of-Middlemarch Check In Call (I used the Better Book Club Middle-of-Middlemarch Check In Call, but feel free to substitute it with your own)

That's where I'm at after basically a whole month, anyway. Halfway through. My thoughts are: it feels like a chore, even though I am kind of liking it finally, I am interested to read about it after I'm done. I do feel like if I was reading it as eight small novels, as it was originally published, instead of one massive chonker, maybe I would be having a better time with it. It's like trying to read Watchmen all in one go, that's not what it was meant for. The annotations in my edition are mostly useful but sometimes I wish they were less 'here's a reference to Greek mythology that you might not know' (I always do) and more 'here's a handy reminder of who the characters are and what their relationship to each other is and also here are some key plot points you might have missed and their historical context', but maybe that's just me. It is funny and it does have a lot of zingers and I am interested in where the plot goes.

I'll be back with part 2 of this handy guide in a few weeks when I finally finish this book, and all its associated material.

If you are thinking of reading Middlemarch, I wouldn't say don't read it! I wouldn't say you definitely should read it either, but I will have a more concrete opinion in another 87547845 pages or so.