#Eliotalong Week 6: Chapters 71- end

I can't believe it's finally the end! It only really hit me when I realised I was on page 900 (!!) and that there weren't many pages left. Weirdly I seem to remember the ending being longer. Anyway :)

First: Dorothea was a total badass in the end. I knew there was a reason that I loved Dorothea. This week's section was basically her going "RIGHT" and then taking charge and fixing everything. Well, everything that was within her power to fix, anyway. I suppose it's because she had her own name dragged through the mud and knows what it's like.

And she finally acknowledges her feelings for Will, says 'screw it' to money and village gossip and marries him anyway. So much love for this lady, seriously. I like how our narrator tells us that Dorothea was never popular due to her two weird marriages but that she seemed to live a happy life anyway. I guess that's Eliot's way of saying bollocks to propriety in her own life. Seriously, so much love for this.

I'm glad Mary and Fred turned out well in the end. They were two of the most genuinely nice characters in the whole book, so I'm happy things worked out for them. 

Can't say the same for Lydgate though... I feel bad for him, really. He had so much potential but it just never came to anything. If he'd married Dorothea or, well, anyone else, who knows what he might have done. Rosamond was as vile as ever. Ugh.

So that's the end! I do love this book. It's so beautifully written and despite its length I'm sad it's over, because I am far too invested in these characters.

Thanks Bex for hosting, until the next one! :)

#Eliotalong: Week 5 - Chapters 57-70

This week was a strange one! Lots of dark secrets and planning and arguments. 

Lydgate and Rosamond

Well, they're having a pretty difficult time of it at the moment. Everything that was sort of approaching the whole way through the novel has finally arrived. Rosamond is definitely trying my patience. The debts aren't all her fault- Lydgate could have done with being a bit more careful too- but at least Lydgate is trying to fix it, while Rosamond is acting like a petulant child and meddling in things that won't help her. If she's so obsessed with Sir Godwin, she should have married him! Lydgate, you're too good for her.

Will

Ugh, speaking of Rosamond being an ass, telling Will about the will (as weird as that sentence sounds...) I suppose he was going to find out eventually from somewhere but of course it had to be her to let the cat out of the bag. He's gone up in my estimation by refusing to take part in Bulstrode's schemes, but this doesn't seem like it will bring him any closer to Dorothea, alas. 

(Speaking of which, there was a distinct lack of Dorothea in this week's reading! I still really like her. I don't really know why, I think she's just been through so much shit I badly want a happy ending for her.)

Bulstrode and... everything

Omg. I remembered going into this that Bulstrode was an unsavoury character but I'd somehow mostly forgotten the extent of it. And now Lydgate's got involved in the mess... I don't think it's a spoiler to say that this will not end well for either of them. 

I can't believe next week is the final installment! Here's hoping for happy endings for those who deserve it, and doom for Bulstrode. And hopefully more of Dorothea!

#Eliotalong Week 4 - Chapters 43-56

Ssh, let's just ignore that I'm late. Which is quite funny, because this is the first week I've had all the chapters read well in advance of Monday, thanks to the 24in48 readathon. I took part completely on the DL, with no online presence whatsoever, mostly because I didn't expect to read much- I was working two night shifts and spend most of Sunday with my girlfriend- but I actually managed a very respectable 592 pages in just short of seven hours. It was nice to just sit down and read a massive chunk of Middlemarch- I'll have to try it again with this week's reading!

Dorothea/Casaubon

Ding dong, the witch is dead! I don't think any of us were sad to see Casaubon go. But the condition of his will is just gross on so many levels that I don't think I even appreciated the first time I read this. It's not just essentially forbidding her to marry Will (because Dorothea doesn't see him that way... well, yet anyway...;) ) but the fact that it's motivated by his ridiculous jealousy that has the result of making her the talk of the town when absolutely nothing was going on between them. Ugh. Even dead, Casaubon continues to ruin everything. 

Lydgate

Lots of stuff about the hospital and Lydgate's medical methods in this section. I actually found it pretty interesting! It's really not something I think one would expect going into this book. Eliot's like, I'll give you small town gossip and relationships between people BUT ALSO historical context and politics, and I'm liking this approach a lot. 

But oh, that furniture bill he couldn't pay. I can't watch, this is just too much. Especially now Rosamond's pregnant too!

Bulstrode/Raffles

Well, that took an interesting turn this week. It would appear even more people in this town are related than we first thought! Things seem to be going pretty badly for Bulstrode. I'm wondering what effect this will have on the town, and of course on Will as well.

Fred/Mary

On the contrast, things seem to be looking up slightly for these two! I think Fred's learned his lesson and is prepared to do what needs to be done to grow up and marry Mary. I hope it works out for him, I really do.

Railways!

We also had the first (I think.. first major, anyway) reference to the railways, which is one of the things I remember most about this book. It seems ridiculous to us now of course, but I can kind of understand how mad people though they were back in the day. Cutting up the countryside to send people whizzing about the place in boxes on metal rails? So weird. 

Narrative

Like some of you have said, it's pretty startling the way Eliot skips over seemingly major events like pregnancies/Bulstrode's purchase of Stone Court, but I quite like it. She directs our attention where it needs to be, and this book is long enough as it is (just kidding- honestly, I wouldn't mind an extra few hundred pages at this point!)

So that's this week in the bag! Things are definitely developing as we enter the final third of the book. I can't wait for more :)

#Eliotalong Week 3 - Chapters 29-42

I'm a little late this week- I'd like to say it's because I've been out enjoying the good weather, but sadly no! I've mostly just been working and then coming home exhausted and going to bed early, rinse repeat. 

Anyway. I can't believe we're halfway through! There's still lots to go down... Most of my strong memories come from the second half so I'm looking forward to getting into that stuff. 

• Casaubon/Dorothea/Will Ladislaw- I think this week's chapters really just emphasised what a disaster this marriage is. Poor Dorothea, she seems totally crushed. The jealousy thing is just incredibly gross. Jealousy issues are kind of a deal breaker in a relationship for me- if you can't trust someone not to cheat on you, why are you with them in the first place?!- so that's incredibly irritating, especially as Dorothea needs someone to support her. I liked how Eliot dedicated some time to Casaubon's point of view- it didn't make me feel any sympathy for him, but it gave a little insight into his head and his motives which was interesting. 

• Featherstone's death and will business- Such drama with the second will! I think Mary should have just burned the will like Featherstone told her to. Sure, there's the legality of it but surely a dying man's wishes trump that to some extent? I suppose it would have looked awfully suspicious though. Especially if her relationship with Fred was more widely known. Still, it's pretty painful for the two of them. Hopefully it'll work out. In the mean time though, who is Joshua Rigg? It's pretty startling to have a mysterious newcomer thrown into the mix. I'll keep my eye on him.

• Lydgate/Rosamond- I feel like I'm watching a car crash in slow motion. And that's all I have to say about that.

• Brooke/political drama- It's nice to have some local politics thrown into the mix- it's interesting from an historical point of view and it just makes the whole book seem wonderfully rounded. This is another thing I'll be sure to keep an eye on.

#Eliotalong Week 2- Chapters 15-28

I think this week I finally got properly settled into the book and remembered why I love it so much. It's just so engrossing! I'm caught up in the lives of the characters and the fact that I've got more than 600 pages left with them isn't a bit disheartening. I'm starting to remember certain plot points a bit more, so I'll have to bite my tongue a bit for spoilers here... ;)

• Lydgate- I'm liking Lydgate a lot so far. It's hard not to sympathise with him as an outsider to Middlemarch. Small towns are weird. Anyone else need a diagram for who's related to who? I feel like everyone's related by marriage... Anyway. I'm less sure about Rosamund's schemes for him and how completely oblivious he is to them- she's planning the furniture in their drawing room, he barely even considers her a love interest. This will not end well.

• Religion- I'm starting to see a thing with zealousness/puritanism versus a more laidback approach in this book. Dorothea's super pious, but it does her no good; Farebrother is probably a terrible clergyman but seems like a nice guy; Tyke is super strictly religious and not a particularly nice guy. It's interesting in regard to GE's experiences with religion- she was brought up pretty strict but relaxed later in life, what with her relationship with a married man and all. So it's interesting to see her explore those ideas here.

• Dorothea- oh man, I feel bad for her. It's like she's finally woke up and realised what a horrible mistake she's made. Casaubon is such an ass. Meanwhile, Will Ladislaw is going up in my estimation, and I just wish Dorothea could have married him instead.

• Fred- I'm torn with Fred. I kind of can't stand people who are terrible with money, being an obsessive budgeter myself. And Fred is the worst when it comes to money and it's starting to mess up other people's lives too, which is Not Cool. Still, he's not malicious or anything about it. I think he's just genuinely naive and stupid. Hopefully he learns from his mistakes... but let's face it, he probably won't. Oh, and Mary Garth is an absolute angel.

So that's this week! Next week I'm hoping to see more of Dorothea and see if Fred really can get himself sorted out.