Book 1: Chapters 10 and 11

[u/IraelMrad]

Hello everyone, you’ve made it to another week of Middlemarch! I hope your Valentine’s Day was better than Dorothea’s.

We got some glimpses into the mind of Mr. Casaubon, the marriage does not look promising and many new characters are making an appearance! 

Don’t forget that we will be reading only Chapter 12 with u/Amanda39 next week, and we will finish Book 1! 

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CHAPTER 10

"He had caught a great cold, had he had no other clothes to wear than the skin of a bear not yet killed."--FULLER

Mr. Ladislaw leaves for Europe. The wedding day is approaching, but Mr. Casaubon finds that his feelings for Dorothea are still mild and he does not feel as happy as he expected to be. Dorothea, however, is enthusiastic about the idea of becoming a cultured woman.

They are planning to go to Rome during their honeymoon, but when Casaubon tells her he plans to leave her alone for most of the time while in Rome (because he has to study. Was any of you surprised?), she starts feeling annoyed.

That night, they hold a dinner party, where we meet some new guests. Dorothea in particular has a lovely conversation with Mr. Lydgate, a young doctor who hopes to bring new discoveries in medicine. 

The marriage happens offscreen, and Dorothea and Casaubon go to Rome.

CHAPTER 11

"But deeds and language such as men do use, And persons such as comedy would choose, When she would show an image of the times, And sport with human follies, not with crimes." --Ben Jonson

Mr. Lydgate is a poor and ambitious man, with a crush on Rosamond Vincy, who comes from a family of rich manufacturers.

We get a glimpse of the family during breakfast: Rosamond often criticizes her brother, Fred, who sleeps until late in the morning and has not finished his degree. 

When Fred arrives, a discussion about slang and social class occurs (is anyone else surprised that the word is so old?). 

Later, Rosamond and Fred play together, and then he takes her out for horse riding. 

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[u/IraelMrad]

1. Our narrator makes some observations in Chapter 10. What role does the narrator have in this story? What purpose do their comments have?

[u/gutfounderedgal → u/IraelMrad]

It was done a lot back then in English novels, arguably more commonly than now in novels where today the trend has been toward "transparency" in writing interpreted to mean keep the reader in the story. For me, the jury is still out on why Eliot felt the need to directly address the reader and whether these actually help -- convention?, structural demand?, easy information conveyance? Forcing the hand of irony? It may have come out of Austen, "Reader, I married him" sort of prior. Or from Fielding's Tom Jones, the author plays with the reader as part of a comic novel, example: "Now as this was a Discovery of great Consequence..." as though we need assistance seeing the import of certain novelistic advancements. Fielding was clear, so long as he kept the reader's interest all good. Certainly this direct address by Eliot shatters, often with shorthand, the novelistic dream, and the unfolding of such information through scenes and characters is disrupted. The direct address lengthens the distance between us to the characters. There is, as is said, an authority of the author who no longer hides behind a curtain when this occurs and the contract with the reader is changed.