Thank you for this, and the preceding posts. I recently finished re-reading it and your pieces have sharpened my appreciation for the specific form of greatness this novel offers. What struck me - and which I might attempt a longer form articulation of at some point - is the notion that Middlemarch is a novel exploring different forms of moral ambition, and the extent to which our personal relationships might draw it out, dampen it, weaken or strengthen it. Many of the characters in the novel start with a notion of some grand work and the person it might make them, only for it to complicated by the people around them. Even second time around I found it very deeply affecting - now for the rest of Eliot.
Thanks for this essay. Moral ambition is quiet while other ambitions tend to be loud. I wonder if we underestimate how much moral ambition there is at any time because of that.
Eliot would certainly want to make us think that way, yes, and she wants to show us the quiet ones to encourage it in ourselves. You see this in Sally Rooney too, imo. Leave aside the culture wars and do some good in your lives! (is the basic message)
The Bezos-Sanchez wedding extravaganza will be loud and omnipresent while no one will pay attention to the help given by a good Samaritan to a stranger because part of moral ambition is to do acts of kindness quietly and for its own sake.
That’s a great question about the wedding. Which author would you want to write about it? Proust might do it well. My favorite scenes were his party scenes.
Thanks for really clear and helpful political and historical background, putting the work in context. I think it’s hard for us to grasp what that era was like. Grey’s Monument - enormous public subscription column (not quite as high as Nelson’s) with statue of Earl Grey, top of Grey Street, Newcastle, always struck me as an extraordinary tribute to a politician. Big plaque about ‘the arduous and protracted struggle’ to pass the Great Reform Act.
The power of anti-Catholicism upon all levels of English life always surprises me for its unintended, indeed, opposite effect. Instead of solidifying the rule of a class, it made more likely a dilution of its power.
Perhaps I should put my obsession with the Russians (Tolstoy, Dostoevsky, etc.) on hold and begin to explore the great legacy of the 19th century British novel!
This is a very interesting article that helps in understanding how novelists incorporate history into their fiction. Unfortunately, in Russian literature, it was impossible from the old times because the whole country was a "rotten borough," and politics were the main ruling idea to hold society in fetters. Thank you for the article.
You are exactly right. Maybe the reason for poor Gogol's madness is his fear of the government's punishment for his political satire, which he didn't consider as a satire, but just a realistic picture of Russia.
Thank you for this, and the preceding posts. I recently finished re-reading it and your pieces have sharpened my appreciation for the specific form of greatness this novel offers. What struck me - and which I might attempt a longer form articulation of at some point - is the notion that Middlemarch is a novel exploring different forms of moral ambition, and the extent to which our personal relationships might draw it out, dampen it, weaken or strengthen it. Many of the characters in the novel start with a notion of some grand work and the person it might make them, only for it to complicated by the people around them. Even second time around I found it very deeply affecting - now for the rest of Eliot.
I think what you say about moral ambition is exactly right. Which one will you read next?
Daniel Deronda/Middlemarch again
Thanks for this essay. Moral ambition is quiet while other ambitions tend to be loud. I wonder if we underestimate how much moral ambition there is at any time because of that.
Eliot would certainly want to make us think that way, yes, and she wants to show us the quiet ones to encourage it in ourselves. You see this in Sally Rooney too, imo. Leave aside the culture wars and do some good in your lives! (is the basic message)
The Bezos-Sanchez wedding extravaganza will be loud and omnipresent while no one will pay attention to the help given by a good Samaritan to a stranger because part of moral ambition is to do acts of kindness quietly and for its own sake.
Wouldn't you just *love* to read a George Eliot essay about that wedding? What copy that could have given her...
That’s a great question about the wedding. Which author would you want to write about it? Proust might do it well. My favorite scenes were his party scenes.
You might want to ask the question n a Note.
I'd want Anthony Powell. A whole new volume could be made of it.
He did a great job with the party at Milly’s in one of the earlier volumes. Edward St. Aubyn as a contemporary writer would do it justice.
Hilary Mantel
omg YES
Thanks for really clear and helpful political and historical background, putting the work in context. I think it’s hard for us to grasp what that era was like. Grey’s Monument - enormous public subscription column (not quite as high as Nelson’s) with statue of Earl Grey, top of Grey Street, Newcastle, always struck me as an extraordinary tribute to a politician. Big plaque about ‘the arduous and protracted struggle’ to pass the Great Reform Act.
Yeah I agree, it is hard, and it takes a lot of reading to start to see it in your mind, as it were.
AND he invented Earl Grey tea. What a hero!
The power of anti-Catholicism upon all levels of English life always surprises me for its unintended, indeed, opposite effect. Instead of solidifying the rule of a class, it made more likely a dilution of its power.
I think for a long time it was not lie that and then probably after 1800 some change was inevitable
Excellent article! I'm so embarrassed that I didn't know any of this!
Why be embarrassed? There's something we all don't know!
“We are all ignorant, just on different subjects.” - Mark Twain
nice
Good man :)
Perhaps I should put my obsession with the Russians (Tolstoy, Dostoevsky, etc.) on hold and begin to explore the great legacy of the 19th century British novel!
I got a serious dose of parliamentary reform when I read the Palliser novels.
I’m reading Middlemarch now (I just started book 2), and I look forward to reading all about reform.
This is a very interesting article that helps in understanding how novelists incorporate history into their fiction. Unfortunately, in Russian literature, it was impossible from the old times because the whole country was a "rotten borough," and politics were the main ruling idea to hold society in fetters. Thank you for the article.
Yes indeed this would be a very different article were it about Gogol!
You are exactly right. Maybe the reason for poor Gogol's madness is his fear of the government's punishment for his political satire, which he didn't consider as a satire, but just a realistic picture of Russia.