Middlemarch by George Eliot is ranked 24th on The Greatest books of All Time site, where Mary AnnEvans has other works, indeed, on The 1,000 Novels Everyone Must Read list, there are no less than five volumes by the magnificent wrioter – hundreds of those books are reviewed on my blog, where the best take is https://realinibarzoi.blogspot.com/2025/02/is-this-unique-could-it-make-money.html - 9 out of 10

 

Middlemarch by George Eliot is ranked 24^th on The Greatest books of All Time site, where Mary AnnEvans has other works, indeed, on The 1,000 Novels Everyone Must Read list, there are no less than five volumes by the magnificent wrioter – hundreds of those books are reviewed on my blog, where the best take is https://realinibarzoi.blogspot.com/2025/02/is-this-unique-could-it-make-money.html

 

9 out of 10

 

Before being enchanted by Middlemarch, I have had the pleasure to read Silas Marner https://realinibarzoi.blogspot.com/2025/02/silas-marner-by-george-eliot-aka-mary.html and Adam Bede, there are still two left, The Mill on The Floss and Daniel Deronda, which will surely be in the same realm

 

This was quite a surprise, first to find Middlemarch so high on the list with the best, and then to see that it was not an inflated suggestion, though I place my favorite, Kingsley Amis, higher, and there are quite a number of protests I submit to this new algorithm, let us just mention Marx and his Manifesto, plus the Kapital

Now for the people of Middlemarch, maybe the most resplendent would-be Dorothea Brooke, in spite of her early decision to marry the obnoxious reverend Edward Casaubon, he is forty-five and she is just nineteen – in some ways, I should support the chap, as in I am older, and why not have some admirer who is young and sprightly

 

However, the woman is in fact devoted to him as a scholar – well, I am one, so awaiting proposals – and she thinks he is some bright luminary, only he is not, just a pretentious old bag – this was uncalled for, but hey, why not – and he marries Dorothea, despite his selfishness, and the total inadequacy of this marital bond

Sir James Chettam was the first to propose, but the girl – she was not really a woman at that point, in her defense -makes this terrible choice, thinking she will help the world, because this reverend is such a creator that whatever he does, she will be there to help him, it does not turn out as hoped, let us be clear about it

 

Will Ladislau is the much younger cousin of reverend Casaubon, an artist, or he appeared that way at first sight, who has been disinherited, his father was a Polish teacher, or dancer, I forgot which, maybe he was a professor and his subject was dancing, and the ‘aristocrats’ saw this as an unsuitable origin, looking down on him

The young man feels that Dorothea was ironical, when she mentioned she does not have the ability to judge paintings, thinking this is just her way of saying, politely, that she dislikes his work, nevertheless, they meet again in…Rome, where the newly wed couple are supposed to spend a honeymoon, although the reverend is not really keen on it

 

Dry and disagreeable – a euphemism in fact – Casaubon spends time in archives, instead of caring for his spouse, after all, the honeymoon is for something else, they meet a German painter, friend od Will Ladislau, and the latter starts to see his devotion to Dorothea, when he has to defend her from the gossip and malice of his colleague

There are many personages, and a lot to go through in this novel – that is another intriguing aspect, normally, when faced with such a gigantic work, I start soon moaning and saying I am not going to dedicate days of my precious time to this, it has to be damn splendorous to make the effort and give it the (long) time

 

Rosamond Vincy and Tertius Lydgate would be the other important figures in this complex narrative – which has plenty of others to claim attention and interest – she is rather complex, not the obvious good heroine, role model or anything, on the contrary, there are chapters when the reader is aghast, what the hell is she doing?

Tertius Lydgate is a doctor, who believes in modern methods – not that he has some scanners or anything there, this is happening near the start of the nineteenth century, some two hundred years ago – and when he arrives in Middlemarch, he seems such a dashing fellow, from a good family, and Rosmanond, a pretty, formidable woman is attracted

 

They marry, but it is not the scenario where they live happily for ever after, because of quite a few problems, first, the doctor has a clientele that does not pay; hence he struggles with his finances, and when the pressure is mounting, he has to accept that creditors come for furniture and the perspective is bleak

Ergo, Rosamond jumps into action, taking the initiative, at a time when women would leave that to their spouse – so I have to admit now that she is one of the Avangard, a feminist avant la lettre – with wrong actions though, she writes to the rich and noble family of her husband, and they refuse point blank, insulting Tertius in the process

 

It looks as if they will part ways – she does spend some time with her parents – and I say that in our time, they would have been divorced, we live with other notions of time, we hurry – like Ellen de Generes used to joke, she had friends that cried ‘hey, I am in a hurry, I go to yoga class’, only what is the point of yoga, if you are always in a febrile state

Many things happen, some destitute fellow arrives with some dirty secrets, poor Doctor Lydgate is compromised because of the gossip, this stranger dies in Middlemarch, but not before revealing the dark past of one Nicholas Bulstrode – not time to write about him, this is the end, though if you want more, you can always ask and we negotiate, like Trump with Putin, the former gives the latter ‘whatever the hell he wants’ – and alas, Tertius is caught in the middle of this, for no good reason, to conclude: this is a wonderful book, it is deserving of a good place on The Greatest Books of All Time, new updated list, but lower than Kingsley Amis

 

Now for my standard closing of the note with a question, and invitation – maybe you have a good idea on how we could make more than a million dollars with this https://realinibarzoi.blogspot.com/2025/02/is-this-unique-could-it-make-money.html  – as it is, this is a unique technique, which we could promote, sell, open the Oscars show with or something and then make lots of money together, if you have the how, I have the product, I just do not know how to get the befits from it, other than the exercise per se

 

 There is also the small matter of working for AT&T – this huge company asked me to be its Representative for Romania and Bulgaria, on the Calling Card side, which meant sailing into the Black Sea wo meet the US Navy ships, travelling to Sofia, a lot of activity, using my mother’s two bedrooms flat as office and warehouse, all for the grand total of $250, raised after a lot of persuasion to the staggering $400…with retirement ahead, there are no benefits, nothing…it is a longer story, but if you can help get the mastodont to pay some dues, or have an idea how it can happen, let me know

 

As for my role in the Revolution that killed Ceausescu, a smaller Mao, there it is http://realini.blogspot.com/2022/03/realini-in-newsweek-participant-in.html

 

Some favorite quotes from To The Hermitage and other works

 

‘Fiction is infinitely preferable to real life...As long as you avoid the books of Kafka or Beckett, the everlasting plot of fiction has fewer futile experiences than the careless plot of reality...Fiction's people are fuller, deeper, cleverer, more moving than those in real life…Its actions are more intricate, illuminating, noble, profound…There are many more dramas, climaxes, romantic fulfillment, twists, turns, gratified resolutions…Unlike reality, all of this you can experience without leaving the house or even getting out of bed…What's more, books are a form of intelligent human greatness, as stories are a higher order of sense…As random life is to destiny, so stories are to great authors, who provided us with some of the highest pleasures and the most wonderful mystifications we can find…Few stories are greater than Anna Karenina, that wise epic by an often foolish author…’