"Middlemarch"

I wish I had read Middlemarch when I was a teen. It is truly one of the best novels in the English language, as so many claim. That said, it is also decidedly for “grown-ups” as has also famously been said. So, I likely could not have appreciated it before growing up myself. (A bit anyway. I still find that I like less grown-up books much more than the other.)

But that is often the way these things work. We only benefit from things after such a benefit is no longer profitable. We only appreciate the wisdom of others’ experience after we have the failures that could have been avoided behind us.

In any case, here is my recommendation to all young people to read this “grown-up” gem. It will give you insight and a leg-up in many aspects of life.

It is a great exploration of small town (and small social circle) drama, and the dangers therein. It is a wonderful story about marriage, work, and the value of a principled control of one’s impulses.

Here is a mere sampling of some of the quotes that leapt out at me:

“A woman dictates before marriage in order that she may have an appetite for submission afterwards. And certainly, the mistakes that we male and female mortals make when we have our own way might fairly raise some wonder that we are so fond of it.” pg35 Ch9

“Lady Chettam… was… interesting on the ground of her complaint, which puzzled doctors, and seemed clearly a case wherein the fullness of professional knowledge might need the supplement of quackery.” pg105 Ch10

“The difficult task of knowing another soul is not for young gentlemen whose consciousness is chiefly made up of their own wishes.” pg138 Ch12

“Oppositions have the illimitable range of objections at command, which need never stop short at the boundary of knowledge, but can draw forever on the vasts of ignorance.” pg503 Ch45

“Nettle-seed needs no digging.” pg632 Ch56

“Caleb was in a difficulty known to any person attempting in dark times and unassisted by miracle to reason with rustics who are in possession of an undeniable truth which they know through a hard process of feeling, and can let it fall like a giant’s club on your neatly carved arguments for a social benefit which they do not feel.” pg637 Ch56

“You must be sure of two things: you must love your work, and not be always looking over the edge of it, wanting your play to begin. And the other is, you must not be ashamed of your work, and think it would be more honorable to you to be doing something else. You must have pride in your work and in learning to do it well.” pg638 Ch56

“Inconsistencies cannot both be right, but imputed to man they may both be true.” pg696 (Quoting “The History of Rasselas” by Samuel Johnson) Ch61

“Bulstrode was simply a man whose desires had been stronger than his theoretical beliefs, and who had gradually explained the gratification of his desires into a satisfactory agreement with those beliefs.” pg704 Ch61

“His belief in these moments of dread was, that if he spontaneously did something right, God would save him from the consequences of wrong-doing. For religion can only change when the emotions which fill it are changed; and religion of personal fear remains nearly at the level of a savage.” pg705 Ch61

“Nay, power is relative; you cannot fright
The coming pest with border fortresses
Or catch your carp with subtle argument.
All force is twain in one: cause is not cause
Unless effect be there; and action’s self
Must needs contain a passive. So command
Exist but with obedience.” pg736 Ch64

“…character is not cut in marble—it is not something solid and unalterable. It is something living and changing, and may become diseased as our bodies do.” pg837 Ch73