The Current Read: Middlemarch

In my reading pursuits, I usually alternate between contemporary fiction and the classics. (Though I do mix in the nonfiction to keep it interesting, and to keep learning... Read The Emperor of Scent and see if you're not blown away by the insights there into our sense of smell.)

Anyway, I'm in a classics phase now, currently reading Middlemarch by George Eliot and finding it amazingly fresh. I am always astonished at how something written well over a hundred years ago can feel so immediate, and how clearly the voice carries though the author and her time are long gone. This is, of course, part of the appeal of writing--the immortality aspect--though the older I get the less and less it is related to preservation of my ego specifically, and the more it becomes about leaving something beautiful behind. I strongly believe that we can all be a force for good, for beauty, if we just use our talents to their fullest potential.

Okay, well, enough about what I believe--too closely related to ego, right? Middlemarch has some slow-going passages, but on the whole I am engaged, and I just find the work to be so compelling. There's also something to be said for reading it as a female, because though the eras seem so different--hers and mine--I recognize so many of the same frustrations and thoughts that a woman has as she tries to make her mark in a world that still largely forces women to choose between her professional/artistic talents and her family and homelife. Now, as then, there is little societal support for a very ambitious woman.

I'm about halfway in, and the more I read, the more I am enfolded in the drama. I recommend it heartily, and I hope that as I read I am gaining even more understanding of the literary craft.