My February reads

[birdienl.livejournal.com]

My life in Middlemarch - Rebecca Mead 4,5/5
Rebecca Mead is a journalist and a British born citizen of New York. In My life in Middlemarch she guides us through her favourite book: Middlemarch by George Eliot. To fully understand this classic novel, she dives deep into Eliot's life and Victorian culture and compares it with the lessons she has learned throughout her own life.

This is a not biography of George Eliot, nor is it a critical analysis of Middlemarch. It has a little bit of both (I did learn a lot about Eliot and her contemporaries from this book), but above all this is the story of one woman's lifelong love affair with a book. It is also an ode to the wisdom that can be gotten from reading novels. I think it will be a joy to read for everyone who'se crazy about books and 19th century literature in particular. I had a lot of 'aha' moments while reading this book, recognition that other people feel the same way I do about novels and life. I think you do have to have read Middlemarch or at least some other work by Eliot to really appreciate My life in Middlemarch and 'get the most out of it'.

( And more... )