[fantasyfan]

So far, (and I’m probably behind most readers) I am finding the Gwendolen Harleth section very brilliantly written and quite reminiscent of Jane Austen. The social scenes in Book 1 have all the irony-fuelled qualities we see in Eliot’s great predecessor. The next point is from chapter 4 of Book 1 so it is made fairly early on, but I will put it in as a spoiler.

Spoiler:

The attitude to marriage by Gwendolen harkens back to Charlotte Lucas:
“ . . . but to become a wife and wear all the domestic fetters of that condition, was on the whole a vexatious necessity. Her observation of matrimony had inclined her to think it rather a dreary state, in which a woman could not do what she liked, had more children than were desirable, was consequently dull, and became irrevocably immersed in humdrum. Of course marriage was social promotion; she could not look forward to a single life; but promotions have sometimes to be taken with bitter herbs – a peerage will not quite do instead of leadership to the man who meant to lead; and this delicate-limbed sylph of twenty meant to lead.”

BTW Am I supposed to save any discussions until later? I gathered that we would be discussing the book in stages as it developed. Hence, my comments are only on the first section. Let me know if I am in error. (?