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#61 | |
languorous autodidact ✦
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#62 | ||
languorous autodidact ✦
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Quote:
Quote:
I love the turn of phrase ‘traverse a reverse’! |
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#63 | |
Snoozing in the sun
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I haven't spent as much time as I would like with the book so far, but have seen enough of Gwendolen to decide that she is a brilliant portrait of a narcissist. She ticks all the boxes:
- an excessive need for admiration. - disregard for others' feelings. - an inability to handle any criticism. - a sense of entitlement. I do like Eliot's occasional amusing asides. As an example, the description of the horse Rex was riding and on which he came to grief: Quote:
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#64 | |
Now what?
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My favorite aside so far:
Quote:
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#65 |
Wizard
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I read up to the Mordecai section before being away for ten days seeing relatives I haven't seen for awhile and doing cooking and shopping for my bridezilla granddaughter's wedding. I just arrived home and feel trepidation after reading earlier posts. Even worse, I have to review the first half of the book since I have forgotten a lot. But I will soldier on.
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#66 |
languorous autodidact ✦
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The opening scene of the roulette table at 4pm was so elegantly described and like a tableau that I thought of it as a painting; if I were a painter I’d want to create it on canvas.
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#67 |
Now what?
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Eliot uses a variety of literary styles, changing up to match each main character. The initial Gwendolyn sections are light and elegant. The Deronda sections are slower and weightier - as befitting a serious thinker who tends to brood. The Mordecai sections are ponderous, learned, and often (IMHO) abstruse.
There is also a significant shift in style between the early Gwendolyn/Grandcourt chapters and the later ones, as characters and relationships alter profoundly - especially in the dialogue. |
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#68 |
Bah, humbug!
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In my world, Deronda has now met his mother, and I'm wondering: was Gwendolen intended as a sort of prefiguring of Deronda's mother? The flaws and tragedies of their lives seem to be very similar.
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#69 |
The Grand Mouse 高貴的老鼠
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They are/were both beautiful women, but as far as I can see that's the extent of their similarity.
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#70 |
Now what?
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Or is his mother to be contrasted with Mirah? One successful and happy on the stage, one not ...
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#71 | |
Snoozing in the sun
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Quote:
As we all seem to be at very different stages in our reading, is it worth aiming at discussing the book in chunks? Given that we are allowing about three months in total for reading and discussion before moving on to East Lynne, what if we were to discuss the book as follows: Books 1-3 starting on, say, Saturday 5 June, Books 4-6 starting around Saturday 26 June, and Books 7-8 and the novel as a whole starting around 17 July? Would it help to have that sort of structure, or is it preferable to leave any deeper discussion until towards the end of the time we have allocated? I must confess that I would find it helpful to have more structure to what we are doing, but others may well not agree. |
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#72 |
Now what?
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Since we have readers staggered along the course of the book, some barely started, and some who jumped in and are now finished, organizing the discussion by chunks could prevent us from giving away plot points, or having to use spoiler tags, to launch discussion topics/observations.
We could try out your calendar and modify it, if needed, along the way. I like your notion of emulating the experience of the original readers, as each new installment moved on the story lines. |
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#73 |
languorous autodidact ✦
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I’m in Book 2 now but don’t mind spoilers here and have been reading all the posts. I’m fine with whichever way you guys prefer.
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#74 |
(he/him/his)
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I like the idea. I've been mostly avoiding the discussion here because I expected spoilers and my reading of it is going very slowly. (Honesty compels me to say I'd have completely abandoned it a week or two ago if it weren't for this discussion.) So breaking things up seems best. And gives us laggards at least a chance of keeping up.
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#75 |
Wizard
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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:
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. (? Last edited by fantasyfan; 05-30-2021 at 07:48 AM. |
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