Well, I wouldn't want to spoil it for you.
and when one considers that Mr. Casaubon is such a giant, raging, dick...
It was sort of consummated, but just barely. Hence the ungentlemanly codicil.
My problem with Middlemarch is that I always want Mary Garth to marry the worthy, if somewhat jaded, English clergyman, but she keeps going for that silly and stupid Fred Vincy.
I was assuming such omissions were typical of that time, but 3 makes me realize I just need to re-read Middlemarch.
I love Eliot's shorter stuff, especially Silas Marner, but for some reason I found Middlemarch unspeakably tedious and gave up half way through.
Just before the robot dinosaur attack
3: Fred's not so bad, he plays the flute.
"he [Casaubon] had perhaps the best intention of acquitting himself worthily, but only of acquitting himself."
I've read the book and watched a Masterpiece Theater mini-series on it but little of the book has stuck with me beyond the part alluded to in the post title. Perhaps due to occasional reinforcement of the kind provided here. In looking up the miini-series on IMDB, it seems that there is a movie in the works with Sam Mendes as director and Andrew Davies doing the screenplay again.
"Hence he determined to abandon himself to the stream of feeling, and perhaps was surprised to find what an exceedingly shallow rill it was. As in droughty regions baptism by immersion could only be performed symbolically, so Mr Casaubon found that sprinkling was the utmost approach to a plunge which his stream would afford him; and he concluded that the poets had much exaggerated the force of masculine passion."
he concluded that the poets had much exaggerated the force of masculine passion.
Nine times as good for women!
Neb has a Significant Other? Well, that explains this new consummation preoccupation.
G'morning Mr. Noodle! Can you show Elmo what jumping on one foot means?
No no, Mr. Noodle! That's dancing! Elmo want to see jumping on one foot.
Wow-- I loved Middlemarch, and thought that I remembered it. But MC, thanks for the great paragraph.
I tried George Eliot's poetry, as well as Romola, but those weren't nearly as good as Middlemarch and Mill on the Floss, which were both really something.
Well, most 19c novels will skip over the sex stuff, but this is one of the contested questions about Middlemarch--did they consummate their marriage? Casaubon seems pretty clearly impotent or, more generously, in such poor health that he couldn't engage in such strenuous activity. This explains why Dorothea has such a bad time on her honeymoon in Rome (also, she is realizing she made a huge mistake in marrying this guy)--I am thinking of the scene where she throws herself down on the bed and cries, the famous, "why always Dorothea" passage.
Another suggestion that no sex ever takes place is that what really motivates Dorothea to make a big life-changing decision at the end of the book (I am trying not to spoil it for you) is that she sees a family walking and the image of the mother and children inspires her (she wants a full life that includes sex and the possibility of children).
No no, Mr. Noodle! That's jumping on TWO feet! Elmo wants to see jumping on one foot.
If the paragraph in 11 is meant to have the significance its being quoted in that thread suggests it is, that is extremely circumspect—especially as Eliot has already mentioned that Casaubon isn't exactly a man of high ardor prior to the marriage having taken place.
Good jumping, Mr. Noodle! Good jumping. Now let's go to Dorothy the fish.
I love Middlemarch. In my undergrad senior seminar, I was voted "Most Like Dorothea," which I think means they predicted I would shackle myself to some horrible impotent fool who I thought was a genius.
25: Come on, AWB! You know that was a great compliment!
(anyway, it sure beats being voted most like Josef K.!)
In fact—as I thought!—the passage quoted in 11 occurs while Casaubon is still (after a fashion) courting Dorothea!—or at least prior to the actual marriage, it having already been agreed on.
27: Yes, that passage occurs before the marriage. But I think it tells the reader how the marriage will be. He will, as per the quote in 8, acquit himself as a husband, but only just. And the crying in Italy scene (chapter 20) also has this:
He had not found marriage a rapturous state, but he had no idea of being anything else than an irreproachable husband, who would make a charming young woman as happy as she deserved to be.
Non-consummation would be a pretty big deal, and definitely grounds for reproach.
In any case, Casaubon is a wonderfully ridiculous and loathsome character. Rereading these passages (I'm going to reread the whole thing now), I find more humour than I had remembered.
This might be the thread to say that this might be the kind of thing some of you people might like. (There's a UK version too. The company is just round the corner to me.)
29: Thanks, nice. I find that I want to quibble with the precise placement of the names, however.
You people who say you couldn't get through Middlemarch are nuts. The last 200 pages are downright gripping.
I never got past the part with the tennis player.