The Road To Middlemarch: My Life With George Eliot (2014) - Plot & Excerpts
"A book may not tell us how to live our own lives, but our own lives can teach us how to read a book" (110). This straight forward passage highlights Mead's relationship with Eliot's masterpiece. Like William Deresiewicz'z "A Jane Austen Education" or Maureen Corrigan's "So We Read On", Mead takes us on a journey through her relationship with her favorite author. Virginia Woolf famously described Middlemarch as the only book "written for grown-up people," and I can imagine that many younger readers may struggle to appreciate Eliot at first. But I am so grateful for her books and thoroughly enjoyed Mead's treatise. I know I would have enjoyed it more if I had read Middlemarch or any of Eliot's works. So, the three stars are only tentative. Actually I quite like this multi-layered work: memoir, book criticism, and bio of Eliot just to name the obvious facets. Will probably reread it after I've read Middlemarch. Also, think I'd like to actually read it then, for this time I've only listened to the audiobook. But that would have to be a long time down the road. The task at hand is Proust's The Guermantes Way.
What do You think about The Road To Middlemarch: My Life With George Eliot (2014)?
One half Eliot memoir, one quarter Mead memoir, one quarter MIDDLEMARCH lit crit. Right up my alley.
—avadel
