My earliest reading memoryI remember going to bed with my mom when she read picture books to me when I was three or four, but I think it’s probably an amalgam memory, since she did it every night. I also remember her reading aloud to the whole family as we drove across the country. Bunnicula … Read more
Mysterious. Ancient writers. The story of the method. Governments are doing bad things. This is just one of the items on our staff’s summer reading list. We went through the company to find out what interests our colleagues when they hit the beach (or sleep) on vacation. Here’s what they said. Liz Bell, Online Education … Read more
By Colleen O’Connor Apologize to George Eliot for recording her classic title about life in an English town. For reference now, here are three pieces of news as they apply right now, in mid-March. First, the good news Life Sciences. “Our universe may have a twin that runs backwards in time. An anti-universe that runs … Read more
Middlemarch It is “classic” because it still has resonance today, and the story needs to survive in many different and relevant interpretations. But the only translation known is the translation from the literary form to the dramatic. Drama is the development of character under the pressure of action. When I changed Eliot Adam Bede many … Read more
I don’t know if women can have it all, a question that has inspired a number of “part ideas,” but they should have more than Dorothea Brooke, the heroine of George’s 1874 novel. Eliot. Middlemarch. Dorothea is married to the old counselor Edward Casaubon, whose mind is dry and his body is rigid, Dorothea realizes … Read more
George Eliot is the least loved of the great English novelists. Like Dickens, he championed strong moral values in his fiction, but unlike Dickens, he had the imagination to live those values in his real life. High opinion is bad; doing it right is unbearable. However, there are stories, and if I disagree with Rebecca … Read more
Dear George To the Editor: Revisit Rebecca Mead’s “My Life in Middlemarch” (Jan. 26): The driving theme of “Middlemarch” is Dorothea Brooke’s mistaken belief that she is married to a genius. A similar theme is Lydgate’s marriage to a beautiful and wealthy woman. Joyce Carol Oates, a winner, could be forgiven for not knowing every … Read more
Middlemarch it is one of those books that can exert a hypnotic power over its readers. Several other titles in this series evoke an equally strong response. For example, in 1873, the poet Emily Dickinson addressed the story, writing in a letter: “What I think Middlemarch? What do I think of honor – except for … Read more
T saidrecent years have seen an increase in non-fiction books about the origins and endings of ancient mythology, and, like life writing, for then writing the lives of the books can be historical, biographical, autobiographical, essayistic. or a combination of all of them. Michael Gorra in 2012 Image of the Novel It may lead to … Read more
IIt would be absurd to argue that historians have run out of ideas; Samuel Johnson’s short list, to take one leader, is growing stronger with each passing year. However, I can’t understand what a bunch of books are about books; I’ve read three in the last two months. The most recent of these is by … Read more