Not only did Charlotte Mason include abundant novel reading in her curriculum feast and reference novels and characters from them continuously throughout her own writing, but she believed they were valuable for everyone–not just students. This week’s episode is a book discussion of Middlemarch by George Eliot, a novel she references and an author she admired. Whether you have read this novel or not, join in to hear not just what we thought of it, but how it reveals much about our Charlotte Mason education.
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I did not hear the episode with the call to read Middlemarch, but by pure luck I just finished it within the last couple of weeks! I so enjoyed this episode and found myself nodding and smiling through most of it. I wasn’t sure how I felt about the book after reading it but I feel like this gave me new eyes and appreciation for it. Thank you!
Thank you so much for doing this book club! I would not have read this book if it weren’t for you! I enjoyed both the book and the podcast discussion. George Eliot’s writing is so beautiful and descriptive; it made me want to read more of her books. I actually listened to it in order to be done for the podcast. So the audio by the readers tone and expressions perhaps influences how you feel about the characters. I felt sympathy with all the main characters and could see their struggles in doing right. What a wonderful treasure.
This episode inspired me to go back and read Middlemarch again; I’ve read it but not for years, and I realised I couldn’t remember most of the characters! I just finished listening to the Librivox recording of the first part of Eliot’s Scenes From Clerical Life, which I’ve really enjoyed too – I’d definitely recommend it. Apart from Shakespeare and Paradise Lost, Eliot’s Silas Marner was the only book I studied at school that I actually enjoyed. She was a great author.
I recall the BBC’s television adaptation in the 1990s was reasonably good. It was written by Andrew Davies, who is most famous for writing the Pride and Prejudice series starring Colin Firth and Jennifer Ehle. I remember the excitement of Middlemarch being filmed, as it took place only a few miles away from where I grew up, and parts of the town was temporarily closed to traffic etc to allow the filming to take place.