Should have read classics discussion

This is the discussion for Chapters 16-21. Please remember spoilers and happy reading!

I finished this one last night and gave it 4 stars. Actually, I'd give it 4.5, but that is not allowed. I really liked this one and can't believe that it read that fast. I can't wait to keep discussing it during January!

I have three chapters to go, am reading with real delight, with slow enjoyment. Will be ready to discuss soon.

I was a bit disappointed by the last few chapters. After the richness of the earlier chapters, these seemed somehow add-ons just to bring the book to an end.

I wanted to know more of Eppie's growing up, of the things she found delight in, of her learning, of the friends (if any?) she went to school with or played with. I wanted to learn to like her, but we were given so little to go on of the developing young woman. We were only given the two year old infant and then almost directly into the fully grown young woman. We know she went to the dame school for two hours every day, but what else did she do? Did she take part in the weaving? In the small and simple cottage, how did she spend her days? We never hear any of this.

I wanted to see more about Marner's trip to the former Lantern Yard, more of his personal reactions and experiences, wanted him actually to find at least one old friend from those times. Those of us who are getting elderly are still able to remember our friends of our youth, our high school and college classmates. They are still around. People did not move as much in Marner's day as they do today; surely some of the people who he knew in those years would still be living in the unnamed town (it's not named in these chapter; was it named earlier in the book?). But after making that long trip, he just goes up and goes back home without any search for any of his former companions. It seems so empty, so unfinished, so lacking in the richness of the earlier sections of the book.

The only character who I think didn't get just treatment (other than those early on in Lantern Yard, and we don't know what happened to them) was Nancy.

Dunstan deserved to die. Silas and Eppie emerged as happy and contented with fulfilling lives. Godfrey paid for his early wrongs with the loss of Eppie and a childless marriage. Aaron and his mother are, like Silas and Eppie, happy and content and have made the best life of the lot life has dealt them.

But Nancy did no wrong, but lost her only child, apparently in a manner that prevented her from bearing any other children. For a woman in her situation, that meant if not a meaningless life, at least a less than fulfilled life; since she can have no work outside the home, her life must entirely be devoted to housekeeping and wifely duties, without the joy of children. It is she who shares with Godfrey the suffering arising from the wrong he did in his youth, but with no guilt on her part to suggest that there is some justice in her suffering.

I really liked the passage after Godfrey offered Eppie the chance to live with them and have the best of everything:

"But you must make sure, Eppie," said Silas, in a low voice—"you must make sure as you won't ever be sorry, because you've made your choice to stay among poor folks, and with poor clothes and things, when you might ha' had everything o' the best."

His sensitiveness on this point had increased as he listened to Eppie's words of faithful affection.

"I can never be sorry, father," said Eppie. "I shouldn't know what to think on or to wish for with fine things about me, as I haven't been used to. And it 'ud be poor work for me to put on things, and ride in a gig, and sit in a place at church, as 'ud make them as I'm fond of think me unfitting company for 'em. What could I care for then?"

In our modern materialistic society, these words resonate like an organ in an empty church. In a world of iphones, tablet computers, Air Jordans, and all the things our young people lust after, we should stop and ponder Eppie's recognition that all that money can buy is nothing in comparison with the love and respect of plain, simple folk.

And a few pages later, Eliot gives us more advice that we should ponder and appreciate. (These passages make me realize that this book, properly taught, is indeed appropriate high school students.)

"No," said Godfrey, with a keen decisiveness of tone, in contrast with his usually careless and unemphatic speech—"there's debts we can't pay like money debts, by paying extra for the years that have slipped by. While I've been putting off and putting off, the trees have been growing—it's too late now. Marner was in the right in what he said about a man's turning away a blessing from his door: it falls to somebody else. I wanted to pass for childless once, Nancy—I shall pass for childless now against my wish."

How many parents running full speed through the rat race maze, leaving their children to the care of others, whether day care, nanny, school, or whatever, will learn to their regret that those days can never be recaptured, but that the trees grow, and once they have grown it is too late to alter the direction in which they have grown.

And two more pieces of wisdom I marked in my margins:

From the end of Chapter 14:
In old days there were angels who came and took men by the hand and led them away from the city of destruction. We see no white-winged angels now. But yet men are led away from threatening destruction: a hand is put into theirs, which leads them forth gently towards a calm and bright land, so that they look no more backward; and the hand may be a little child's.

From early in Chapter 15:
The child was being taken care of, and would very likely be happy, as people in humble stations often were—happier, perhaps, than those brought up in luxury.

Children raised in poor circumstances but with love are, indeed, far more fortunate than those raised in palaces without it.

First of all, happy New Year Everyman! I have been out of town this week, so sorry about the sound of crickets coming from my quarter. I love your different synopsis of the book. I thought that it ended rather abruptly also. The most disappointing part was when Marner returned to his former town. It just seemed so out of place and disappointing. I was rather hoping for some closure of some justice, so that was very disappointing.

Everyman wrote: "And a few pages later, Eliot gives us more advice that we should ponder and appreciate. (These passages make me realize that this book, properly taught, is indeed appropriate high school students...."

Something I try to remember every day, but it is easy to let life run away from you. I'm still blown away that it is 2014.

Nancy was rather forgotten wasn't she? I thought that the dealing with Godfrey seemed forced. I can't make up my mind about Nancy, if I liked her or not. She just seemed to wilt by the end of the book. Maybe, there is a lesson there?

I wonder if this book has dropped off the required reading in many schools? It seems like a book that would be found in AP lit courses, or some kind of advanced course.