Desiree Brown’s Reviews > Middlemarch > Status Update

I never thought I'd cry because two of my favorite characters were fighting. There's a first time for everything I guess.

Will and Dorthea are soooo frustrating!

There's some pretty scandalous Last Wills in this book.

We form opinions about a character's personality within a few sentences of "meeting" them, but Eliot loves making us reevaluate these assumptions by getting us to sympathize with them (especially the jerky ones). It's one of the reasons why I'm loving this book!

I wish she would've done this with Mr. Featherstone. Why is he such an unlikable old fart?!

An irritated Mr. Casaubon after Dorthea reminds him that he hasn't been working on his novel: "it is ever the trial of the scrupulous explorer to be saluted with the impatient scorn of chatterers who attempt only the smallest achievements, being indeed equipped for no other."

Lesson: You risk being belittled with well worded insults if you badger a writer about writing their books.

I didn't want the 14th chapter to end. Out of all the characters I've met so far, I like Fred the most. He's so sweet to Mary

I loved this passage:

"We mortals, men and women, devour many a disappointment between breakfast and dinner-time; keep back the tears and look a little pale around the lips, and in answer to inquiries say, 'Oh, nothing!' Pride helps us; and pride is not a bad thing when it only urges us to hide our own hurts--not to hurt others."