welcome to...MIDDLEMARCH MARCH.

this book is a calm cool and collected 880 pages long, so elle and i will be tackling three chapters a day...every day for this whole month.

join us as we melt our minds. i love a project!

DAY 1: CHAPTERS 1-3
immediately i am having fun. approx 30 pages per day for 31 days currently seems like the perfect way to read a book, i am walking on sunshine, i am breathing rainbows or whatever.
this is beautifully written and a whole blast. i'm gonna live forever.

DAY 2: CHAPTERS 4-6
somehow i have been cursed with reading not one, but two books about the devil's work on earth (beautiful twenty-something women marrying random dudes in their 40s) at the same time.
gotta give it up, though: i'm not even at the 10% mark and i'm invested enough to do all but scream NOOOO at the pages.

DAY 3: CHAPTERS 7-9
listen to this roast: "He has got no good red blood in his body [...] Somebody put a drop under a magnifying-glass, and it was all semicolons and parentheses."
insanely good.
i like this will ladislaw character!

DAY 4: CHAPTERS 10-12
there's like a full page of dialogue in this about how dumb men look playing the flute and in other words i think i am in love with this book.

DAY 5: CHAPTERS 13-15
i could read about rosy for 100 years. i could read about dodo for 50 years. i could read about will for 25 years. i am reaching the end of my patience with mr. old man husband and dr. boring guy.

DAY 6: CHAPTERS 16-18
for the first time thus far, i almost missed a day.
you may be tempted to say "emma, it hasn't even been a week, how are you already almost missing days" and to that i would respond a) i'm doing a WHOLE OTHER PROJECT right now and b) i'm lazy.
technically it's 1:19 a.m. and thereby i did miss a day, but i ascribe to my own calendar, which is whenever i'm awake it's one day and then when i go to bed and wake up it becomes the next.
this was very trying (three in a row of the more town politics-y chapters) but i did it in spite of dawning sleepiness.

DAY 7: CHAPTERS 19-21
AND WE'RE BACK TO DODO AND LADISLAW!
that sounds like a truly unlistenable indie band.
anyway, after all those chapters about chaplaincies and town doctors, it's a treat beyond words to read about these two again. speaking of treat beyond words, i just remembered i have Trader Joe's Dark Chocolate-Covered Cherries™️...hang on, middlemarch. let me get my priorities in order.
oh man i'm having so much fun. 1,000 pages of dodo and ladislaw dialogue, please and thanks.

DAY 8: CHAPTERS 22-24
i've straight up been looking forward to this since i put it down yesterday. i don't want to jinx anything buuuuut...if this level of fun keeps up we may just have a 5 star on our hands.
we have now entered Book 3, which has the cheery and promising title "Waiting for Death." i'm in heaven.

DAY 9: CHAPTERS 25-27
27 is my favorite number. just a fun fact.
this fred vincy character sure is a ding-dong, and a bit of a jerkoff to boot.
chapter 26 uses the phrase "to be caught tripping," a moment which i imagine is what people mean when they say a timeless classic.

DAY 10: CHAPTERS 28-30
wow. can you believe it! almost a third done already.
time flies when you're assigning books to yourself like homework.
relatedly: best homework ever. this rules.

DAY 11: CHAPTERS 31-33
anyone else as stunned as i am that i haven't yet missed a day?
if you aren't you should be. do not believe in me.
a cliffhanger!!!!!!!!

DAY 12: CHAPTERS 34-36
we are now entering book 4: three love problems.
my guesses for the three titular issues in question:
1) Dodo's Old Man Husband Is The Worst And His Young Artist Cousin Rules
2) Mary Garth Deserves Better Than Fred Vincy But Will Probably End Up With Him
3) Somehow Middlemarch's Hottest Single Is Engaged To Some Poor Guy. No Thanks, As A Reader
next book is called "THE DEAD HAND," very ominously, and we're getting some foreshadowing as to what that means here on the day of featherstone's funeral.
technically that's a spoiler but i don't think "oldest character dying in a sprawling 1000 page novel" is much of a twist.
already today is so long and i'm not even halfway through the first of the three chapters but!!! "There would be a satisfaction in being buried by Mr. Cadwallader, whose very name offered a fine opportunity for pronouncing wrongly if you liked."
this is so funny. and i haven't even mentioned yet that there's an oft-referenced place called Freshitt.
okay and: “I dare say Dodo likes it: she is fond of melancholy things and ugly people.” me using dating apps.

DAY 13: CHAPTERS 37-39
okay. i am suddenly multiple days behind.
in my defense: on sunday i took medical leave of reading (so scared of slumping again) and yesterday i was equal parts busy and anxious, and thereby effectively illiterate.
but the good news is: today is a 9 chapter day!!! (it is really a reflection of how much fun i'm having that this is good news, instead of the sickening impact of procrastination.)
"Each looked at the other as if they had been two flowers which had opened then and there." golly.
this is a very witty and smart and beautifully written book, and the nicest thing i can say about it is that there are approx 100,000 characters and i'm not having that much trouble remembering them. huge praise.

DAY 14: CHAPTERS 40-42
haha. chapter xl.
“The lad is of age and must get his bread.” was this published YESTERDAY? i'm losing my damn mind
current character ranking:
1) dodo
2) will
3) rosamond
4) mary
5) fred
6) celia
any of these guys as the focus: good with me. when we open up a chapter and i see the dreaded word "lydgate"...a different story!

DAY 15: CHAPTERS 43-45
as very witty people in the comments pointed out: IT'S THE MIDDLE OF MIDDLEMARCH MARCH. the ides, even.
it is also now BOOK V: THE DEAD HAND, a badass title that only grows more badass because of the aforementioned foreshadowing.
nothing is more badass than foreshadowing.
I CAN'T BELIEVE THIS. ROSAMOND IS SUDDENLY LIVING WITH AND MARRIED TO AND ACQUAINTED WITH THE FAMILY OF LYDGATE. WHAT THE HELL KIND OF PACING IS THIS. NARY A SINGLE WEDDING SCENE IN THIS DAMN BOOK IN WHICH 3 WEDDINGS HAVE TAKEN PLACE AMONG MAJOR CHARACTERS.
casaubon and lydgate can be exiled from this book, as far as i'm concerned, for their respective crimes of being a butthole and being boring.

DAY 16: CHAPTERS 46-48
it's the best time of the day!
will ladislaw, a pro-union pro-democracy king. also the first recorded instance of a floor person.
this is also such a perfect example of the Every Good Heterosexual Romance Involves The Man Liking The Woman Way More. i'm once again having a blast.
I JUST GASPED AT THE END OF THIS CHAPTER. OH LA VACHE.

DAY 17: CHAPTERS 49-51
i love this book so much (reading it earlier in the day than usual for i can't wait reasons) but it is SO FRUSTRATING SOMETIMES. when a once-major character has a baby I DON'T WANT TO FIND OUT THROUGH A PASSING LINE OF DIALOGUE.
jeez. tangled webs here in middlemarch.

DAY 18: CHAPTERS 52-54
ugh! i like the vicar better for mary than dumb old fred vincy. sure, he's 5th in my character rankings, but i rank, like, the mad hatter pretty highly too. doesn't mean i'd wanna marry the guy.
was just thinking "ah, don't know if i have a long bulstrode section in me..." and then after two paragraphs this book straight up says "enough." i'm in love
aaaaand onto book 6: THE WIDOW AND THE WIFE. ok.
three months have suddenly just passed without will and dodo even glimpsing each other, meanwhile if i go like 10 days without seeing someone i'm dating i assume we're ghosting each other.
how times have changed.
goddamn i am yearning! this book is so f*ckin' good.

DAY 19: CHAPTERS 55-57
okay. so i missed a day. in my defense i was drunk for like 90% of the friday to saturday block of this week, for reasons of "It Was 70 Degrees And St Patrick's Day Weekend And I Am Young And Hot."
aaaand i missed another day. i read one chapter but i was very hungover and had also drunkenly bought basketball tickets so time was limited.
8 chapter day it is!!!
some fun mary and fred action happening. maybe i will have time to turn Team Fred before the end of this.

DAY 20: CHAPTERS 58-60
immediately this set started out by saying lydgate hates his cousin because his haircut is lame. maybe i'll do a 180 on lydgate, too, because that f*ckin rules.
oh my god and it says the same cousin isn't actually hot but girls think he is because of his mustache. i love that this million year old book has the same opinions as the average tiktoker.
oh my god and: “If he got his head broken, I might look at it with interest, not before.” PLEASE
this project is really testing my roman numeral reading ability.

DAY 21: CHAPTERS 61-63
oh man. drama alert.
oh god. chapter 61: drama. chapter 62: yearning. onto BOOK 7: TWO TEMPTATIONS.
ugh. i was trying so hard to like lydgate but him being an asshole immediately on the heels of a perfect dodo / will chapter is too much to bear.

DAY 22: CHAPTERS 64-66
read over 100 pages of this yesterday. now i feel invincible going in for what will surely be, like, 22.
rosamond is a complete and utter b*tch and i love it.

DAY 23: CHAPTERS 67-69
hehe.
this was like...all bulstrode. rude.

DAY 24: CHAPTERS 70-72
ugh. more bulstrode. at least he's doing crimes.
and i guess we have to kill the time somehow until will and dodo can see each other again.
onto book eight: SUNSET AND SUNRISE.
it's giving ethan hawke.
“And, of course, men know best about everything, except what women know better.” so true bestie

DAY 25: CHAPTERS 73-75
oh thank god, will ladislaw is coming back. i can't deal with all this bulstrode and lydgate action, even if i do keep getting the opportunity to see rosy be an absolutely divine asshole because of it.

DAY 26: CHAPTERS 76-78
this set of chapters is so dramatic that i just explained the entire plot of this 900 page book to my sister just to try to indicate the massive yearning angsty payoff of dodo and will seeing each other again under unintended circumstances.
i am having so much fun it's hard to stop!!!

DAY 27: CHAPTERS 79-81
I AM GOING THROUGH IT, EMOTIONALLY SPEAKING.

DAY 28: CHAPTERS 82-84
AAAAAAAAAHHHH!!!!
honestly in my heart of hearts i find this kinda anticlimactic but still.
AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHH!!!!
actually i take it back. it's nice just the way it is.

DAY 29: CHAPTERS 85-87
folks, we are nearing the end and i have to say...I DON'T WANNA.
don't cry because it's over, smile because it happened, or whatever, i guess, ugh.
also now realizing it's been about a hundred years since we last heard from fred and mary. we're down to the last seconds, george eliot!
thereeee they are.
all the star crossed dodo-and-will stuff is lovely, but this is so good too: "I don’t think either of us could spare the other, or like any one else better, however much we might admire them. It would make too great a difference to us—like seeing all the old places altered, and changing the name for everything."
and it's over. i didn't know it was finishing today!!! i'm going to cry.

OVERALL
this is a funny, wry, smart, witty, political, historically significant, educating, romantic, beautifully written, basically perfect book.
it is worth each and every one of its 880 pages and i would have kept reading far more!
rating: 5

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tbr review

am very into pretending i want to read super-long books lately