FELIX HOLT, THE RADICAL by George Eliot

This is a WONDERFUL book -- as are all of George Eliot's. The last few days' reading has been a joy for me. Now I remember why I tend to read only the great classic authors -- because the write with a rare beauty and power. I'm now on Chapter 40 and rolling along, loving all the characters as the plot draws near to the end.

"Felix Holt, the Radical"

I had another excellent hour or so with this fine novel. Her characters, with their different dialects, are utterly realistic and charming, and of course the wisdom in the book is ever-present, almost page after page. Here is an especially wonderful quote: "So our lives glide on: the river ends we don't know where, and the sea begins, and then there is no more jumping ashore."

Sarah Orne Jewett and George Eliot

After spending the last month or so reading James Fenimore Cooper's The Deerslayer (a good read but definitely nowhere near a classic), I was pleased to go back to two of the finest authors who ever wrote -- Sarah Orne Jewett and George Eliot. I read a touching and beautiful story by Jewett about Irish immigrants to America, and went back to Eliot's Daniel Deronda to enjoy more of Eliot's wise and graceful sentences. She's one of the absolute best -- right up there with Shakespeare, Milton, and Dickens. 

FELIX HOLT, THE RADICAL by George Eliot

Here is a lovely descriptive passage from my reading today -- Eliot at her best:

"The Rectory was on the other side of the river, close to the church of which it was the fitting companion: a fine old brick and-stone house, with a great bow-window opening from the library on to the deep-turfed lawn, one fat dog sleeping on the door-stone, another fat dog waddling on the gravel, the autumn leaves duly swept away, the lingering chrysanthemums cherished, tall trees stooping or soaring in the most picturesque variety, and a Virginian creeper turning a little rustic hut into a scarlet pavilion."

FELIX HOLT, THE RADICAL by George Eliot

It's been awhile since I've posted on this reading journal ... but I'm back today to talk briefly about my reading of George Eliot's Felix Holt, the Radical. It's a confusing plot, I must say, and it's all I can do to keep up with the twists and turns. I've decided to simply read more slowly, occasionally rereading paragraphs or pages, so that. I can keep the movements of the plot clearly in mind. However, despite the confusion, I love the beautifully elegant passages I find on almost every page. Eliot has a "way with words" that is unsurpassed by any writer I can think of.

At this point in the book (Ch. 22), lawyer Jermyn has discovered a family secret about the Transomes that he seems to be holding for future use as blackmail. (The secret also involves Esther, the adopted orphan daughter of the preacher Rufus.)