Tuesdays 9:30 – 11:30 AM
January 11 through March 1, 2005
D.O.C. House
The purpose of this class is a careful reading of George Eliot's Middlemarch. Beyond essential questions about plot and character, discussion will focus on the kinds of choices offered to the heroine, Dorothea Brooke, and the other characters (especially the women), along with social structure and change in England around the time of the first Reform Act. Members of the class may give short reports on Eliot’s other novels, on technical aspects of Middlemarch (plot structure, point of view), or on aspects of the world she describes (e.g. the legal position of women, primogeniture, the reform acts). Such talks, ten to twenty minutes long, will take place after the midpoint of the two-hour class.
Discussions will be the principal activity. They may be based on optional study questions, points raised by members of the class, or a short talk by the instructor. By the end of the term it should be clear why Virginia Woolf called Middlemarch "one of the few English novels written for grown-up people," and other critics consider it one of the half-dozen greatest works of fiction in the world.
The novel is demanding, requiring at least three hours per week. Book I (of eight) should have been read by the time the course begins. If the class wishes, we can watch the excellent BBC film of the novel later in the term, in sessions to be held before or after the regular class. For those who enjoy listening, there are excellent tape recordings of the novel.
Class is limited to 20 members.
KINGSLEY ERVIN studied history and literature at Harvard, and after military service did graduate work in comparative literature at Columbia and the University of Paris, and in psycholinguistics at the University of Essex (England). He has taught at schools in New York City and Athens (Greece), and spent seventeen years as a headmaster before moving to Hanover in 1996. He has twice taught Middlemarch at ILEAD.
