For our big summer read we're cracking into Middlemarch, the 1871 doorstopper written by Mary Ann Evans under her pen name George Eliot.

This chat covers the first 30 chapters. Not a whole lot has happened so far but it's a very cosy read.

On Eliot and Tolstoy: which way does the influence go? How does this compare with our beloved Anna Karenina?

Worst honeymoon ever: did we buy Dorothea and Casaubon as a couple? how were age-gap relationships treated in ye olden days? Did they even bone? And if girls like Dorothea exist in real life, where might we find them today?

Lydgate and Rosamond: who he will vote for as chaplain at the new hospital? Tyke or Farebrother? The stakes are higher than they might first appear.

Fred and the Garths: a charming failson coasting on a rich uncle's dangled inheritance. We debate whether every heir ought to be lightly humiliated before they're allowed to inherit.

Plus, from the listener mailbag: have the boys ever read a book by a black person?

Full transcript for this episode (and every episode) is available at doyouevenlit.com, where you can filter and search by key ideas, authors, etc.

CHAPTERS:

(00:00:00) the guardian's #1 novel, aka English Anna Karenina
(00:10:40) Dorothea as wish-fulfilment fantasy for sperges
(00:20:08) Elliot's language: the civilised art of the subtextual dagger
(00:29:50) worst honeymoon ever
(00:34:06) Casaubon is a little too much like us
(00:41:48) Lydgate the ambitious outsider
(00:58:39) TYKE VS FAREBROTHER!!!! hold onto your seats
(00:58:39) Fred the affable failson
(01:16:29) Listener mail: on the merits of assigning authors by race

WRITE US:

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NEXT ON THE READING LIST:

- The rest of Middlemarch
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