Middlemarch

Even though I'm teaching daily through the end of the week, I'm starting on my reading list for PhD examinations. Among the many volumes are a bunch of classic novels to plow through. Problem is, classics aren't generally conducive to plowing.

At the moment I'm reading Middlemarch. Not the fastest-moving plot in the library. Still, it does have a few little gems tucked in amidst the long sentences, long descriptions, long--well-- everything. Here are a few:

. He was gradually discovering the delight there is in frank kindness and companionship between a man and a woman who have no passion to hide or confess.

. There are answers which, in turning away wrath, only send it to the other end of the room, and to have a discussion coolly waived when you feel that justice is all on your own side is even more exasperating in marriage than in philosophy.

. If we had a keen vision and feeling of all ordinary human life, it would be like hearing the grass grow and the squirrel's heart beat, and we should die of that roar which lies on the other side of silence.