This quote captures the heart of Middlemarch for me: Dorothea and her plans, to build cottages, to produce a great work with her husband. For I too have plans, secret cheery little things, that I carry with me, and I do think they ensure my happiness to a degree I didn't have before I thought of them.
I want to write a novel, a private novel, meant only for me. I want it to describe a life I'd find fascinating, to portray a heroine I'd like to inspire myself to become. I have ideas about starting a magazine, one that reports on people who are in the middle of carrying out a creative idea and introduces them, through their profiles, to people who can help them do it. I have an idea for a computer program that would predict new interests you should try: if you like literature, should you try poetry? I like to think about how to design a therapy program in which people talk about what resonates for them in the books they like. I have a fellowship in mind that I'd like to start should I ever become wealthy: it would send people back to college to redo whatever aspects they wished they'd done differently--at least the redoable ones. I'd study psychology and literature
Once I read of Dorothea's plans, I read the novel like self-help. What could she teach me about how to carry out plans?
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My recommendation if you like the idea of Dorothea's plans: Clayhanger by Arnold Bennett. I felt the same eagerness to see how a person's plans turned out in that book as I did in Middlemarch.
Does this entry make you think of a book you enjoy? Or, if you like this passage but it doesn't remind you of any other book, tell me your favorite book instead.
Caroline: replacingmiddlemarch [at] gmail.com
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