Rebecca Mead

Our group at Folio: The Seattle Athenaeum did a slow read together of George Eliot's Middlemarch this past year. I thoroughly enjoyed the experience as we made our way through and discussed Dorothea, Lydgate, Causaubon, Mary, Rosamunde, and their lives. We touched on so many themes--marriage, money, progress, religion, etc. Find a group read like this and I guarantee the book will stay with you.

What a delight, then, to pick up My Life in Middlemarch by Rebecca Mead. Mead weaves Eliot's show more biography, and her correspondence along with major themes in Middlemarch and other works. Mead travels to the locations important to Eliot and then draws in a number of the same themes we discussed. This book was made all the richer having done the slow read. How for instance Eliot turned the standard novel on its head by starting the novel with a marriage instead of ending it ala Austen. She addresses Woolf's famous assessment that it is "one of the few English novels written for grown-up people."

I especially enjoyed the glimpses into Eliot's domestic relationship with George Lewes and his children and how the people around her may have served as inspiration for various characters. Mead also touches on Eliot's writing process and obstacles (migraines, toothaches, and family illnesses). But also how Lewes and Eliot had what looks like a modern happy working relationship. Like Eliot, I found a true partner late in life and I certainly could relate to Mead's line, "To find a partner as accepting and generous as Lewes is a great and unexpected gift."

On the whole, I found this book enriched my Middlemarch experience, and as I am now working my way back through all of Eliot's works. show less

I'm still not sure exactly what this books was - memoir, literary analysis, biography of George Eliot? - but in the end it really didn't matter. This book was like having a conversation with a good friend about a book you both love. Rebecca Mead analyzes her favorite book, Middlemarch, through several techniques: using traditional literary analysis, exploring the work by discovering George Eliot's life and influences, and connecting the book to Mead's own life experiences.

This was a really show more interesting mix of analysis and the tone hit the perfect mix of scholarly and conversational. It could easily have gotten a pretentious feel, but luckily didn't. I loved revisiting Middlemarch (one of my favorites) through Rebecca Mead's eyes. show less

There are certain books that become part of who we are. For Mead, one of those books is Middlemarch. This is a nonfiction account of her love of the book and experience with it. It is part memoir, part literary analysis and part biography of Eliot. This result is a lovely view of the importance of books in the lives of a reader.

Mead explores the context in which Middlemarch was written as she discusses its literary importance. She also talks about different commentaries and literary show more criticisms that have been written regarding the novel. She explores Eliot’s relationship with her stepsons and with the man who she spent her life with. Their unconventional relationship influenced the way she was perceived throughout the literary world. Eliot’s relationship later in life with a younger man actually reminded me quite a bit of her famous character Dorthea’s situation.

One important thing Mead touches on is the way books change for us depending on when we read them. I’ve had similar experiences with this in my own reading and it never fails to surprise me. I can read a book as a freshman in high school and be enamored with the rebellious teenager and their lust for life. I’ll re-read the same book five years later and identify with the older sister who is worried for her sibling. Then I’ll re-read it again after a few years have passed and be blown away by how the parents in the novel are handling the situation. I notice different parts of the story each time, I relate to different characters and experiences depending on what I’ve gone through. It thrills me to think of what I’ll find in my favorite books as I continue to re-read them throughout my life.

BOTTOM LINE: I loved Mead’s observations about both the book and Eliot. It made me think of the books that have become part of who I am. It’s also made me want to read all the rest of Eliot’s work and The Mill on the Floss is at the top of my list! show less

Hilarious, illuminating account of the Wedding Industrial Complex. It's at its best when Mead quotes the endless businesspeople who see getting more money as a game they can win by milking people's emotions at what should be a spiritually significant time. All the ordinary motivations of capitalism are revealed in their full ickiness.

She's sometimes snarkier or less sympathetic than seems warranted. As funny as her voice is, sometimes I wanted less of it and more of her subjects' -- show more especially when they're ordinary people having a wedding rather than bigshot misogynist taste-makers. The book also suffers from its timing; same-sex marriage was legalized in MA during her research process and in the US 8 years after publication, so the idea that weddings don't always have a bride and a groom appears only as a somewhat awkward note in her epilogue that makes the whole thing feel a little dated.

But overall, if you are planning a wedding, or if you like behind-the-scenes investigations of an industry or subculture (I thought of [b:Word Freak: Heartbreak, Triumph, Genius, and Obsession in the World of Competitive Scrabble Players|8954|Word Freak Heartbreak, Triumph, Genius, and Obsession in the World of Competitive Scrabble Players|Stefan Fatsis|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1442766196s/8954.jpg|3163711]), this will give you a lot to both laugh and think about. show less