VICTORY!

"I know something of a woman in a man's profession." - Shakespeare in Love

This quote kept playing through my mind as I read #15 Middlemarch.

Mary Anne Evans felt that for her writing to be taken seriously she needed to write under the guise of a man (the name also helped to hide her adulterous affair, but tut-tut we do not speak of such things.)  But clearly the reason she is known as such an effective realist is that she wrote what she lived, and unfortunately many women still live the same way.  Marry as well as you can, often for love that later turns to duty, bear children and care for them, while continuously standing by your man.  Often the man took the ideas of the woman and made them a reality, also gaining all of the accolades. Of course, many things have changed, but at the moment life for these women rang pretty true to me.

Middlemarch was originally published as a serial and thus suffers from being far too long.  My mom and I decided to read it together since we could both get it free on our Kindles (I ended up reading on the iPad) and we started to read on January 4th.  I have read 13 other books during the course of reading this; one because I needed a break but also because I needed to slow down since my mom has a job and a life!  So my reading suffered because of that but in the end I really enjoyed the book.  The last third is quite good with a lot of revelations and interesting plot twists. The characters are not terribly likable but they are absolutely memorable and I was very sad to see them go.

**Side note - Shakespeare in Love is one of my favorite movies with many wonderful, witty, and brilliant lines, including the most romantic I have ever heard: "Write me well."  I think of this often as well.