Krishna
A classic, so let us march right into the story.
Miss Dorothea Brooke and her sister Celia. Celia is practical but Dorothea is religious. Orphaned, they are looked after by their uncle. Dorothea, the elder seems to be a religious zealot of the first kind. Even though the baronet desires her, she likes the withered and old Casaubon, the philosopher.
She agrees to marry him even over the interest shows by Sir Chetham and contrary to the wishes of her uncle and her own sister. Sir Chetham is frustrated, but advised to look closer at the other, more practical, sister Celia by the town pastor’s skinflint, but practical, wife.
There are the Vincys, who are rich merchants. Rosamund and Fred are his children. Rosamund is an exquisite beauty and their old and cantankerous uncle Featherstone is rich and issueless so Fred hopes for a piece of the pie. Mary Jane, who lives in the house is plain but a close friend of the fair Rosamund.
Rosamund deliberately contrives to meet Mr Lydgate, who is handsome and a physician to boot, and manages to fall in love with him. Lydgate only cares for medicine and he fell for an artist once and was betrayed, so he has no interest in romance. He was a poor person who wanted to do medicine, but his benefactor approved “despite the impact on family dignity by this choice’. How different were those times.
There is an election for the priest where Farebrother is ousted by the more dogmatic but tedius preacher.
Meanwhile, in Rome, Dorothea seems to realize that marriage to Casaubon may not be what she thought it would be. He seems to want to do his research alone and rebuffs her every attempt to contribute. When she meets the young and sunny relation of Casaubon’s, Ladislaw, the contrast is immediately apparent. Ladislaw is amazed that Dorothea, who is simple and endearing, would have chosen his uncle as a husband. He himself is financially supported by Casaubon and seems to have no fixed aim in life.
His friend Naumann, an artist, also persuades both Mr and Mrs Casaubon to sit for separate portraits for him and seems to angle for Dorothea’s attentions at the same time.
Meanwhile Fred seems to have let his extravagance impact even Mary’s parents and is vaguely guilty. He seems to have a reckless streak with no morality and no understanding of other’s pains even caused by his own actions.
When Fred gets ill, the younger Lydgate shows up the family physician Mr Wrench by diagnosing Fred’s illness as Typhoid, earning the wrath of the senior physician. Lydgate gets close to Rosamund as a result. She is delighted and is in love but he thinks of it only as harmless flirtation. Finally circumstances force him to confront his feelings and he finds that he is in love with her after all.
Meanwhile Celia and Sir James are betrothed.
Ladislaw becomes the editor of Pioneer, a newspaper under Mr Brooks, uncle of Dorothea and seems to want to be with Dorothea alone a lot, much to the disgust of Casauban.
Lydgate creates enemies by openly talking about the new medicinal methods and when Bulstrode finances a new hospital, the protests against Lydgate’s “arrogance” rises to a fever pitch.
Ladislaw tries to meet Dorothea, much to the disgust of Casauban. After asking her to promise to fulfil his wishes after his death without specifying what they are, Casauban himself dies before she can give her promise. When they realize that the will says that she will not inherit a cent if she marries Ladislaw, everyone is scandalized.
Ladislaw goes away for a long time.
Meanwhile, Fred asks Fairbrother to plead his case to Mary. Setting aside his own attraction to Mary, Fairbrother does so. Fred decides not to pursue priesthood, and settles on business (an unpreferred profession!) as assistant to Caleb, much to the chagrin of his parents who consider his university degree “wasted”.
Lydgate finds himself in debt due to increased expenses after marriage to keep up with the Joneses. Now, it is cute that he is “obliged to keep two horses” like we would two cars these days. He tries to bring up the subject to Rosamund but she is bewildered.
Raffles, the rapscallion, comes back to haunt Bulstrode, calling him “best friend” and extorting money. We learn that Bulstrode, in his past life, married a wealthy woman hiding the fact that the daughter who had runaway had been found and keeping all the money for himself (when the woman died eventually). Raffles was in on the secret and has ever since been blackmailing Bulstrode for money. Now he tells Bulstrode that he plans to ‘come and live’ permanently in Middlemarch, close to his victim.
Ladislaw goes away for good.
Meanwhile, Rosamond and Lydgate have a rift, especially when Lydgate suggests that they live within their means, with bankruptcy staring in his face. Now we find that Bulstrode faces Garth who had realized, through Raffles, who seem to be dying, the secret and resigns his post. Bulstrode himself cares for Raffles and lends the money needed to Lydgate in a change of heart.
When Bulstrode’s deceit gets exposed in a public meeting, much to his chagrin, Lydgate finds himself tainted by mere association. But Rosamund is feeling more and more out of love with Lydgate and refuses even to commiserate, immersed in her own misery.
When Dorothea goes to comfort Rosamond, she catches her in what seems to be a compromising position with Will Ladislaw and flees the place, causing pain to both Rosamond and Ladislaw. All is sorted out and the lovers who made up decide to marry, even at the risk of Dorothea losing most of her inheritance.
The ending is neat, especially the epilog which, later, like Harry Potter, follows the characters several years later and tells what happened.
6/10
– – Krishna