Friday, 3 June 2016

Eliot-Along! - Read Middlemarch with Me during June and July!

Hi guys! So last year I abandoned my ill-fated Dickens in December readalongs after the catastrophe that was the attempt to read The Pickwick Papers (ugh that book!), but the success of our Little House Read-Along this year inspired me to try again with the classics. While in Bath a while ago I picked up a copy of Rebecca Mead's The Road to Middlemarch, which is basically about her experience reading and re-reading Middlemarch over many years and how it related to her life, and it inspired me to actually finally read this thing! It also ties in well with the Classics Club Year of Reading Women and I'm hoping to recruit a few of you to join me so we can motivate each other!


Middlemarch is divided into eight books, but I decided eight weeks was too long to spread it over, and two books a week would be too much reading, so instead I've divided it into six parts of 14 chapters (ish) per week. We're going to start on June 27th and run until the week ending August 7th and use #EliotAlong on twitter, as well as #readwomen and #ccwomenclassics if you want!

Please feel free to share the graphic around or make your own (making sure it links back to this post please!) and link up below with your blog post about the readalong or your tweet expressing your intention to participate! I'm using my Penguin Popular Classics edition, but hopefully the chapters will line up with other editions!

Here's the schedule:

June 27th - July 3rd - Chapter 1 - end of 14 (or all of Miss Brooke and the first two chapters of Old and Young)

July 4th - 10th - Chapter 15 - end of 28 (or the rest of Old and Young and six chapters of Waiting for Death)

 July 11th - 17th - Chapter 29 -end of 42 (the rest of Waiting for Death and all of Three Love Problems)

 July 18th - 24th - Chapter 43 - end of 56 (all of The Dead Hand and the first three chapters of The Widow and the Wife) 

 July 25th - 31st - Chapter 57 - end of 70 (the rest of The Widow and the Wife and eight chapters of Two Temptations) 

 August 1st - 7th - Chapter 71 - End

I hope that's clear to everyone! I'll be posting about that week's chapters on a Monday and possibly putting in some questions to help guide you. Please link up below to help motivate me!

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20 comments:

  1. Gee3 June 2016 at 10:43

    Heck yeah I'm excited! I read Middlemarch... nearly 4 years ago? I acquired it because as a big Victorian lit fan I knew I had to read it but I was so intimidated. I literally used it as a doorstop for a few months, lol. But then I did read it and it was amazing! I'm definitely due a reread so I'm so happy you're hosting this :)

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    1. anarmchairbythesea3 June 2016 at 13:32

      I'm so excited you're joining in :-) I've pretty much used it as a doorstop for about the last...eight years or so? The amount of time I've owned it is a little disgraceful really!

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  2. ebookclassics3 June 2016 at 14:20

    I've wanted to read Middlemarch for awhile and I'm so excited to join you. It's much more fun to have company for the big books. Thanks for hosting!

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    1. anarmchairbythesea3 June 2016 at 14:58

      Definitely more fun with company! I would never have made it through Moby Dick if I hadn't been doing a read along, I'm looking forward to this. Thanks for joining us!

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  3. Laurie @ Relevant Obscurity4 June 2016 at 00:18

    This will be a first read for me and like ebookclassics said, it's nice to have company. I just finished Little Women and would have loved to have company. So I am up for this!!

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    1. anarmchairbythesea4 June 2016 at 06:52

      Yay glad to have you join us! It is always nicer to have company,particularly for the classics:-)

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  4. Bookybecksa4 June 2016 at 05:57

    Thanks for hosting this readalong! I have Middlemarch on my Classics Club list and have been avoiding it, so it's nice to have a readalong to kick me into gear.

    I might go peruse my local bookshop for a shiny copy of this book, in preparation of reading with you all. I'll be aiming to write a weekly post, but I'm sure I'll be active on the twitter hashtag too. I'm @bookybecksa there.

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    1. anarmchairbythesea4 June 2016 at 06:54

      Awesome I'll make sure I'm following you there! If u hadn't had a copy for yeeeears I probably would have bought a clothbound or something equally pretty to motivate myself!

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    2. anarmchairbythesea4 June 2016 at 12:16

      *I,even!

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    3. Andrea Stoeckel4 June 2016 at 14:56

      Love George Elliot, especially MiddleMarch. However,I have committed to reading Ship of Fools and Dr.Zhivago as part of Big Books of Summer group on GoodReads.( Dr. Z is also my own "Summer of my Russian Novel"). So, have a blast

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  5. RW Hickey5 June 2016 at 02:13

    I just started a blog about my own attempt to work through this book (forcedmiddlemarch.com)! I'll be taking a more leisurely pace than you, but I'll definitely be checking in on your blog over the summer.

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  6. RW Hickey5 June 2016 at 02:13

    I just started a blog about my own attempt to work through this book (forcedmiddlemarch.com)! I'll be taking a more leisurely pace than you, but I'll definitely be checking in on your blog over the summer.

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  7. Kat8 June 2016 at 05:39

    So exciting! I tried to read Middlemarch last year and failed miserably after about one hundred pages, so hopefully this will be good motivation!

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    1. anarmchairbythesea8 June 2016 at 09:40

      I think I'd be the same if I tried to read it alone. Hooray for having company!

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  8. Pan Alchemist8 June 2016 at 20:26

    OK, I've signed up! The timing at the beginning is perfect. The schools knock off for the winter holiday, so I will have at least 3 weeks of glorious free time. Thanks for putting this group together. I have owned my copy for around 20 years now (I bought it while I was doing my undergrad)! I think I could do with a bit of motivation to read it! Hopefully I will be able to do this!

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  9. Hanna @ Booking in Heels8 June 2016 at 23:52

    Oh yay! I'm glad I started catching up on blog posts, I wouldn't want to miss this :)

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  10. Lynn @ Smoke & Mirrors28 June 2016 at 17:58

    I meant to register, then forgot, and now will have to play a bit of catch-up. I have placed a hold at the library. (My local library doesn't have a copy!)

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  11. *ೃ༄ Jillian4 July 2016 at 15:48

    I'm in! Hopefully I can keep yup. Thanks for hosting!! :)

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