17 Middlemarch - Read By Stephanie Poppins

Middlemarch by George Eliot explores the lives of its inhabitants as they navigate societal expectations, personal aspirations, and the changing world around them. The story centres on Dorothea Brooke, a young, idealistic woman who marries an older scholar.

In this episode - Dorothea notices something odd

Transcript

Welcome to sleep stories with Steph Your go-to podcast That offers you a calm and relaxing transition Into a great night's sleep It is time to relax and fully let go There is nothing you need to be doing now and nowhere you need to go Close your eyes and feel yourself sink into the support beneath you And let all the worries of the day Drift away This is your time and your space Take a deep breath in through your nose And let it out with a long sigh There is nothing you need to be doing now and nowhere you need to go Happy listening Chapter 10 continued In these brief weeks Dorothea's joyous grateful expectation was unbroken And however,

Her lover might occasionally be conscious of flatness He could never refer to any slackening of her affectionate interest The season was mild enough to encourage the project of extending the wedding journey as far as Rome And Mr.

Casabon was anxious for this because he wished to inspect some manuscripts in the Vatican I still regret your sister is not going to accompany us He said one morning some time after it had been ascertained Celia objected to go And that Dorothea did not wish for her companionship You will have many lonely hours Dorothea I shall be constrained To make the utmost of my time during our stay in Rome I should feel more at liberty if you had a companion The words I should feel more at liberty grated on Dorothea For the first time in speaking to Mr.

Casabon she coloured from annoyance You must have misunderstood me very much She said if you think I should not enter into the value of your time If you think I should not willingly give up whatever interfered with your using it to the best purpose That is very amiable in you my dear Dorothea he said not in the least noticing she was hurt But if you had a lady as your companion I could put you both under the care of a chicharroni and we could thus achieve two purposes in the same space of time I beg you will not refer to this again said Dorothea rather haughtily But immediately she feared that she was wrong and turning towards him.

She laid her hand on his adding in a different tone Pray,

Do not be anxious about me I shall have so much to think of when i'm alone and tantric will be a sufficient companion just to take care of me I could not bear to have Celia.

She would be miserable It was time to dress There was to be a dinner party that day the last of the parties which were held at the grange as proper preliminaries to the wedding And Dorothea was glad of a reason for moving away at once on the sound of the bell as if she needed more than her usual amount of preparation She was ashamed of being irritated for some cause she could not define even to herself For though she had no intention to be untruthful.

Her reply had not touched the real hurt within her Mr.

Cassavon's words had been quite reasonable Yet they had brought a vague instantaneous sense of aloofness on his part Surely i'm in a strangely selfish weak state of mind.

She said to herself How can I have a husband who is so much above me without knowing he needs me less than I need him Having convinced herself Mr.

Cassavon was altogether right She recovered her equanimity and was an agreeable image of serene dignity when she came into the drawing room in her silver gray dress The simple lines of her dark brown hair parted over her brow and coiled massively behind In keeping with the entire absence from her manner and expression of all search after me effect Sometimes when Dorothy was in company there seemed to be as complete an air of repose about her As if she had been a picture of Santa Barbara looking out from her tower into the clear air But these intervals of quietude made the energy of her speech and emotion the more remarked When some outward appeal had touched her She was naturally the subject of many observations this evening For the dinner party was large and rather more miscellaneous as to the male portion Than any which had been held at the grange since Mr.

Brooke's nieces had resided with him So that the talking was done in duos and trios more or less inharmonious There was the newly elected mayor of middlemarch who happened to be a manufacturer the philanthropic banker his brother-in-law Who predominated so much in the town that some called him a Methodist Others a hypocrite according to the resources of their vocabulary And there were various professional men In fact,

Mrs.

Cardwallader said that Brooke was beginning to treat the middle marchers And that she preferred the farmers at the tithe dinner Who drank her health unpretentiously and were not afraid of their grandfather's furniture For in that part of the country before reform had done its notable part in developing the political consciousness There was a clear distinction of ranks and a dimmer distinction of parties So that Mr.

Brooke's miscellaneous invitations seemed to belong to that general laxity Which came from his inordinate travel and habit of taking too much in the form of ideas Already as Miss Brooke passed out of the dining room opportunity was found for some interjectional asides A fine woman Miss Brooke an uncommonly fine woman by God Said Mr.

Standish the old lawyer who'd been so long concerned with the landed gentry He'd been landed himself and used that oath in a deep-mouthed manner as a sort of armorial bearings Stamping the speech of a man who held a good position Mr.

Bolstrode the banker seemed to be addressed,

But that gentleman disliked coarseness and profanity and merely bowed The remark was taken up by Mr Ciccioli a middle-aged bachelor and coursing celebrity who had a complexion something like an easter egg a few hairs carefully arranged And a carriage implying the consciousness of a distinguished appearance Yes,

But not my style of woman I like a woman who lays herself out a little more to please us There should be a little filigree about a woman something of the coquette a man likes a sort of challenge,

You know The more of a dead set she makes at you the better There's some truth in that said mr Standish disposed to be genial and by God,

It's usually the way with them.

I suppose it answers some wise ends Providence made them.

So a bolstrode I should be disposed to refer coquetry to another source I should refer it to the devil said Mr.

Bolstrode I to be sure there should be a little devil in all women said Mr Ciccioli whose study of the fair sex seemed to have been detrimental to his theology And I like them blonde with a certain gait in a swan neck Between ourselves the mayor's daughter's more to my taste than miss brooke or miss celia either If I were a marrying man,

I should choose miss fincy before either of them Well,

Make up make up said mr.

Standish you see the middle-aged fellows carry the day Mr.

Ciccioli shook his head with much meaning He was not going to incur the certainty of being accepted by the woman.

He would choose The miss Vinci who had the honor of being his ideal was of course not present For mr Brooke always objecting to go too far Would not have chosen that his nieces should meet the daughter of a middlemarch manufacturer Unless it were on a public occasion The feminine part of the company included none whom lady chetum or miss cadwallader could object to For mrs.

Renfrew the colonel's widow was not only unexceptionable in point of breeding But also interesting on the ground of her complaint Which puzzled the doctors and seemed clearly a case wherein the fullness of a professional knowledge Might need the supplement of quackery Lady chetum who attributed her own remarkable health to homemade bitters united with constant medical attendance entered with much exercise of the imagination into mrs.

Renfrew's account of the symptoms And into the amazing futility in her case of all strengthening medicines Where can all the strength of those medicines go my dear?

Said the mild but stately dowager turned to miss cadwallader Reflectively when mrs.

Renfrew's attention was called away It strengthens the disease said the rector's wife Much too well born not to be an amateur in medicine Everything depends on the constitution Some people like fat some people blood and some bile That's my view of the matter and whatever they take is a sort of grist to the meal Then she ought to take medicines that would reduce the disease,

You know,

If you're right my dear and I think what you say is reasonable Certainly it is reasonable You have two sorts of potatoes fed on the same soil One of them grows more and more watery Like this poor mrs.

Renfrew This is what I think Dropsy There is no swelling yet.

It is inward.

I should say she ought to take drying medicines you or a dry hot air bath Many things might be tried of a drying nature Let her try a certain person's pamphlets Said miss cadwallader in an undertone seeing the gentleman enter He does not want drying Oh,

My dear Said lady chetum a charming woman not so quick as to nullify the pleasure of explanation The bridegroom cassabon He's certainly been drying up faster since the engagement the flame of passion I suppose I should think he's far from having a good constitution Said lady chetum with a still deeper undertone and then his studies So very dry as you say Really by the side of sir james he looks like a death's head skinned over for the occasion Mark my words any year from this time that girl will hate him She looks up to him as an oracle now and by and by She will be the other extreme or flightiness How very shocking I do fear she's headstrong But tell me you know all about him.

Is there anything very bad?

What is the truth?

The truth is as bad as the wrong physic nasty to take and sure to disagree There could not be anything worse than that Said lady chetum with so vivid a conception of the physic that she seemed to have learned something exact about mr cassabon's disadvantages However,

James will hear nothing against miss brooke.

He says she is the mirror of women still That is a generous make-believe of his Depend upon it.

He likes little celia better and she appreciates him.

I hope you like my little celia Certainly she is fonder of geraniums and seems more docile though.

Not so fine a figure