Summary: The author reflects on classic novels like “Middlemarch” and “Bleak House,” emphasizing their ability to provide rich insights into human experiences across various societal layers. He argues that reading these novels helps develop nuanced thinking and a deeper understanding of history and human psychology. Ultimately, they serve as valuable tools for navigating life’s complexities.
of the hundred or so novels from the 19th and 20th century that I read during my grad school days, my favorites were Middlemarch and Bleak House, and Middlemarch is the one book that I try to re-read once a decade. (View Highlight)
Narratives of all sorts allow you to parachute into other simulated experiences, which ultimately give you more data for your own simulations. But novels, I would argue, give you the richest simulation of the interior life of other people’s experiences: you get a ringside view of all that emotional and cognitive action. (View Highlight)
It is because he is writing about people who are growing. His characters are struggling to make their souls, whereas Dickens’s are already finished and perfect. (View Highlight)