Listening to Middlemarch

Well it's been almost a year since I wrote a post for this blog and it's high time I started again. Call it a New Year's resolution or just me wanting to vent. Anyway...

I am listening to Middlemarch by George Eliot as a free audio book from Librivox. The experience of listening to a book, especially a long one, is quite a bit different than actually reading one. Since I, like many disabled people, spend an inordinate amount of time doing things that able-bodied people rush through such as putting on makeup, getting dressed, and eating meals, I am extremely grateful for the many free audio books available on the Librivox website.

I read the Middlemarch back when I was pregnant with Emily more than 30 years ago and I don't remember anything about it. To become reacquainted with the many affairs of the people living in fictitious English town of Middlemarch through the lovely interpretation by the reader, Margaret Espaillat is a rare pleasure.

Dorothea and Will

Listening to political debates or the conversations between Dorothea Brooke and her erstwhile lover Will Ladislaw makes the struggle to put on my socks a little less frustrating. Sure it takes me 10 minutes just to get my feet into them but listening to the adventures of the Middlemarchers distracts me. Somehow I feel like great literature will always exist even though I may not. It adds an element of immortality to what might be a life of drudgery.

It also makes me appreciate afresh the great writing that created this world. Following the adventures of this host of characters from a long-ago time in English history helps me understand that some things, like politics, humor and love, are timeless. And isn't that what great literature is supposed to do?