Middlemarch: a Novel of Reform: 14 (Twayne's masterwork studies No 14)

HORNBACK, Bert G.

ISBN 10: 0805779817 / ISBN 13: 9780805779813

Edité par Twayne Publishers Inc.,U.S., 1988

A propos de cet article

Each volume in 'Twayne's Masterwork Studies' [McGill University], offers a lively critical reading of a single classic text. The present volume is - Gerorge Eliot's 'Middlemarch' [1871-2]. Book is Fine - bright, clean and unmarked. Binding is tight and square showing no wear. The unclipped dustjacket is similar. Enquire for exact postage to your destination. This volume may qualify for Canada Post's inexpensive Lettermail rates within Canada US$5-6.00. US$8.00 to the USA.

N° de réf. du vendeur 057733

Détails bibliographiques

• Titre: Middlemarch: a Novel of Reform: 14 (Twayne's masterwork studies No 14)
• Éditeur: Twayne Publishers Inc.,U.S.
• Date de parution: 1988
• Langue: anglais
• ISBN à 10 chiffres: 0805779817
• ISBN à 13 chiffres: 9780805779813
• Reliure: Hardcover
• Édition: 1st Edition
• État de l'article: Fine
• État de la jaquette: Fine
• Catalogues du vendeur:
  • Literary Criticism
  • Fiction - Literature

A propos de ce titre

Extrait

WHO that cares much to know the history of man, and how the mysterious mixture behaves under the varying experiments of Time, has not dwelt, at least briefly, on the life of Saint Theresa,' has not smiled with some gentleness at the thought of the little girl walking forth one morning hand - in - hand with her still smaller brother, to go and seek martyrdom in the country of the Moors? Out they toddled from rugged Avila, wide - eyed and helpless - looking as two fawns, but with human hearts, already beating to a national idea; until domestic reality met them in the shape of uncles, and turned them back from their great resolve. That child - pilgrimage was a fit beginning. Theresa's passionate, ideal nature demanded an epic life: what were many - volumed romances of chivalry and the social conquests of a brilliant girl to her. Her flame quickly burned up that light fuel; and, fed from within, soared after some illimitable satisfaction, some object which would never justify weariness, which would reconcile self - despair with the rapturous consciousness of life beyond self. She found her epos in the reform of a religious order.
That Spanish woman who lived three hundred years ago was certainly not the last of her kind. Many Theresas have been born who found for themselves no epic life wherein there was a constant unfolding of far - resonant action; perhaps only a life of mistakes, the offspring of a certain spiritual grandeur ill - matched with the meanness of opportunity; perhaps a tragic failure which found no sacred poet and sank unwept into oblivion. With dim lights and tangled circumstance they tried to shape their thought and deed in noble agreement; but after all, to common eyes their struggles seemed mere inconsistency and formlessness; for these later - born Theresas were helped by no coherent social faith and order which could perform the function of knowledge for the ardently willing soul. Their ardour alternated between a vague ideal and the common yearning of womanhood; so that the one was disapproved as extravagance, and the other condemned as a lapse.
Some have felt that these blundering lives are due to the inconvenient indefiniteness with which the Supreme Power has fashioned the natures of women: if there were one level of feminine incompetence as strict as the ability to count three and no more, the social lot of women might be treated with scientific certitude. Meanwhile the indefiniteness remains, and the limits of variation are really much wider than any one would imagine from the sameness of women's coiffure and the favourite love - stories in prose and verse. Here and there a cygnet is reared uneasily among the ducklings in the brown pond, and never finds the living stream in fellowship with its own oary-footed kind. Here and there is born a Saint Theresa, foundress of nothing, whose loving heart -beats and sobs after an unattained goodness tremble off and are dispersed among hindrances, instead of centering in some long recognisable deed.