Those disinclined to peruse fiction, or for those for whom long books hold horrors untold, you would do well to go to Daily Lit and sign up for a book or two. I'm reading and rereading books that I would otherwise not find the time for, and surprisingly, at a page or so at a time, enjoying them more fully than I did when I blitzed them for whatever purpose was driving my reading in the past. Today's installment of the saga presents the reaction of Dorothea's other suitor to the new that she is to marry Casaubon.
from Middlemarch
George Eliot"Good God! It is horrible! He is no better than a mummy!" (The point
of view has to be allowed for, as that of a blooming and disappointed
rival.)"She says, he is a great soul.--A great bladder for dried peas to
rattle in!" said Mrs. Cadwallader."What business has an old bachelor like that to marry?" said Sir James.
"He has one foot in the grave.""He means to draw it out again, I suppose."
I love the rather acerbic understatement of the final sentence of this exchange.
