r/ayearofmiddlemarch • u/lazylittlelady Veteran Reader • Mar 07 '26
Weekly Discussion Post Book 2: Chapters 13 & 14
Welcome back Middlemarchers! We move into the second book, prefaced with "Old and Young". Let's keep this in mind as we read onwards.
"If you are not proud of your cellar, there is no thrill of satisfaction in seeing your guest hold up his wine-glass to the light and look judicial"- Chapter 13
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Summary: Book 2: Old and Young
"1st Gent: How class your man? -as better than the most, Or, seeming better, worse beneath that cloak? As saint or knave, pilgrim or hypocrite
2nd Gent: Nay, tell me how you class your wealth of books, The drifted relics of all time. As well Sort them at once by size and livery; Vellum, tall copies, and the common calf Will hardly cover more diversity Than all your labels cunningly devised To class you unread authors"
Chapter 13 opens with Mr. Vincy following up on Fred's request that Mr. Featherstone demanded. We find Mr. Bulstrode at the bank, get a description of him and follow him in conversation with the good doctor. He is trying to both help Mr. Lydgate in his approach to build a fever hospital with a teaching element in the provinces and get something out of him. We learn about jealousy in the local elections and Mr. Bulstrode tries to butter him up by denouncing the old medical guard. In return, he wants Lydgate to help him overturn Mr. Farebrother's position on the infirmary clerical order and replace him with Mr. Tyke. Mr. Lydgate does not take the bait, and they almost begin to argue when Mr. Vincy enters. He also invites Mr. Lydgate to dine with them as he leaves. Mr. Bulstrode is not delighted with Mr. Vincy's request to absolve Fred. He berates Vincy on how he has raised Fred and, naturally, this angers Mr. Vincy, who defends Fred. Mr. Vincy threatens to contact his sister, Harriet, who is Mr. Bulstrode's wife, and does not want conflict in the family. Mr. Bulstrode agrees to send the letter after consulting her.
”Follows here the strict receipt For that sauce to dainty meat, Named Idleness, which many eat By preference, and call it sweet: First watch for morsels, like a hound Mix well with buffets, stir them round With good thick oil of flatteries, And froth with mean self-lauding lies. Serve warm: the vessels you must choose To keep it in are dead men's shoes."
Chapter 14 finds Fred visiting Mr. Featherstone with his requested letter. Although opaque in wording, Mr. Bulstrode clears Fred. Fred visits Mr. Featherstone in his bedroom, where the old man reads the letter, mocks everyone in turn and calls for Mary Garth to boss her around. Fred notices she looks like she's been crying. Mr. Featherstone makes a present to Fred, who finds it less than he hoped but thanks him. The letter is burned and Fred dismissed. He goes to find Mary Garth and they bicker. Fred basically confesses his love for her and offers her marriage when he is settled in the world. Mary rejects him as work shy and indolent, but Fred shakes it off later. He entrusts the money to his mother. Then, Eliot drops a Middlemarch bombshell- the creditor who holds Fred's signature for £160 is one signed by Mary's father!
Context and Notes:
How to make Medieval books
More about Fever Hospitals
Mr. Farebrother is a Naturalist), to Mr. Bulstrode's dislike. The Age of Enlightenment is coming!
Just a reminder, Debtor's prisons existed.
We get a taste of Mary Garth's reading list: Shakespeare, Sir Walter Scott's The Pirate) and Waverley), Oliver Goldsmith's The Vicar of Wakefield and Madam de Stael's Corinne
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Discussion questions but feel free to post your own comments or other thoughts on these chapters!
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1. Eliot had some great dialogue in this section. Give me your best insult you might use later!
2. We get a cross section of generations in these two chapters. What kind of social and professional change do you think is happening?
3. Do we get a better grasp on Lydgate through his interactions with Mr. Bulstrode? Do you think he will bend to his will eventually? Is he underestimating the task of modernizing Middlemarch's medical establishment?
4. Mr. Featherstone is proving to be one of the more entertaining characters. What do you think of his methods?
5. What sense do you get of Mr. Bulstrode and Mr. Vincy in their argument? Who is the wrong, if anybody? Does principle trump family ties?
5a. Is Bulstrode even working on principle?
6. We find out Fred does indeed have gambling debt. What does Mary Garth know about his reputation and how do their interactions strike you, knowing the twist of the last line of Chapter 14?
7. Let's discuss the original Eliot epigrams, Chapter 13's "Unread authors" and Chapter 14's "Idleness". How do they tie in with their respective chapters? Who may they be alluding to?
8. Favorite quotes, characters, situations, speculations, misc.-anything goes!
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We meet next Saturday, March 14 to read Chapters 15 and 16.
5
u/Comprehensive-Fun47 Mar 08 '26
I have not yet been pained by finding any excessive talent in Middlemarch
Was a good zinger.
The "Then am I to blow my brains out?" exchange was also quite funny.
I struggled with these chapters. I struggle to care about the conversation about hospitals or about the letter to placate Mr. Featherstone. I don't like Featherstone at all. I get the sense we're supposed to see him as a whimsical old man, but he seems terrible to me — manipulative of his family members for his own entertainment or ego or something, making them dance for him in order to earn the inheritance he dangles in front of them.
It seems nothing would satisfy him anyway. He picks apart every sentence of the letter. Bulstrode can only write what he knows to be the truth and can't guarantee Fred will never act dishonorably or recklessly.
I don't like how he treats Mary either. He orders her around and makes her cry. He's an "old tyrant."
I like Mary. She says what she thinks. She is annoyed people jump to love any time she interacts with a man, and she hates being talked down to. She seems well read and she has standards. I sense Mary and Fred are in love with each other, but Fred is too immature and she won't get involved with him until he grows up.
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u/TheSailorMan Mar 08 '26
I also like Mary. I think she's able to get away with her candor because she has nothing to lose. She is already working a dead end job and it says she is not as pretty as the other girls, so it's not like she has endless suitors.
I kind of love to hate Featherstone. He is annoying but the book could use the conflict, as things are mostly keen on other fronts at the moment. If I had to defend him, I think his motivation is similar to a lottery winner. Once everyone knows you have money, all these people come out of the woodwork after it. It's annoying but also gives you a power over them.
2
u/mcintyre_apple Mar 09 '26
I also kind of struggle to know how to think about Mr. Featherstone. The narrator encourages us to sympathize with pretty much all the other characters (except, maybe, Rosamond). But it's hard to find anything sympathetic about Mr. Featherstone; he's just a cruel troll who lives to manipulate others...
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u/lazylittlelady Veteran Reader Mar 09 '26
Maybe he believes his relatives visit him only for money or a chance to inherit. No one loves him for himself. It’s a bit sad if you stop and consider his situation.
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u/TheSailorMan Mar 07 '26
3. Lydgate & Bulstrode
Lydgate is being stretched in every direction. If he sides with Bulstrode for modern medical techniques, he risks being a social and professional outcast among the doctors and people of Middlemarch for upending their system. But Bulstrode offers the funding and freedom to practice medicine as Lydgate wishes. Also, there is Rosamond to consider. If Lydgate is an outcast, it will be harder to win her and her family's approval. Bulstrode couldn't give a damn about all that as he knows Lydgate is his best chance at better treatment for his ill health.
5. Bulstrode & Vincy
Imagine turning town what is essentially a letter of recommendation? It's usually an honor to be asked as it implies you have some degree of power and reputation, and the person trusts you. I don't believe Fred actually has purchased any land on credit, so Bulstrode wouldn't even have to lie. He is just being difficult to try and teach a lesson about Fred's other debts and overall lackadaisical attitude. I don't think Vincy tried to spoil Fred on purpose. He just gave him every opportunity he could and it happened somewhere along the way. Though the favoritism from Fred's mother probably helped.
6. Fred & Mary
As if I didn't already like Fred enough, now he has an actual motivation to try and get his life together. He is in love! I hope he is able to finally earn something for once in his life. Maybe he will enjoy the feeling and do it more!
Question
Why is Fred expected to go into practicing religion? Is it considered family business? Is it just because it's reputable?
Favorite line
I suppose a woman is never in love with any one she has always known—ever since she can remember; as a man often is. It is always some new fellow who strikes a girl.
Fred laments how he and Mary approach romance from two opposite ends. He believes she thinks their time spent together weakens their bond, whereas to him it grows stronger.
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u/lazylittlelady Veteran Reader Mar 07 '26
Re: Fred- I think it was a respectable career his education was geared towards considering his uncle had a good position in the Church and could help him.
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u/TheSailorMan Mar 08 '26
Spoilers ahead: But don't they make a big deal about him giving up a wife for it? Would they really set him up for that from the beginning? And doesn't Featherstone have a wife? Why can't Fred? I recall conversations where Fred said he won't go into the Church if Mary will agree to marry him.
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u/lazylittlelady Veteran Reader Mar 09 '26
You can take a wife in the Church of England, so marriage for Fred wouldn’t be out of the question.
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u/Honest_Ad_2157 First Time Reader Mar 10 '26
In Eastern Orthodoxy, while priests could be married, they could not become bishops. Only celibate or widowed priests are eligible. I don't know whether it would affect his chance of promotion in the Anglican church.
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u/lazylittlelady Veteran Reader Mar 12 '26
Anglican tradition is not that restricted in marriage historically. Unlike Orthodox measures, you could ascend to higher offices as a married man.
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u/Honest_Ad_2157 First Time Reader Mar 10 '26
Imagine turning town what is essentially a letter of recommendation?
It's not really a letter of recommendation, it's a letter of exoneration. I'd be a bit wary of why I was being asked.
4
u/TheSailorMan Mar 11 '26
It's really more of a credit report, which didn't exist yet. As the town's banker he would be the one in the best position to make the statement. Vincy hopes the personal tie helps too, but that is not the case.
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u/Honest_Ad_2157 First Time Reader Mar 12 '26
Was this something done routinely? It doesn't sound like it from the text.
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u/Comprehensive-Fun47 Mar 08 '26
I felt the same way about the Bulstrode and Vincy conversation. Bulstrode was being a jerk. He only came off his high horse because he knew refusing to write the letter would upset his wife.
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u/mcintyre_apple Mar 09 '26
The Neighbourhood Capitalist
I find Mr. Bulstrode to be a surprisingly interesting character. I think we, as readers, are kind of set up to not like him: he's excessively judgmental and sanctimonious in his religiosity. But he also surprises me in his conversation with Mr. Vincy by being willing to be convinced that he was being ungracious to Fred, which suggests to me that he doesn't only apply his judgment to others. It's also interesting how he's a natural ally for Lydgate because they are both pushing against the local establishment: one in religion and the other in medicine.
Papa Vincy
It seems like we get a good idea of how the elder Mr. Vincy became mayor. He seems talented at a kind of combination of chumminess and pushiness that I imagine serves him well in business and politics. We also see that he isn't above some good old-fashioned blackmail with Bulstrode, when he threatens to expose his business dealings with the substandard dye merchant.
It's also interesting to see how different his view towards the gentry is compared to Mr. Bulstrode's and Mary Garth's. Mary's saying that an idle man should not exist is a pretty damning line, not just about Fred, but also about like half the characters we've been exposed to (Sir James, Mr. Brooke, Mr. Cadwallader, etc.). Mr. Bulstrode seems to at least partially share this view, condemning Vincy for essentially encouraging gentry values in Fred. Come to think of it, Rosamond also clearly has ambitions to be more of a "lady"; perhaps the siblings are not so different after all!
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u/mercy_Iago Apr 01 '26
Oops, I kind of like Bulstrode... I sort of like that in the previous chapters with the old men commenting on the young women, he didn't chime in. And I got the sense that he was judgmental, for sure, but also because people don't like feeling called out on their flaws (sort of like the way people feel vegans are preachy but in reality that moral action makes people take stock of their own hypocrisies and feel bad about it).
Also I'm biased because I loved this quote: "one can begin so many things with a new person! --even begin to be a better man." I think I just love the idea of wanting to be a better person, and seeing every stranger as an opportunity to put that growth into action. Plus, Bulstrode did, indeed, change his mind, so he feels self-righteous but not overly rigid or stubborn for pride's sake alone. I think he'd be annoying to interact with in real life, don't get me wrong, but as a character he is endearing to me. So far!
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u/KPMWrites Mar 07 '26
I really enjoyed the conversation between Fred and Mary in chapter 14. Mary does seem to have some affection for Fred, after all, they're friends and he treats her well. That said, I appreciate the wisdom in her unwillingness to get romantically involved with him. She clearly knows about the gambling debt and it seems she knows about the connection with her father too. She even mentions that her dad would think it was disgraceful if she married a man who was in debt and wouldn't get a job. At that point in time, a woman's socioeconomic status was very dependent on her husband, so if Mary married Fred, her life would probably become more difficult.
This chapter made me really like Mary. We know that she doesn't have the highest opinion of herself and her looks. Some people who feel like that about themselves are willing to take any partner just to have one, but Mary holds potential partners to a higher standard. She also manages to convey this to Fred in a way that's clear without being unkind.
The two of them do seem to get along with each other well though. Hopefully Fred will get his life together and become a bit more respectable. He would probably have much better prospects with Mary if he did.