Hey Folks!!
Hope you’d enjoyed a TREMENDOUS April!!
Yesterday in rural Hayslope, England, we’d spent a final evening in Bede family cottage seated on a fireside stool alongside Adam who—stooped on a rug—had detailed his life: how his drunken father Matthias’ had drowned, how he had carved coffins at a woodshop, and how he had became engaged to gorgeous minister Dinah Morris.
Midway through how town beauty Hetty Sorrel had abandoned her infant and had been imprisoned however, his robed mother Lisbeth had shuffled—lantern in-hand—to the hearth and had reminded us our literary guide would arrive bright-and-early hence it’d be best we’d retire to a spare room. So we’d climbed on our feet, had waved ‘goodnight’ to Adam and Lisbeth, and had scaled a creaky staircase to a bedroom where—although we’d changed into our bed clothes—we hadn’t slipped beneath our sheets.
We’d sat at our bed’s edge, had gazed into a candle’s flame on our nightstand, and had wondered why our guide had left us with such a lad. Could it be true an author’s story character was a reflection of the author? Could this hold true for our guide? Could Adam Bede (and Hayslope’s townsfolk) be a reflection of George Eliot (Mary Ann Evans)?
We’d needed an answer.
Hence we’d dove into our nightstand’s bottom drawer, had dug-out our guide’s memoir (a prior guest had left behind), and had stormed its chapters. Suddenly, our eyes had skimmed several peculiar happenings which had occurred during Eliot’s life: her struggle with Christianity, her father who—although wasn’t a drunkard—had threatened to terminate their relationship if she hadn’t attended church, and her knowledge of a girl’s confession of infant murder from her minister aunt Elizabeth Evans.
Had any of this influenced Eliot?
We hadn’t been certain.
But pages later, after Eliot’s father had died, we’d learned she’d lived twenty years with a married man; an event which had severed a relationship between herself and Isaac, her brother and closest sibling.
Had this influenced her?
We’d blown out our candle, had slid beneath our bed sheets, and had dreamt about the correct answer until morning when we’d heard a knock at a door downstairs. Adam’s younger brother Seth had opened it—it was our guide.
So we’d bade Seth farewell, ambled beside George Eliot along an English countryside dirt road toward our May reading, and had stolen glances at her while we’d wondered whether or not this influence had existed. But once we’d reached the Dorlcote Mill on the River Floss where siblings Tom and Maggie Tulliver’s lives had been severed because of different paths each had chose, we’d realized an influence had existed!
Published in 1860 nevertheless, ‘The Mill on the Floss’ is George Eliot’s second novel which—as alluded to above—follows siblings Tom and Maggie throughout their rural England lives; and despite how tough their relationship got, they attempt to stick together.
Hence for May, let’s reflect on siblings (or friends, cousins, co-workers, etc… who could our siblings) in our lives and make it a priority to love, honor, and respect them no matter what they do (even if they don’t immediately reciprocate the gesture).
And while you do reflect nonetheless, please visit your bookshelf, local library, or electronic fiction literature provider and read ‘The Mill and the Floss’ by George Eliot with me!!
Many thanks, folks, and ttys!!
Phil