Is he maligned from out of the Middlemarch universe too?
I'm reading it right now for the first time in English in my dotage and enjoying it greatly, and much more than I ever remembered in my first (in translation) run and I don't see, so far, a condemnation of Casaubon in the authorial voice, and not universally so from all the characters either (Mr Cadwallader has pretty good things to say about him, and Uncle Brooks is just baffled by Dorothea's not conforming to his (generally correct) notions of "what women want").
I'm not sure how he positions as an object in the wider ecosystem of British novel consumers (taking into account the endlessly unexplainable fixation of the chick lit sphere with Mr Darcy, probably low) but ultimately I think it's just all did to the fact that he's written (obviously not explicitly) as "not sexy".
But all that said, I think Casaubon is forever marked a failure not even because of any of that. Arguably, not even because of his frequently hinted at impotence (Lowick? Cmon!) and sexual rejection of D's vitality. He's a failure because he's a fundamental disappointment to Dorothea IN TERMS OF HER OWN EXPECTATIONS (however naive and unworldly they might have been): his is not the amazingly accomplished esoteric scholarship that she was hoping for, but a claustrophobic maze of (possibly slightly deranged) speculation. Dorothea wished to be part of something bigger than herself, happy and willing to submit to True Greatness, and she finds herself doing a work of mercy, if not outright pity for a man living out a life of deluded intellectual ambition, not genuine accomplishment.
I think you’re making Mr. Rubinstein’s point for him. Compared to the more boring characters in the novel like Lydgate- the good, progressive, intelligent, kind doctor who is sort of a parallel to Dorothea in how they both marry people unsuited to them- and Ladislaw- the ANNOYING, posed-as-Byronic-but-is-actually-just-a-waster hero of Dorothea’s romantic life- Casaubon is more human. He is more real. Especially as a university student, I found myself empathising with him so much. How horribly painful it is to have all these expectations of yourself, to center your entire life on the fulcrum of your own intellect, only to realise slowly and painfully that you CAN’T ACCOMPLISH WHAT YOU HINGED YOUR WHOLE EXISTENCE ON. He isn’t some charlatan. He is just a person who is trying and failing. His ego is bruised, as any one of ours would be (if we’re all honest). He is also old as hell! He is at the end of his life! I, for one, would NOT admit defeat in the single, all- consuming pursuit of my intellect and career, when death is at the door. On top of alllll of this, Dorothea comes along and he has to deal with HER disappointment in him as well, because SHE already has their whole marriage/ teacher-student relationship mapped out for them. He will be her guiding light, the doorway to HER spiritual development. This is why she is dissatisfied with him, and she DOES make that known. I feel for her, she’s just 21 and if I were to marry someone decades and decades older than me right now, I also would probably have expectations in a similar vein but I’m JUST saying, its hard for him. And I do not think he is villainised in the novel to a Dickensian extent- he isn’t (entirely) some pock- marked, cackling asshole with a stupid name, Eliot isn’t a caricaturist like that. But the characters are critical of him. Mr. Rubinstein cites Chettham and Cadwallader pretty clearly! POOR MR. CASAUBON!!
I agree with all that. He's a complex figure, much more interesting than many make him to be, and while morally and intellectually he fails, it's not a satisfying fail of a “baddie”, but a genuine tragedy.
I do feel different about Lydgate — I don't think he's boring or simplistic at all. In many ways his arc is one of the most realistic psycho-socially even now, and arguably you could see him as almost equally important character in the whole novel as Dorothea. Obviously he's very off in his expectations of a suitable mate, and not just in obviously retrograde ways — he might have done ok with Dorothea's little sister for example — and Elliot has him punished for that pretty harshly but realistically, while she ends up happyish if somewhat diminished. I kept wondering if the implied message was that Dorothea and Lydgate would have worked out best together but have not researched the critical wisdom on that.
I think some of my take is also driven by my situation — I'm middle aged and at no risk of failing in the Causabon mode of hyper focus on intense but useless scholarship; but I've already failed completely in closer to Lydgate/Dorothea's mode: “real life” took over (but without the wealth either ;). So yes I can see how you feel for Mr C!
I agree Will is insufferable. The biggest mystery of that novel really.
Perhaps Fred & Mary are the real heroes of Middlemarch, its true Hobbits :)
Is he maligned from out of the Middlemarch universe too?
I'm reading it right now for the first time in English in my dotage and enjoying it greatly, and much more than I ever remembered in my first (in translation) run and I don't see, so far, a condemnation of Casaubon in the authorial voice, and not universally so from all the characters either (Mr Cadwallader has pretty good things to say about him, and Uncle Brooks is just baffled by Dorothea's not conforming to his (generally correct) notions of "what women want").
I'm not sure how he positions as an object in the wider ecosystem of British novel consumers (taking into account the endlessly unexplainable fixation of the chick lit sphere with Mr Darcy, probably low) but ultimately I think it's just all did to the fact that he's written (obviously not explicitly) as "not sexy".
But all that said, I think Casaubon is forever marked a failure not even because of any of that. Arguably, not even because of his frequently hinted at impotence (Lowick? Cmon!) and sexual rejection of D's vitality. He's a failure because he's a fundamental disappointment to Dorothea IN TERMS OF HER OWN EXPECTATIONS (however naive and unworldly they might have been): his is not the amazingly accomplished esoteric scholarship that she was hoping for, but a claustrophobic maze of (possibly slightly deranged) speculation. Dorothea wished to be part of something bigger than herself, happy and willing to submit to True Greatness, and she finds herself doing a work of mercy, if not outright pity for a man living out a life of deluded intellectual ambition, not genuine accomplishment.
I think you’re making Mr. Rubinstein’s point for him. Compared to the more boring characters in the novel like Lydgate- the good, progressive, intelligent, kind doctor who is sort of a parallel to Dorothea in how they both marry people unsuited to them- and Ladislaw- the ANNOYING, posed-as-Byronic-but-is-actually-just-a-waster hero of Dorothea’s romantic life- Casaubon is more human. He is more real. Especially as a university student, I found myself empathising with him so much. How horribly painful it is to have all these expectations of yourself, to center your entire life on the fulcrum of your own intellect, only to realise slowly and painfully that you CAN’T ACCOMPLISH WHAT YOU HINGED YOUR WHOLE EXISTENCE ON. He isn’t some charlatan. He is just a person who is trying and failing. His ego is bruised, as any one of ours would be (if we’re all honest). He is also old as hell! He is at the end of his life! I, for one, would NOT admit defeat in the single, all- consuming pursuit of my intellect and career, when death is at the door. On top of alllll of this, Dorothea comes along and he has to deal with HER disappointment in him as well, because SHE already has their whole marriage/ teacher-student relationship mapped out for them. He will be her guiding light, the doorway to HER spiritual development. This is why she is dissatisfied with him, and she DOES make that known. I feel for her, she’s just 21 and if I were to marry someone decades and decades older than me right now, I also would probably have expectations in a similar vein but I’m JUST saying, its hard for him. And I do not think he is villainised in the novel to a Dickensian extent- he isn’t (entirely) some pock- marked, cackling asshole with a stupid name, Eliot isn’t a caricaturist like that. But the characters are critical of him. Mr. Rubinstein cites Chettham and Cadwallader pretty clearly! POOR MR. CASAUBON!!
I agree with all that. He's a complex figure, much more interesting than many make him to be, and while morally and intellectually he fails, it's not a satisfying fail of a “baddie”, but a genuine tragedy.
I do feel different about Lydgate — I don't think he's boring or simplistic at all. In many ways his arc is one of the most realistic psycho-socially even now, and arguably you could see him as almost equally important character in the whole novel as Dorothea. Obviously he's very off in his expectations of a suitable mate, and not just in obviously retrograde ways — he might have done ok with Dorothea's little sister for example — and Elliot has him punished for that pretty harshly but realistically, while she ends up happyish if somewhat diminished. I kept wondering if the implied message was that Dorothea and Lydgate would have worked out best together but have not researched the critical wisdom on that.
I think some of my take is also driven by my situation — I'm middle aged and at no risk of failing in the Causabon mode of hyper focus on intense but useless scholarship; but I've already failed completely in closer to Lydgate/Dorothea's mode: “real life” took over (but without the wealth either ;). So yes I can see how you feel for Mr C!
I agree Will is insufferable. The biggest mystery of that novel really.
Perhaps Fred & Mary are the real heroes of Middlemarch, its true Hobbits :)