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A review by anneliesb
Romola by George Eliot
4.0
I have never clicked that button "I'm finished!" with so much relief. That exclamation mark behind it jumps off the screen for me right now. I started reading this in October 2015, just over a year ago. There were times I thought this was just a slow read, there were times that I completely forgot about it and there were times I thought about giving up altogether.
I usually don't do New Year's resolutions, but this year I made a 'before the end of year' resolution, to clean up some sludge from my currently reading list. Now this one is gone I might even work my way through some more German fairytales before 2017.
The fact that it took me so long to read by no means means that it is bad. It is just rather demanding and has chapters which are mostly focussed on politics rather than moving the plot forward.
Unlike most Victorian novels this one is set in 15th century Florence, rather than 19th century England. I felt that George Eliot was maybe a bit overambitious with this one.
The novel is set in Italy and she uses translated Italian phrases and sayings, which affect the natural flow of the language. There's also a mount of 15th century Italian politics involved which needs a lot of explaining. It is so easy to lose reading momentum when you arrive at a patch with several 'political' chapters.
Actually the last 60 pages of my edition are appendices with notes and glossaries of Italian terms and historical figures. So, you could check something in the back every other page to slow you down even further.
It doesn't help that most of the characters are rather caricatural. There's saintly Romola, selfish, opportunist Tito, simple, childlike Tessa,...
My favorite character was Monna Brigida, she's a minor character, but probably most human.
I usually don't do New Year's resolutions, but this year I made a 'before the end of year' resolution, to clean up some sludge from my currently reading list. Now this one is gone I might even work my way through some more German fairytales before 2017.
The fact that it took me so long to read by no means means that it is bad. It is just rather demanding and has chapters which are mostly focussed on politics rather than moving the plot forward.
Unlike most Victorian novels this one is set in 15th century Florence, rather than 19th century England. I felt that George Eliot was maybe a bit overambitious with this one.
The novel is set in Italy and she uses translated Italian phrases and sayings, which affect the natural flow of the language. There's also a mount of 15th century Italian politics involved which needs a lot of explaining. It is so easy to lose reading momentum when you arrive at a patch with several 'political' chapters.
Actually the last 60 pages of my edition are appendices with notes and glossaries of Italian terms and historical figures. So, you could check something in the back every other page to slow you down even further.
It doesn't help that most of the characters are rather caricatural. There's saintly Romola, selfish, opportunist Tito, simple, childlike Tessa,...
My favorite character was Monna Brigida, she's a minor character, but probably most human.