Day One: Blogging My Folio Society Edition of Middlemarch

This year for my 49th birthday my spouse gave me The Folio Society edition of Middlemarch by George Eliot. We had also bought a copy for our friends' wedding this summer.

I had always wanted one of these books because they are beautiful. Is that not reason enough?

I had heard a lot about Middlemarch before daring to read the long tome published in 1871. First I listened to the audiobook in 2010 and fell in love. Then, I picked up the book to savor it more closely.

Now, I am ready to slowly reread it from my new edition. I will blog it in sensorium style noting the senses as I read and in the reading.

Taste: nocino

Sound: turning stiff, crisp pages; frippery

Smell: paper and ink; incense

Sight: The Folio Society edition of Middlemarch is a gorgeous shiny spring green. It goes well in my green writing room. Blue and silver pages.; caslon font --a serif typefont designed by William Caslon I (c. 1692-1766) in London; white space, creamy pages; candlelight

Touch: a smooth grained slipcover; a weighty 752 page hardcover book

Extra: The Folio Society edition of Middlemarch: A Study of Provincial Life is 752 pages long. One of the reviews of the edition says it is, "Beautiful! A little too big, perhaps." I think this is funny. Big books, hurrah! Another review complains about cover calling it a, "rather bilious colour." I think this is just wrong. It's just beautiful.; it was first published in eight installments Dec. 1871 through Dec. 1872

Quotable: "Her mind was theoretic, and yearned by its nature after some lofty conception of the world..."

A jolt of joy: a beautiful book; opening it for the first time

Grateful for: Book One Miss Brooke

Comments

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Shel Graves' Sensorium

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