Tried to read this, I think 5 years ago at Stuart’s in Spain, but gave up.
These 19th century novels are incredibly long, but I got to the end eventually. It does pick up pace towards the end. Much better I thought than 'North and South', which suffered by being overthematic.
Not unlike 'Middlemarch', although that has a wider canvass; this is more perhaps domestic, like Jane Austen, 30 years later.
So, society is now slightly more fragmented and the class system has broken down, a little. Roger Hamley, the hero I suppose, travels overseas to Africa on a Victorian scientific expedition. Mr Gibson and his daughter Molly are both slightly idealised not unlike Austen heroes/heroines.
Gibson’s 2nd wife, and mother to Molly’s friend and love rival Cynthia, is fairly mercilessly satirised, more so as the book develops.
Roger’s father, an old impoverished landed gent, is well drawn as are the Whig aristocrats who lord it over the small town, whom he hates.
It is very good, but very long; the comparison with 'Middlemarch' is probably the main point of interest.
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