Tackling a long and difficult novel

Abstract

This chapter represents a test of the method of analysis demonstrated so far, for in it I look at two major works, both of considerable length and complexity, and, by common consent, two of the greatest English novels. One of these books, Middlemarch, falls within the realistic tradition; the other, Bleak House, is outside it. What this chapter should reveal is whether the approach adopted so far is adequate for coping even with works of this size and difficulty. The stages of analysis in the following sections are again those listed at the beginning of chapter two; I begin by working from four passages, trying to establish a coherent overall view of each novel; when I notice a feature in the text, I try to explain its presence, specifically in a way which is consistent with my developing overall view. Such simple critical strategies inform and shape the analyses that follow.