Reading for Our Time - by J Hillis Miller (Paperback)

About the Book

A masterclass in attentive reading offering brilliant insights into two of George Eliot's novels

Book Synopsis

A masterclass in attentive reading that opens up brilliant insights into two of George Eliot's novels. Can reading Adam Bede and Middlemarch be justified in this time of climate change, financial meltdown and ineffective politicians? J. Hillis Miller shows how, to be read for today, they must be read slowly, closely and carefully, with much attention to linguistic detail and especially to figures of speech. By relating mistakes like Dorothea's about Casaubon to current affairs, Miller's 'readings for today' can help us to come to terms with our human, social and political situation and even inspire us to act to ameliorate it. Key Features: - The product of many years of reading, teaching and writing by this world-renowned critic- Supported by the abundant previous scholarship on these texts

From the Back Cover

ENDORSEMENTS TO FOLLOW (due end September) AUTHOR-APPROVED A masterclass in attentive reading offering brilliant insights into two of George Eliot's best-loved novels Can reading Adam Bede and Middlemarch be at all justified, in this time of global climate change, worldwide financial meltdown, and conspicuously ineffective politicians? This book demonstrates that reading these George Eliot novels might do more than give pleasure, valuable as that is. Understanding these books may help readers come to terms with our present situation and even act to ameliorate it. To be understood and made useful today, however, Adam Bede and Middlemarch must be read slowly, closely, and carefully, with much attention to linguistic detail, especially to figures of speech. Such 'readings for our time' may be good examples of the human, social, and political utility of reading for today. J. Hillis Miller is UCI Distinguished Research Professor, University of California at Irvine. He has published many books and essays on 19th and 20th-century literature and on literary theory. His most recent books are The Conflagration of Community: Fiction Before and After Auschwitz, For Derrida, and The Medium is the Maker. Miller is a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and a member of the American Philosophical Society. [Add author photo]

Review Quotes

The sophistication of the arguments rules out beginning readers of Eliot's novels, but any scholar who wisher to think seriously about Eliot's fiction must read this book.--S. Bernado, Wagner College "Choice: October 2012 "

About the Author

J. Hillis Miller is UCI Distinguished Research Professor, University of California at Irvine. He has published many books and essays on 19th and 20th-century literature and on literary theory. His most recent books are Theory and the Disappearing Future: On de Man, On Benjamin with Tom Cohen and Claire Colebrook, and For Derrida. Miller is a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and a member of the American Philosophical Society.