Eliot time

There are times in my life when what I need to do is read a George Eliot book. She is one of the masters of the English language, and one of the masters of human observation, according to me. So, I gave myself a holiday treat and bought Daniel Deronda. The very first paragraph failed to disappoint. It says this:

Was she beautiful or not beautiful? and what was the secret of form or expression which gave the dynamic quality to her glance? Was the good or the evil genius dominant in those beams? Probably the evil; else why was the effect that of unrest rather than of undisturbed charm? Why was the wish to look again felt as coercion and not as a longing in which the whole being consents?

And a few pages later:

The general conviction that we are admirable does not easily give way before a single negative; rather when any of Vanity’s large family, male or female, find their performance received coldly, they are apt to believe that a little more of it will win over the unaccountable dissident.

I read and nod my internal head and think ‘so true', 'I've felt that’, though I have never before come across so perspicacious and articulate observation of the phenomena.

Anyway, that’s Chapter 1, and there are many more pearls of wisdom to be found there!