“One way to approach the book today might be to think of it not as an intimidating, monolithic entity, but as its original readers experienced it – as eight utterly manageable short books to be read over the leisurely course of a year. Another way might be to admit that you do have time to read an eight-hundred-page book, perhaps even according to a swifter timetable than that of George Eliot’s first readers. You just need to reorder your priorities.”
