Her mind was theoretic, and yearned by its nature after some lofty conception of the world which might frankly include the parish of Tipton and her own rule of conduct there. She could not reconcile the anxieties of a spiritual life involving eternal consequences, with a keen interest in gimp and artificial protrusions of drapery. Dorothea knew many passages of Pascal’s Pensees and of Jeremy Taylor by heart and to her the destinies of mankind, seen by the light of Christianity, made the solicitudes of feminine fashion appear an occupation for Bedlam. Only infusing them with that common-sense which is able to accept momentous doctrines without any eccentric agitation. Such reasons would have been enough to account for plain dress, quite apart from religious feeling but in Miss Brooke’s case, religion alone would have determined it and Celia mildly acquiesced in all her sister’s sentiments. When any margin was required for expenses more distinctive of rank. Then there was well-bred economy, which in those days made show in dress the first item to be deducted from.

Young women of such birth, living in a quiet country-house, and attending a village church hardly larger than a parlor, naturally regarded frippery as the ambition of a huckster’s daughter. Nevertheless, Celia wore scarcely more trimmings and it was only to close observers that her dress differed from her sister’s, and had a shade of coquetry in its arrangements. She was usually spoken of as being remarkably clever, but with the addition that her sister Celia had more commonsense. Middlemarch PDF Book by George Eliot Name of BookĪnd her profile as well as her stature and bearing seemed to gain the more dignity from her plain garments, which by the side of provincial fashion gave her the impressiveness of a fine quotation from the Bible,-or from one of our elder poets,-in a paragraph of to-day’s newspaper. Her hand and wrist were so finely formed that she could wear sleeves not less bare of style than those in which the Blessed Virgin appeared to Italian painters.

Miss Brooke had that kind of beauty which seems to be thrown into relief by poor dress. Click here to Download Middlemarch PDF Book by George Eliot Language English having PDF Size 7.6 MB and No of Pages 750.

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