Long books for short evenings
How to read a big novel twenty pages at a time, and why it is worth it.
Big Victorian novels were written to be read slowly. Many first came out in instalments, a few chapters a month, and they still work best that way.
Twenty pages a night
Twenty pages takes most people about half an hour. At that pace, Middlemarch lasts around six weeks, which is roughly how long its first readers took over it too.
Three to start with
- Middlemarch, George Eliot. A whole town, and every small compromise that holds it together.
- North and South, Elizabeth Gaskell. Set in a thinly disguised Manchester, which is where your copy will be posted from.
- Persuasion, Jane Austen. Shorter, if you want to warm up first.
You don't have to finish a long book quickly. You just have to keep going back.
Keep a bookmark in it, keep it by the bed, and let it take the time it takes.
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