Chapter Detailed Summary and Commentary of Middlemarch - Study Guide by George Eliot

with the casting vote for the hospital chaplain. Caught up in "petty alternatives" (chapter 18), he settles for Tyke.

The action moves abruptly to Rome "the city of visible history" (chapter 20). Will Ladislaw and his German friend Naumann see Dorothea in a museum, a beautiful living version of the statues that surround her (chapter 19). Dorothea retires to her apartment and we discover her crying bitterly over her growing "despondency" (chapter 20) and disillusionment with her husband, in whom she can see "no response to her feeling" (chapter 21). Will calls on the Casaubons and takes them to Naumann's studio where Casaubon and Dorothea are painted. Will visits Dorothea once more and discusses the difficulty of "do[ing] anything good" (chapter 22). Half in love with Dorothea, Will resolves to relinquish the money that Casaubon gives him and return to England.

Book III: Waiting for death. Chapters 23-33

Fred goes to sell his horse to pay off his debt, which is due in five days but is instead tricked into buying a new one (chapter 23). He then has to go to the Garths, whom he has known since a child, and ask them for a hundred pounds towards the debt (chapter 24). Their savings only come to ninety-two pounds and Caleb has to ask Mary for money - understandably, he uses this opportunity to warn Mary about marrying Fred. Mary declares she has no intention of doing so (chapter 25). Fred returns home sick and Wrench the apothecary misdiagnoses his illness. Lydgate happens to be passing by and diagnoses it correctly, thus incurring the enmity of Wrench (chapter 26). As Lydgate nurses Fred back to health the flirtation between him and Rosamund progresses until it is definite in her mind and still not serious in his (chapter 27).

Dorothea and Mr Casaubon return from Italy and Dorothea grows more miserable with a "sense of busy ineffectiveness" (chapter 28) although she is happy to learn that Celia is to marry Sir James Chettam. Yet Mr Casaubon is also unhappy in the marriage, uncomfortably aware that his wife has a mind of her own (chapter 29). Will writes to request a visit but Casaubon, grubbily suspicious of Will's feelings towards Dorothea, refuses, at which Dorothea flares up in angry innocence. Twenty minutes later, Casaubon has a fit and Lydgate is called. Lydgate tells a remorse-stricken Dorothea that Mr Casaubon has heart disease and could die tomorrow or in the next fifteen years (chapter 30). The muddle-headed Mr Brooke is given the job of telling Ladislaw not to visit but in the process invites him to his own house.

In the meantime, Rosamund's aunt Mrs Bulstrode asks Lydgate when he will name the day and Lydgate, alarmed, stops visiting the Vincys (chapter 31). When he does call to enquire after Fred, Rosamund, rendered miserable by the blow to her egoism, begins to cry. With a combination of pity and tenderness, Lydgate fancies himself in love, and finds himself engaged.

And Mr Featherstone is on the brink of death; his relatives gather round (chapter 32). When Mary stays up with him one night, he asks her to burn a will. She refuses to do anything "that might lay [her] open to suspicion" (chapter 33) and tells him to wait until his lawyer comes. Growing frantic, Mr Featherstone tries to bribe her and he dies before the lawyer can come in the morning, clutching the keys to his chest.

Book IV: Three Love Problems. Chapters 34-42

Mr Featherstone's funeral is watched by Celia, Sir James, Mr Brooke, Dorothea and Mr Casaubon and Will Ladislaw is spotted, to Mr Casaubon's displeasure (chapter 34). Featherstone's two Wills is read out among the "vultures" (chapter 35) and a newcomer called Joshua Rigg. The first Will leaves £10,000 to Fred but the second, which Mary did not burn, leaves the entire estate to the newcomer Rigg - who is Featherstone's illegitimate child. The political upheaval is damaging Mr Vincy's business and now that Fred has nothing he declares he has nothing to give Rosamund and her marriage should be called off (chapter 36). Rosamund thinks otherwise, and effortlessly gets her own way.

Mr Brooke has decided to get involved in the political situation and has bought a reform newspaper, the Pioneer, bringing Ladislaw in to edit it. When Will comes by Lowick to visit Dorothea they talk of