Setting a Cast for Middlemarch characters

I don’t know how far along you are in reading Middlemarch
by George Eliot, but before I get much further, I want to get
the eight main characters set in my mind– with pictures!
Today, just four—let’s keep this reasonable!

There is Dorothea Brooke—-intelligent, serious, religious
and her sister, Celia—–also pretty, but in the shadow of D.

Sir James Chettam is the eligible bachelor next door;
Reverend Casaubon –learnED and has Dorothea’s eye,
in his fifties . . .

So I started casting about for suitable images for “my” people.

It was an executive decision to change the time period a little–for
Middlemarch was set in the 1830s—but who wants to see those
old fashions?
So this is what I came up with:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

and here is Celia—I KNOW she looks similar, but they are
sisters remember . . .

 

 

 

 

 

 

Her hairdo is a little softer, and
she’s more approachable, don’t
you think?  (Neither one a barrel
of fun.)

 

Then we have Sir James Chettam–next door neighbor who
is quite an eligible bachelor.  Everyone, including James (but
excluding Dorothea) has always figured he’d marry Dorothea.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I had some trouble finding an image for Reverend Casaubon,
because he’s still not quite formed in my head.   At first, I
settled on:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

but that was a little too over the top and think I’d be safe
with Leslie Howard who played Ashley in Gone With the Wind—–

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We already know that Dorothea has married
Casaubon, and I guess we’ll  find out later if Celia or
Sir James ever marry anyone.

That’s the first four, and my brain is spinning from all the
work of that—so I’ll save the second four for next time . . .

In the meantime, print this page and cut out the photos to
use as bookmarks in your copy of Middlemarch.   You don’t
have to keep the first “Casaubon” as a bookmark–you can
use the back of that one for a grocery list.