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Romola

George Eliot · Public domain text

226,543 words · about 15 h 52 min to read

Period artwork: Interior of the Bodleian Library, 1845
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About this edition

The text of Romola comes from Project Gutenberg e-text #24020. It is in English and public domain in the United States. Project Gutenberg’s header and license text are removed, and RedLectern sets the text out for reading on screen; no words of the book are rewritten or summarized. More formats (EPUB, Kindle) · How RedLectern is built

This book is long enough to be split into 6 parts, so each one loads quickly on its own.

Contents (74)
  1. Opening about 15 min
  2. I. The Shipwrecked Stranger about 23 min
  3. II. Breakfast for Love about 8 min
  4. III. The Barber’s Shop about 20 min
  5. IV. First Impressions about 6 min
  6. V. The Blind Scholar and his Daughter about 24 min
  7. VI. Dawning Hopes about 27 min
  8. VII. A Learned Squabble about 10 min
  9. VIII. A Face in the Crowd about 22 min
  10. IX. A Man’s Ransom about 13 min
  11. X. Under the Plane-Tree about 20 min
  12. XI. Tito’s Dilemma about 6 min
  13. XII. The Prize is nearly Grasped about 22 min
  14. XIII. The Shadow of Nemesis about 12 min
  15. XIV. The Peasants’ Fair about 26 min
  16. XV. The Dying Message about 15 min
  17. XVI. A Florentine Joke about 23 min
  18. XVII. Under the Loggia about 11 min
  19. XVIII. The Portrait about 11 min
  20. XIX. The Old Man’s Hope about 7 min
  21. XX. The Day of the Betrothal about 16 min
  22. XXI. Florence expects a Guest about 13 min
  23. XXII. The Prisoners about 13 min
  24. XXIII. After-Thoughts about 5 min
  25. XXIV. Inside the Duomo about 11 min
  26. XXV. Outside the Duomo about 8 min
  27. XXVI. The Garment of Fear about 9 min
  28. XXVII. The Young Wife about 18 min
  29. XXVIII. The Painted Record about 8 min
  30. XXIX. A Moment of Triumph about 12 min
  31. XXX. The Avenger’s Secret about 17 min
  32. XXXI. Fruit is Seed about 9 min
  33. XXXII. A Revelation about 17 min
  34. XXXIII. Baldassarre makes an Acquaintance about 14 min
  35. XXXIV. No Place for Repentance about 21 min
  36. XXXV. What Florence was thinking of about 6 min
  37. XXXVI. Ariadne discrowns herself about 18 min
  38. XXXVII. The Tabernacle Unlocked about 7 min
  39. XXXVIII. The Black Marks become Magical about 11 min
  40. XXXIX. A Supper in the Rucellai Gardens about 29 min
  41. XL. An Arresting Voice about 15 min
  42. XLI. Coming Back about 5 min
  43. XLII. Romola in her Place about 13 min
  44. XLIII. The Unseen Madonna about 11 min
  45. XLIV. The Visible Madonna about 10 min
  46. XLV. At the Barber’s Shop about 15 min
  47. XLVI. By a Street Lamp about 14 min
  48. XLVII. Check about 5 min
  49. XLVIII. Counter-Check about 10 min
  50. XLIX. The Pyramid of Vanities about 10 min
  51. L. Tessa Abroad and at Home about 18 min
  52. LI. Monna Brigida’s Conversion about 8 min
  53. LII. A Prophetess about 12 min
  54. LIII. On San Miniato about 9 min
  55. LIV. The Evening and the Morning about 6 min
  56. LV. Waiting about 6 min
  57. LVI. The Other Wife about 20 min
  58. LVII. Why Tito was Safe about 10 min
  59. LVIII. A Final Understanding about 10 min
  60. LIX. Pleading about 15 min
  61. LX. The Scaffold about 11 min
  62. LXI. Drifting Away about 8 min
  63. LXII. The Benediction about 8 min
  64. LXIII. Ripening Schemes about 19 min
  65. LXIV. The Prophet in his Cell about 14 min
  66. LXV. The Trial by Fire about 13 min
  67. LXVI. A Masque of the Furies about 7 min
  68. LXVII. Waiting by the River about 11 min
  69. LXVIII. Romola’s waking about 17 min
  70. LXIX. Homeward about 5 min
  71. LXX. Meeting Again about 8 min
  72. LXXI. The Confession about 11 min
  73. LXXII. The Last Silence about 5 min
  74. Epilogue about 7 min

The opening of I. The Shipwrecked Stranger

The Loggia de’ Cerchi stood in the heart of old Florence, within a labyrinth of narrow streets behind the Badia, now rarely threaded by the stranger, unless in a dubious search for a certain severely simple doorplace, bearing this inscription:

Qui Nacque Il Divino Poeta.

To the ear of Dante, the same streets rang with the shout and clash of fierce battle between rival families; but in the fifteenth century, they were only noisy with the unhistorical quarrels and broad jests of woolcarders in the cloth-producing quarters of San Martino and Garbo.

Under this loggia, in the early morning of the 9th of April 1492, two men had their eyes fixed on each other: one was stooping slightly, and looking downward with the scrutiny of curiosity; the other, lying on the pavement, was looking upward with the startled gaze of a suddenly-awakened dreamer.

Read on in Part 1 →