Quick reread for book club. I remembered almost nothing of the story and found it surprising how ‘soapy’ it felt to me. In one sense, I enjoyed it because it was easy, ‘dishy’ retelling of the marriages of the Dowells and Ashburnhams and specifically their affairs. On the other hand, the attitude towards women was consistently horrible; again and again, Edward’s and John’s troubles are blamed on the women in their life, even when they are clearly culpable too. It got old. And the characterization of poor Nancy was everything I hate about white male writers: beautiful, naive, virginial, and mad. Booooo. My opinion of the book actually went down due to this reread.