What Next?

Now into the final pages of Daniel Deronda (about 40 left) and can't wait to see how GE wraps it all up, though I think I can see what's coming. Here's my prediction: Daniel to marry Mirah (dead certainty) and Gwendolen to marry Rex (a lot less sure of that. In fact, bit of a wild guess. Fascinated to see what's in store for our heroine, if that's what she is.) Of course, wrapping it up involves a lot more than who gets hitched to whom - as does life - and it's going to be interesting to get a general sense of the various characters' fates as well as the closure achieved in terms of the thematic concerns.

I'm puzzled over all those clever critics who don't seem to find plot of any great importance in novels or plays, as if it doesn't matter how things turn out. They're missing out on one of the greatest pleasures of reading: the simple, deep desire to find out what happens next.