Can reading Adam Bede and Middlemarch be justified in this time of climate change, financial meltdown and ineffective politicians? J. Hillis Miller shows how to be read for today, they must be read slowly, closely and carefully, with much attention to linguistic detail and especially to figures of speech. By relating mistakes, like Dorothea's about Casaubon, to current affairs, Miller's 'readings for today' can help us to come to terms with our human, social and political situation and even inspire us to act to ameliorate it.