Rev. Edward Casaubon — A pedantic, selfish clergyman of late middle age who is obsessed with finishing his scholarly research, to the exclusion of other people and things. He marries Dorothea Brooke, leading to a loveless marriage. His unfinished book The Key to All Mythologies is intended as a monument to the tradition of Christian syncretism. However, we later learn that his life's work is useless as[citation needed] he does not read German and is therefore behind on current studies. We also learn he is aware of this but has put too much time into his research to admit it to anyone else.

"Middlemarch" by George Eliot