Middlemarch

By George Eliot

Middlemarch is a novel by George Eliot. It has multiple plots with a large cast of characters, and in addition to its distinct though interlocking narratives it pursues a number of underlying themes, including the status of women, the nature of marriage, idealism, self-interest, religion, hypocrisy, political reform, and education. The pace is leisurely, the tone is mildly didactic (with an authorial voice that occasionally bursts through the narrative), and the canvas is very broad. Although it has some comical elements and comically named characters (Mr. Brooke, the "tiny aunt" Miss Noble, Mrs. Dollop), Middlemarch is a work of realism. Through the voices and opinions of different characters we become aware of various issues of the day: the Great Reform Bill, the beginnings of the railways, the death of King George IV, and the succession of his brother, the Duke of Clarence (who became King William IV). We learn something of the state of contemporary medical science. We also encounter the deeply reactionary mindset within a settled community facing the prospect of what to many is unwelcome change.

Dorothea Brooke is an idealistic and well-to-do young woman who seeks to help those around her by doing things such as helping the lot of the local poor. She is seemingly set for a comfortable and idle life as the wife of neighbouring landowner Sir James Chettam, but to the dismay and bewilderment of her sister Celia (who later marries Chettam) and her loquacious uncle Mr. Brooke, she marries instead Edward Casaubon, a dry, pedantic scholar many decades older than Dorothea who, she believes, is engaged in writing a great work, The Key to All Mythologies. She wishes to find fulfilment by sharing her husband's intellectual life, but during an unhappy honeymoon in Rome she experiences his coldness towards her ambitions. Slowly she realises that his great project is doomed to failure and her feelings for him descend to pity. She forms a warm friendship with a young cousin of Casaubon's, Will Ladislaw, but her husband's antipathy towards him is clear (partly based on his belief that Ladislaw is trying to seduce Dorothea to gain access to Casaubon's fortune), and Ladislaw is forbidden to visit. In poor health, Casaubon attempts to extract from Dorothea a promise that, should he die, she will "avoid doing what I should deprecate and apply yourself to do what I desire"—meaning either that she should shun Ladislaw, or, as Dorothea believes, that she should complete The Key to All Mythologies in his place, forever freezing her youthful intelligence and energy into animating the dead hand of his extinct ideas. Before Dorothea can give her reply, Casaubon dies. She then learns that he has added the extraordinary provision to his will that, if she should marry Ladislaw, Dorothea will lose her inheritance from Casaubon.

• Language: English
• Publisher: BookRix
• Release date: Jun 9, 2019
• ISBN: 9783736802070

George Eliot

George Eliot (1819–1880), born Mary Ann Evans, was an English writer best known for her poetry and novels. She grew up in a conservative environment where she received a Christian education. An avid reader, Eliot expanded her horizons on religion, science and free thinkers. Her earliest writings included an anonymous English translation of The Life of Jesus in 1846 before embracing a career as a fiction writer. Some of her most notable works include Adam Bede (1859), The Mill on the Floss(1860) and Silas Marner.

Reviews for Middlemarch

[davidroche_1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

I am on holiday (I refuse to use the term ‘annual leave’, and not because I am self-employed). I love in the summer to take the opportunity to dive into a thick brick of fiction that requires real commitment, and also once in a while to tick off the too-long list of really-should-have-read classics. This year it is Middlemarch (Penguin Classics) by George Eliot and Book One (of eight + ‘Finale’) is a great start. Everything you would expect but just better written than you can imagine.

[tonifgmamtc · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

I guess this would be labeled as a period drama or maybe historical realism. It follows several several people in their regular lives. A lot of the focus seems to be about the ideas of the time and changes in ideas.

[arewenotben · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Every bit as good as I was led to believe. Particularly admire the way it looks at events and characters from multiple perspectives, bringing a real richness and complexity to the novel.

[juva_3 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

A sweeping small town narrative about the sacrifices of marriage, family, and love. Follow the lives of the principal families of Middlemarch; walk through their hopes, struggles, and disappointments. I always savor this type of novel because one becomes so familiar with these imagined characters. One comes to know, love and forgive them. A truly beautiful novel.

[drfuriosa · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

One of my all-time favorites. If there is any author that knows the human mind and heart intimately, it is Eliot. As keen an observer as Austen and a connoisseur of human folly and strength, Eliot incisively exposes the nature of ambition and desire in society.

[meredy_1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Six-word review: Humanity closely observed and lovingly rendered.Extended review:No author has ever been so unfailingly compassionate toward her characters. Even the weak, vain, and reprehensible ones are human, their flaws and vices a matter of degree and nothing black or white. With her gift of insight, George Eliot shows us their hearts, and with her faceted mirrors she casts their reflections onto us. Her capacity for rendering inner lives that ring with truth is unsurpassed.Middlemarch is the name of a fictitious small English town of the early nineteenth century. Subtitled "A Study of Provincial Life," the narrative follows several characters whose stories are intertwined. Like so many other British novels from serious to comic, it seems to focus greatest attention on two things: marriage and money. But Eliot does not use stock characters or easy clichés. The idealistic young woman, the obsessed cleric, the troubled doctor, his indulged, imprudent young wife, and all the others, both major and minor, possess the particularity that confers verisimilitude and the universality that speaks to readers across time, space, and circumstance.Here is a small selection of quotes that illustrate Eliot's style, her wit, and her warmth. I read a Kindle edition, so I can't supply page numbers; I'll give chapter references instead.• Sane people did what their neighbors did, so that if any lunatics were at large, one might know and avoid them. (Book I, Chapter I)• "He has got no good red blood in his body," said Sir James."No. Somebody put a drop under a magnifying-glass and it was all semicolons and parentheses," said Mrs. Cadwallader. (Book I, Chapter VIII)• And certainly, the mistakes that we male and female mortals make when we have our own way might fairly raise some wonder that we are so fond of it. (Book I, Chapter IX)• Mr. Bulstrode had also a deferential bending attitude in listening, and an apparently fixed attentiveness in his eyes which made those persons who thought themselves worth hearing infer that he was seeking the utmost improvement from their discourse. Others, who expected to make no great figure, disliked this kind of moral lantern turned on them. If you are not proud of your cellar, there is no thrill of satisfaction in seeing your guest hold up his wine-glass to the light and look judicial. Such joys are reserved for conscious merit. (Book II, Chapter I)• It was a principle with Mr. Bulstrode to gain as much power as possible, that he might use it for the glory of God. He went through a great deal of spiritual conflict and inward argument in order to adjust his motives, and make clear to himself what God's glory required. (Book II, Chapter IV)• [O]ne's self-satisfaction is an untaxed kind of property which it is very unpleasant to find deprecated. (Book II, Chapter IV)• [I]t was plain that a vicar might be adored by his womankind as the king of men and preachers, and yet be held by them to stand in much need of their direction. (Book II, Chapter V)• Besides, he was a likeable man, sweet-tempered, ready-witted, frank, without grins of suppressed bitterness or other conversational flavors which make half of us an affliction to our friends. (Book II, Chapter VI)• There are characters which are continually creating collisions and nodes for themselves in dramas which nobody is prepared to act with them. Their susceptibilities will clash against objects that remain innocently quiet. (Book II, Chapter VII)• ...the red drapery which was being hung for Christmas spreading itself everywhere like a disease of the retina. (Book II, Chapter VIII)• If we had a keen vision and feeling of all ordinary human life, it would be like hearing the grass grow and the squirrel's heart beat, and we should die of that roar which lies on the other side of silence. As it is, the quickest of us walk about well wadded with stupidity. (Book II, Chapter VIII)• We are all of us born in moral stupidity, taking the world as an udder to feed our supreme selves. (Book II, Chapter IX)These are but a sampling of the first two books of eight. I won't go on, as I could do for pages, but I must add this beautiful evocation of two people falling in love:• Each looked at the other as if they had been two flowers which had opened then and there. (Book IV, Chapter IV)Eliot's words are, to me, the superlatively rendered expression of a sublime sensibility. I won't try to persuade anyone of that who doesn't see it the same way. I'll just say this: when I have no more than five stars to award to a novel like Middlemarch, it's hard to give that many to anything else.

[k6gst · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

My brother-in-law saw me reading it at Thanksgiving.“Whatcha reading?”“Middlemarch, by George Eliot.”“What’s it about?”“English provincial life in the 1830s. Marriages, other signifiers of social standing, ruinous debt, the Reform Act of 1832, other stuff. My jam.”“Cool.”Though it did have some earlier devotees (Virignia Woolf and Emily Dickenson), it wasn’t really recognized until the middle of the 20th century. Now it’s frequently mentioned as perhaps the best English novel.At times I found it to be kind of a bear. A lot of people bog down and don’t get past the first 75 pages or so. But if you can hang on for the first 500 pages, the last 300 really pick up. The final paragraph was very affecting.

[aliceanna-1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I found this book terribly difficult to get into, but once past the first section, it got better and better. The problem with the start is that Dorothea does not appear to be that likable of a character and I really need to be able to connect or sympathize with one or more of the main characters in order to really enjoy a book. Dorothea does become a much more sympathetic character and her strength of mind certainly appealed to me. Middlemarch is an epic but not in the way that I have come to think of epic works. It is an epic of the thoughts and motivations and strengths and weaknesses of those very human beings who populate the novel. The book slowly builds reaching a quiet crescendo that satisfies the reader who has invested the time and effort into reading it. I learned early on that Middlemarch was best enjoyed by reading it slowly, a little at a time and letting it ferment. Although the reading was a little tedious at times, the payoff was worth it.

[dste_2 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

 My first impression of Middlemarch was that it was written in a lovely style that also took a bit longer to read. It reminded me of reading Shakespeare for the first time. Not to say that it was as difficult, but it took time to get used to, and the more of the book I read, the easier and more enjoyable it became. It also took me some time to get a feel for the characters. By the time I'd finished chapter three, I was thinking, "Ok, this Dorothea I kind of like. I can see this suitor trouble is going to last a long time. That will be interesting." And then the trouble was solved in the next two chapters.It did hold my interest right up to the marriage, though. Then, it abruptly switched to Lydgate. And then to Rosamond. And then a bunch of new characters talking about Fred. Then Fred. And back to Rosamond... You get the picture. It was very disorienting. I was just settling down to spend the book with one set of characters when an entirely new set with very little connection to the last was thrown at me. I had to get a feel for the characters all over again. This was the sort of thing that characterized my journey through Middlemarch. I'd get into a character, a situation, then the situation would be resolved and a completely new character/situation reduced and my interest would drop again. So many characters! It was difficult to keep track of them all at first. It took effort not to give up at several different points, but then there were points where I found myself compelled to continue without pause. Fred's going to find a way to pay back that debt right? Right? What's in that will? So it was very up-and-down.Once I got past to the middle (ish) it was much easier to continue. Probably because I'd gotten used to the style and had met almost all of the characters. The fact that the point of view had switched so much actually led to interesting perspectives on the story that wouldn't have been there otherwise. As a reader, I tend to root for the main character (unless I hate him/her, which has happened), but in this book it seemed that there were several "main" characters. So in certain situations, I almost didn't know what outcome to hope for because of the conflicting interests of characters I'd gotten to like. I think in the end it also presented a fuller picture, which I believe is what the author was going for. I thoroughly enjoyed the ending; I was even making remarks out loud by that time, much to the annoyment of my sister. I think that if I ever choose to read it again, I'll find much more enjoyment in it than I did this time through.This ended up being a long review, I suppose, but I think almost 800 pages makes length in a review a virtual necessity. All in all, I think it was a very worthwhile read. Reading it was basically an adventure in itself, and I won't easily forget it.

[deborahk_44 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Everybody talks about Jane Austin and I'm a fan too, but why doesn't anybody ever sing the praises of George Elliot? Middlemarch is like Jane Austin on steroids, its not limited to a single societal set - its a whole world, as relevant today as it was when it was written -- it even has murder in it!

[dangraves · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Arguably the greatest novel in the English language, a richness of character and unity of theme hard to match. I've reread it every year or two since I discovered it. Even characters I don't like, she makes me understand, such as Rosamund and Bulstrode. Perhaps she is too easy on Farebrother, Fred and Lydgate, three men who indulge themselves more than is fitting.

[dazzyj_1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Moving and profound; all the superlatives are true. There is an aphorism on nearly every page and altogether this is one of those nineteenth century novels that is about a very specific (imaginary) place and yet contains the whole world.

[mausergem_1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

This is the story of the lives of people living in the county of Middlemarch in the mid 19th century. The various characters with their interwoven lives are depicted beautifully by the author. The author along with a good story narrative take us a step further into the minds of her characters. A space of two centuries hasn't diminished the impact this beautiful book has on it's readers.

[katieray-1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

An absolutely beautiful and touching book. Eliot's characters are real and compelling, and she portrays life in all its imperfection - full of mistakes and misunderstanding, but remedied by friendship and compassion.

[lynnb_64 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

This novel provides a look at small-town life in Victorian times. The author tells the story of several characters and explores themes such as spirituality vs. religion, the constraints of small-town life and social expectations, idealism and what makes a successful marriage. Well written with many characters and themes to explore.The author displays an amazing understanding of human motivations and behaviour.

[noah_schumacher-1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Trying to write a simple review of Middlemarch is difficult because I am not sure where to begin. This novel was one of the best novels I have read in a long time. With many plot twists and turns George Elliot engages the reader on many levels. Beyond the plot and character development (which are superb) Elliot writes with amazing description and eloquence. She literally paints works of art with her words. If the reader is a writer or communicator in any fashion, he or she can not help but feel that they just spent 900 pages being schooled in the ways of critical engagement.

Her main story line involving Dorthea offers a modern critique to the notion that an individual must fit the societal mold to be something or be someone of importance. She shows us that it is often the obscure and unnoticed who make the world what it is. One can not help but leave this novel feeling empowered to rediscover the beauty of simplicity while living in a such a materialistic and narcissistic culture like Western Civilization.

From beginning to end it was a phenomenal book. However, the reader must pay close attention to the rhythm of Elliot's writing. She goes back and forth between various plots of the overarching story rather quickly and quietly. If the reader can stay in step with Elliot throughout the text, he or she will arrive at an ending that will surely delight and impact on many profound levels.

[debnance_1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

I started Middlemarch on January first and lingered over it for weeks, months, before finally finishing it off during the twenty-four hour readathon. It really wasn't until mid-book that I grew to love it, the characters, the plots, the intrigues, the small-town gossip that fueled so many difficulties. I came away with a new appreciation for the power of acting out of interest for the benefit of others, bravely, despite the possible consequences. So happy I read this book.

[mullgirl · Rating: 1 out of 5 stars]

I had an interview once with someone for whom I have much respect and who I had heard was very well-read. Naturally, I worked the topic of conversation around to literature, and we had a lively discussion on the merits of several British authors. His favorite book is Middlemarch, which he said that he reads when he’s not in the mood for anything heavy. For whatever reason, I have an image of him very Mr. Bennet-like, enjoying folly and being amused by the profane. I had to confess to him that I had never read that particular book. I did not get the job.

I resolved to read that book around New Years’. I picked up a soft bound copy of Middlemarch from my local library toward the end of February and was surprised at its girth. No light reading after all, it would seem. I read it on the train to and from an internship and then tried a few nights to just give it a few hours at a time. And alas, alack, I could not do it. After 200 pages, I gave up. I more than gave up–I borrowed the BBC adaptation from my local library. Sigh.

So why could I not finish it? The characters were a little too flat. They all had a touch of the ridiculous in them, which I generally like. But the characters all seemed so very one-dimensional to me–so much so that I could never really become interested in any of their stories; I never needed to see what happens next with them. I just didn’t care.

[tess_w · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

With all of its 880 pages, I expected “more” in terms of a definitive plot, which I did not find. The characters are rich and the time period displayed beautifully by Eliot. Her descriptive powers are delicious as evidenced by description of Mr. Casaubon: "as genuine a character as any ruminant animal". (pg. 173) The pace of the book is slow and reminds somewhat of Austen and Wharton. I have 2-3 other Eliot’s in my anthology and as of right now I’m not anxious to begin them.

[downtownlibrarian · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

So proud to have read this book at last! And it was wonderful. It's true, you do have to accustom yourself to the style, but the rewards are great. Insightful, sometimes sad, often witty. Thanks to my wonderful book club (are we forever the Middlemarchers?) for the impetus to read this magnificent novel!

[cecrow · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

It's an impressive must-read classic, but I admire this novel more than I love it. It tries to do too much, and then somehow gets it all done. A small English town is the setting but that entire town is its stage, there are allusions to all manner of things requiring endnotes be consulted, and the author demonstrates a powerful mind in sentences that must be read twice to grasp, character portraits to justify any personality, and with both feet firmly planted in realism. I'm moved to say it's a story about how much one's happiness descends upon making a poor choice in a life partner, however excusable that choosing may be. But I could as easily say it's about the evils of money, or politics large and small. Which story commands the foreground depends more upon your perception than the narrative's guidance, because it fantastically intertwines all of these things. It's the style rather than the impressive content that lends it a dry feeling. Virginia Wolf may have been correct that with Middlemarch fictional characters began to think as well as to feel, in that the characters' thoughts drive their emotions more often than vice versa, but the novel is so wrapped up in thinking that it keeps its gates too tightly fastened at the control dams of the feeling portion. Everyone in this story is to be understood and understandable. George Eliot's narration too often takes charge to ensure this. Then it can read very clinically, weighted with exposition and psychological analysis. In the better portions, enough is left enshrouded in mystery and open to interpretation, actions and motives being justified by the character's citing good homilies while clearly there are other perspectives that are being neglected. In these parts the novel shines and it engages. I did not know sometimes whether she was inventing fiction or psychology, whether I should join in the chorus that credits George Eliot with sharp insight or criticize her for dictating too often. At its worst it can feel as though the novel is placed on pause in frozen tableau while she taps with a pointer on the inner workings of the minds in play. I've met this before in Henry James and others and felt it was done well without becoming so much like an essay. To the extent that thought has been emphasized over emotion, it demands a similar commitment from the reader - thus, for me, more admirable than loved. The broad-ranging insight is undeniably there, sharp enough to balance the novel's lack of particular focus, and eminently makes this novel worth reading once. Nothing more precise can summarize it than to say that no one's life is a fairy tale, be they wealthy or poor, wise or otherwise, prudent or precocious. Perhaps we can also conclude that those who are happiest dwell least on their neighbours' opinions.

[lindawwilson · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

i liked this book very very much; but Jim did not like it at all, although he managed to finish it in around 2007; I read it in my 20's or 30's; cant remember exactly; only Eliot that I disliked was Ramola; and Daniel Deronda was not so good, either

[clueless_1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Took me forever to finish but well worth it. Shows what destruction happens when a women invests all her identity in a man.

[tzelman_1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

A wonderful panoramic novel of class interaction. Eliot treats her characters with great sympathy.

[jthierer_1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

I really liked that even the minor characters in this book were real people, not just cardboard caricatures to move the plot along. I also appreciated the subtle dashes of humor that only become apparent as you adjust to Eliot's style. Overall, amazing book that really engaged me mentally and emotionally. Everyone should at least give this one a chance.

[shimshonit · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

I've read this book twice now (and seen the BBC series countless times). I believe it to be, without qualification, the greatest novel in the English language. Its themes are so numerous, it has something for everyone--love (with all its glories and problems), revenge, social class, money, progress vs tradition, politics. The web of relationships in Middlemarch--a town experiencing the early growing pains of industrialization--is intricate, and while there are more and less sympathetic characters, Eliot makes sure the reader has enough knowledge about each character to prevent easy labeling of heroes or villains. Each character is nuanced, flawed, striving towards something--like reality, only more interesting.The prose is dense, and at times incomprehensible to the modern reader. This is the main (and, to my mind, only) drawback to the novel. The headings at the beginning of each chapter, usually written by Eliot herself, are connected in some way to the content of the chapters, though I must confess to paying them little attention as the novel wears on. Reading them, translating them (when necessary), and examining the connections between them and the chapters themselves offers a study unto itself. (Perhaps I'll attempt it next time I read the novel.)My edition (which came out after the BBC series) has a quotation on the back jacket from Virginia Woolf which reads: "[George Eliot] was one of the first English novelists to discover that men and women think as well as feel..." While I love Jane Austen's pre-marriage odysseys, I also love Eliot's tackling of the bumpy ride of marriage itself.After 800 pages of thorough exploration of the minds, hearts, and souls of thoroughly human characters, I am still sorry to see it end.

[lucylocket_1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

I have read this book several times over the years and it still appears fresh each time. It has enormous scope. Dorethea is a wonderful central character who has the grace to learn from her mistakes. My favourite quote is "If we had a keen vision and feeling of all ordinary human life, it would be like hearing the grass grow and the squirrel's heart beat, and we should die of that roar which lies on the other side of silence. As it is, the quickest of us walk about well wadded with stupidity"

[samfsmith_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

A nuanced and complex novel that deals realistically with life. Comparisons with her contemporary Charles Dickens are inevitable. Compared to Eliot, Dickens seems overly sentimental and even a little crude in his portrayal of characters and their motivations - and I love my Dickens. But Eliot (actually the female author Mary Ann Evans) has an insight into the psychological makeup of her characters that rings true.

[kendall41_1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Masterful. Probably the only 19th century English novel comparable to the great Russian masters.

[thesmellofbooks · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Well worth the effort. Eliot is a brilliant, witty, nimble, insightful, and compassionate writer.