Goodreads | Middlemarch (Penguin Classics) by George Eliot

rating	frequency	%
5		43%
4		30%
3		17%
2		5%
1		2%

topics	replies	views	last activity
Constant Reader: A synonym for "too wordy"?	19	63	14 days ago, 08:13AM

Stephanie rated it:

(review of isbn 0451529170)

09/27/07

bookshelves: favorites, greatfnwriting

Read in January, 1997

I'm thoroughly embarrassed to admit that this book was first recommended to me by my stalker. Subsequently, I avoided MIDDLEMARCH like the plague, because it became associated with this creepy guy who thought the fastest way to my heart was to stare at me, follow me home, and leave obscene messages on my voice mail.

Flash forward 2 years, when I'm purusing yet another of my favorite tomes, THE BOOK OF LISTS. I'm intrigued to see that the one book that consistently turns up on the "Ten F...more

Like this review? yes (9 people liked it)

add a comment

Martine rated it:

(review of isbn 0192834029)

07/11/08

bookshelves: british, favourites, film, historical-fiction, nineteenth-century, psychological-drama

Read in April, 1996

Widely regarded as the quintessential Victorian novel, Middlemarch is a superb study of life among the upper and upper middle classes of a fictional rural community in 1830s England. It takes 900 pages to draw its conclusions, but they're 900 pages of some of the richest realist writing nineteenth-century literature has to offer, full of insights into society, human nature, what to do in life when one can't quite make one's dreams come true, and how to make a marriage work. I've se...more Widely regarded as the quintessential Victorian novel, Middlemarch is a superb study of life among the upper and upper middle classes of a fictional rural community in 1830s England. It takes 900 pages to draw its conclusions, but they're 900 pages of some of the richest realist writing nineteenth-century literature has to offer, full of insights into society, human nature, what to do in life when one can't quite make one's dreams come true, and how to make a marriage work. I've seen it described as a book everyone should read before getting married, and I agree -- all the lessons you need to learn about human relationships are in here, and much more besides.

To a large extent, the success of Middlemarch is due to its characterisation. A character-driven novel if ever I saw one, Middlemarch features some of the most memorable characters Eliot ever came up with: an earnest young lady who wishes to make a difference; her husband, a petty and jealous scholar; a hot-tempered doctor who is a little ahead of his time; his wife, a living embodiment of the fact that pretty girls don't always make the best spouses; a pious banker who is not the good Christian he has always professed to be; his nephew, who desperately wishes to win the heart of the girl he loves despite his mounting gambling debts; a talented outsider who doesn't quite know how to make the most of his gifts -- they're all here, and they're described in admirable detail. Like a scientist, Eliot puts her characters under a microscope, describing their every flaw and weakness, but always in a sympathetic way; even her worst characters have redeeming features, which makes it very easy to take an interest in their vicissitudes. Like an anthropologist, she then puts her characters into a socio-cultural context, showing the whole through the parts and the parts through the whole. The historical background (political changes, the industrial revolution, new medical theories) is magnificently drawn, and the stories (there are many here) are as fine as they come, featuring love triangles, thwarted prospects, intrigue, political aspirations, blackmail, gossip, characters meddling in other people's lives from beyond the grave, and a clash between old values and modern science and technology. Granted, the book takes a while to hit its stride, but once it does, it's unputdownable.

As for shortcomings, one could say that Eliot is occasionally a tad too intellectual for her own good. Frightfully well-read herself, she sometimes has her characters refer to things which seem a bit outside their scope. Likewise, she occasionally loses herself in technical and political details which slightly detract from the main stories, and takes so much time setting the scene for the great developments which are to follow later that the first half of the book is a tad dull. The second half is brilliant, though -- up there with the great French and Russian realist classics of the period, and then some. It's not the easiest read, but a patient reader will be amply rewarded for his/her trouble, especially if he/she takes the trouble the read the book more than once. Middlemarch is one of those books which yield new gems every time one reads them, and I cherish it for that....less

Like this review? yes (3 people liked it)

6 comments

Phil rated it:

(review of isbn 0451529170)

10/10/07

recommends it for: The jackanapes and mongrels who need to learn that people aren't so bad as they seem.

When I finished reading this book, I wrote in the front of it that 'This is the most rewarding book you will ever read' and left it on a bookshelf in Fiji, dreaming that someone would go through the effort of reading the whole thing based only on my comment. I doubt anyone's picked it up since then; Fiji is a strange and frightening place.

I spake the truth, though. It strikes me that most of those who've read Middlemarch these days are hapless souls who resent it as the mammoth task some cro...more When I finished reading this book, I wrote in the front of it that 'This is the most rewarding book you will ever read' and left it on a bookshelf in Fiji, dreaming that someone would go through the effort of reading the whole thing based only on my comment. I doubt anyone's picked it up since then; Fiji is a strange and frightening place.

I spake the truth, though. It strikes me that most of those who've read Middlemarch these days are hapless souls who resent it as the mammoth task some crooked professor set them at university. I read it for myself, unwittingly, and was pleasantly surprised. George Eliot conjures a massive spectrum of characters, and gets into the head of every major player in the novel. We are shown what motivates the most despicable figures as well as those we are drawn to, and as a result there is no one in this book who you cannot relate to in some way or another, or at the very least understand. In my opinion that is what makes it such a grand read: George Eliot understood people. She shows you that everyone thinks in their own way, and it makes it hard to judge anyone when you can observe this.

Though it is that lasting impression of how we might perceive one another that really makes Middlemarch stand out, the story itself is continually interesting for its sheer breadth. George Eliot set out to give a panoramic view of a provincial town, and she achieves this incredibly. It is a long read, but every step in the story builds up to the picture of the whole. Sometimes I found myself confused as to how I'd ended up in a situation where I was reading what should essentially have amounted to little more a 19th Century soap opera, but what confused me was that I was enjoying it so much. I was desperate to know what would become of these marriages and debts and everything inbetween. This is such a detailed character study that you become genuinely interested in their lives, no matter how mundane the details might appear if you stepped back and really thought about it.

Middlemarch is not a book for everyone, I imagine. The insight George Eliot shows might bore rather interest many. But it interests me like hell, so a pox on the naysayers....less

Like this review? yes (3 people liked it)

1 comment

Siobhan rated it:

(review of isbn 0451529170)

08/21/07

Read in August, 2007

recommends it for: everyone alive.

Best. Goddamned. Book. Ever.

Seriously, this shit's bananas. B-A-N-A-N-A-S. 750 pages in, and you're still being surprised. It's 800 pages long and EVERY SINGLE PAGE ADVANCES THE PLOT. You cannot believe it until you read it.

This is a writer's book. By which I mean, and I say this with love, that if you write, but you do not love Middlemarch with everything that's in you, then stop writing. Yesterday.

Like this review? yes (3 people liked it)

add a comment

David rated it:

(review of isbn 0451529170)

09/13/07

Like Casaubon, I'm searching for a Key to All Mythologies. I'll let you know how it turns out.

Like this review? yes (2 people liked it)

add a comment

Charlaralotte rated it:

(review of isbn 0451529170)

04/28/08

bookshelves: read-in-the-1980s

This book is da bomb.

Like this review? yes (2 people liked it)

5 comments

Akemi rated it:

(review of isbn 0451529170)

06/04/08

bookshelves: school

Read in April, 2008

My other favorite (along with Emma) from my 19th Century British Novel class. The writing is just amazing. Throughout my reading of the book, I just marveled at how perfectly Eliot phrases everything. The only parts that I disliked were her ramblings on medicine- possibly because it's outdated science, possibly because it seemed like she was just showing off her own knowledge for no apparent reason. Although at one point in the novel, she point-blank says that everything she wrote had a purpose ...more My other favorite (along with Emma) from my 19th Century British Novel class. The writing is just amazing. Throughout my reading of the book, I just marveled at how perfectly Eliot phrases everything. The only parts that I disliked were her ramblings on medicine- possibly because it's outdated science, possibly because it seemed like she was just showing off her own knowledge for no apparent reason. Although at one point in the novel, she point-blank says that everything she wrote had a purpose connecting to the novel itself (but I have my doubts). Oh, and I could have lived without some of the chapters on Lydgate and Rosamond's failing marriage. But other than those two complaints, I loved this novel.

One thing that struck me about Middlemarch is how modern it seems. I guess it wasn't written that long ago, but it's still intriguing to see where current problems had their root. For instance, hardly any of the young people in the novel know what they want to do as a career. Sound familiar? The whole idea of a middle class that could choose a career that was more than just a job but a vocation, a calling, something they enjoyed and that would contribute something meaningful, originated at this time period and continues today. Another modern idea discussed in the novel is the difference between city life vs. small town life; Lydgate leaves London because he thinks the city has too many distractions, only to find that Middlemarch politics and social pressures interfere with his life even more directly (a la Stars Hollow in Gilmore Girls).

I found Middlemarch strangely similar to All the King's Men by Robert Penn Warren, which I had to read in my senior year of high school. I'm sure there is no actual connection between the two (though who knows?), but there are an uncanny number of similarities. Mary's insistence on Fred settling on the right career before she agrees to marry him reminded me of Anne's similar problem with Jack (except Jack never figures it out and thus loses the girl whereas Fred and Mary live happily ever after- the difference between the 19th and 20th centuries...). Bulstrode's plan to construct a hospital and his manipulation of Lydgate, the idealistic young doctor, is ridiculously similar to Willie's plan...to construct a hospital..while manipulating Adam, the idealistic young doctor.

Favorite quote: "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."...less

Like this review? yes (1 person liked it)

2 comments

Casey rated it:

(review of isbn 0451529170)

05/03/08

Read in April, 2008

It took a while for me to get into Middlemarch. The first quarter of this massive tome is entirely filled up with introducing new characters & then abandoning them, as the author repeatedly becomes more interested in what the neighbors are doing. For quite a while it feels like a collection of unconnected, inconclusive short stories about people who happen to live in the same geographical region, and when characters do start to reappear well into the book I found myself having to st...more

Like this review? yes (1 person liked it)

add a comment

Nicole rated it:

(review of isbn 0451529170)

02/13/08

bookshelves: classic

I read this novel for a college class. Why else would I have subjected myself to such a long-winded Victorian piece of literature? My first reading was

from amazon.comwonderful! Since then, I have seen the 1994 miniseries of this literary masterpiece, and I have become interested in comparing the two.

Firstly, I can see how many scenes had to been eliminated to to satisfy a modern audience, who lack the sophistication to appreciate English literature having no desire to endure a pletho...more

Like this review? yes (1 person liked it)

1 comment

Eric rated it:

(review of isbn 0451529170)

11/09/07

Read in November, 2007

I enjoyed this book. It had some great moments and some amazing characterizations. One thing I loved about this book is the sympathy the author has for each character. She often pulls back to offer an insight into the characters motivation lest the reader judge too harshly. What this amounts to in many cases is a reminder that it's not the individual but the system that is being proven deficient. Religion and marriage (both important and positive parts of my own life) get knocked around a bit h...more

Like this review? yes (1 person liked it)

add a comment

Andrew rated it:

(review of isbn 1593080239)

12/11/07

Read in December, 2007

I love this book because Eliot's compassion is so enormous. Mercy gives the story its structure: a typical passage will tell you what a character said, then what they were thinking that led them to say it, then give you an aphorism showing that the character's behavior is surprisingly typical of humans generally. The characters' flaws are exposed so that we can embrace them as part of our shared human weirdness and collective absurdity.

The mercy is sometimes easy to miss, maybe, because i...more I love this book because Eliot's compassion is so enormous. Mercy gives the story its structure: a typical passage will tell you what a character said, then what they were thinking that led them to say it, then give you an aphorism showing that the character's behavior is surprisingly typical of humans generally. The characters' flaws are exposed so that we can embrace them as part of our shared human weirdness and collective absurdity.

The mercy is sometimes easy to miss, maybe, because it comes with so much sadness. The failures in the book are big and loud and hard to tolerate. Lydgate fails as a doctor and reformer, and his marriage is a kind of hell. Bulstrode, the Ted Haggard of the book, also ends up in a kind of hell. Raffles, the closest thing to a villain in the book, is creepy because he makes such empathetic noises while ruining lives.

The victories are not as satisfying as the failures are hurtful. Fred gives up his education, his family's respect, and his profound love of doing nothing all day (it's only the last sacrifice that really saddens us) to deserve Mary. More painfully, although Dorothea gets Will and wins back the grudging respect of her family, she spends her life in the background, rather than being the mover she hoped to be. Most painfully, Farebrother helps his less deserving rival win Mary, and goes back to his life as a clergyman, a second-choice career, and his lonely integrity. Farebrother's story is a victory, I think, but it's only by contrast with Bulstrode and Lydgate's stories -- where we see the cost of lost integrity -- that we can see it that way.

Empathy is what determines who wins and who loses here. Lydgate gets into debt because he can't get business because no one likes him because -- however laudably -- he picked fights with everyone in town. Bulstrode is vulnerable to suspicion because for decades he has put himself above his neighbors, leaving them ready to believe the worst. Celia is charmingly idiotic because she thinks her baby refigures the world for everyone the way he does for her; Brooke is idiotically charming because he agrees with whoever's speaking to him. Will deserves Dorothea because he's the one person in the world who cares what she feels: he sees her in an awful marriage and imagines what it might feel like to be her, where James Chettham imagines what it would feel like to be Dorothea's husband.

The final pleading passage asks us to be thankful for the dim, aching victories that Dorothea and a few others manage, because that's what good looks like here: little forgotten victories of compassion that make the world half tolerable. Dorothea's incredible visit to Rosamond gives Rosamond the one good moment of her life, and saves Dorothea and Will from a life of loneliness. (Which they'd amply shown us they were heading for. Don't be passive aggressive! That's the moral of that subplot.)

I think Eliot's compassion is the reason the novel, giant as it is, describes no major life events: there are no marriages, no births, no deaths directly described. Two characters have miscarriages, but we hear about them only in retrospect. The marriages of Dorothea and Lydgate are left completely out. We never even learn what it was Rosamond said to Will that caused all the ruckus, although it causes the climactic crisis of the book. These big events aren't described because they don't matter: everything depends on the visits we make to our enemies, or the conversations we fail to have with our spouse.

The reviews I've looked at seem to focus on how Middlemarch shows people to be prisoners of circumstances and the influence of others. That's fair: that sadness is what triggers compassion. But if there weren't more, we'd just have a book called "Life Sucks," which we don't need, or anyway we could get from Philip Roth. It's about how we rise above those prisons, and what rising above looks like, and how much it hurts. ...less

Like this review? yes (1 person liked it)

1 comment

John rated it:

(review of isbn 0451529170)

09/01/07

bookshelves: favorites

Read in January, 1993

recommends it for: people who like late nineteenth century novels, or books with incredible detail

This is one of my favorite books, although I admit that is has been a few years since I read it last. I was first introduced it in college by one of my favorite professors, Clark Rodewald, who unfortunately is no longer with us. In the one quarter course we read all the works of Eliot and Jane Austen, except for a few that we didn't have time to get to. Rodewald described Eliot in a way that has sort of stuck with me: "She seems so smart in her books." It may be a bit of an understatem...more

Like this review? yes (1 person liked it)

add a comment

rachel rated it:

(review of isbn 0451529170)

04/03/07

This is one of my two all-time favourite books (the other is Lolita). I could gush about it for hours. George Eliot is so delightfully snotty, observant, and sensitive. Every time I read it (uh, I think this is my 6th time through) I notice something new, sympathize with a new character, catch a new allusion, etc.
I think the best thing about the book is the complete picture Eliot paints of each of her characters' personalities. There are no heroes or badguys, and even the most sympathetic ...more

Like this review? yes (1 person liked it)

add a comment

Missy rated it:

(review of isbn 0451529170)

07/22/08

Read in July, 2008

One of the reasons I like to re read this book is because of the life the author lived or the time she lived in. I guess I sometimes hope that some of the people will make different choices. I always wish that for myself. There is something that comforts me about the story of this small town and the everydayness traced with secrets and hard lessons. It shows me how life and people (back then or now) really do not change as much as some would have us believe just because of advancements in the sc...more

Like this review? yes (1 person liked it)

2 comments

Gerrit rated it:

(review of isbn 0451529170)

06/07/08

bookshelves: favorites, read-in-2005, read-in-2008, read-in-college

Read in February, 2008

One of the best novels out there; If you want to know how to write a good book, take a serious look at Eliot's masterpiece. She has an amazing ability to do two things:

1) the characters drive the plot, not the other way around (Rowling?). Everything that happens in the book is a direct result of a BELIEVABLE action by one or several of the characters, considering their individual personalities and quirks. The novel progresses because the characters force it to.

2) somehow Eliot makes it d...more

Like this review? yes (1 person liked it)

add a comment

Nicole rated it:

(review of isbn 0451529170)

01/31/08

Read in January, 2008

After hearing about this book for so long, I've finally read it! It is, as it purports to be, a quintessential masterpiece of character development and interaction; all that is written still perceives all that is not--a glance, a moment, a hesitation, the consideration of a thought and the piercing honesty of impulses all gather to include unspoken thoughts and feelings. The characters respond to one another, and seem to change through their experiences. Some slow parts--yes--but the underlyi...more

Like this review? yes (1 person liked it)

1 comment

Diane rated it:

(review of isbn 0451529170)

07/24/08

Read in July, 2008

recommends it for: People who like classics

This is one of the hardest books I've ever read. It seems to me that George Eliot decided that if you can say something with ten words, then twenty-five or thirty would be better! She has used the word "superfluidity", or a variant, several times and I think her writing in this novel is a fine example of that concept. I MUCH prefered the terseness of "Silas Marner".

I find that I am having trouble keeping the characters straight as to who is whom, who is related to whom. H...more

Like this review? yes (1 person liked it)

4 comments

Stacie rated it:

(review of isbn 0451529170)

01/08/08

bookshelves: 1001books, abandoned

I got a little over halfway through...it was OK, but I just couldn't keep my mind from wandering when I read it. I put it down one day and picked up another book and can't bring myself to pick it back up. One day, I will read it from cover to cover. But, with a little help from my friends I have made the executive decision to just quit - there really are more books in the world to read that won't make me feel like I am doing something I should be doing rather than something I want to be doing. T...more

Like this review? yes (1 person liked it)

add a comment

Courtney rated it:

(review of isbn 0141439548)

03/16/08

bookshelves: classiclit, oneofthosebooksyoujusthavetoread, own, women-writers

Read in November, 2007

I am almost 300 pages in and I cannot gush enough. Holy crap, this woman can flat out write! Her story is beautiful in the epic and the personal sense as well as nearly perfect in structure and prose. Luckily, I have jury duty this week, so I plan many hours of sitting on a hard bench reading Middlemarch.

So almost a month later, I finished it. I am really in awe of Elliot -- it is as if she leaves almost all of the 18th Century British writers in the dust. I feel honor bound to re-read ...more

Like this review? yes (1 person liked it)

2 comments

Rachel rated it:

(review of isbn 0451529170)

05/22/08

Read in May, 2008

Even better than the first time around. George Eliot is a master at interweaving the threads of so many lives. Like a Pynchon novel, a character thought unimportant resurfaces a hundred pages later with something that affects the Middlemarchers. Unlike a Pynchon novel, Middlemarch features little drinking and absolutely no drugs. (Except for Lydgate's one dose of opium, I suppose, and Raffles..)

A masterpiece. Beautiful writing, beautifully plotted, wonderful characters.

Like this review? yes (1 person liked it)

add a comment

title link
avg rating
small image
med image
large image

Middlemarch (Penguin Classics)

book data

new topic
discuss this book

friend reviews

lists with this book

other reviews (showing 1-20 of 6583)

blog this book

combine
other editions (133)

view this book

view this book

Middlemarch (Penguin Classics)

book data

new topic discuss this book

friend reviews

lists with this book

other reviews (showing 1-20 of 6583)

blog this book

combine other editions (133)

view this book

view this book

new topic
discuss this book

combine
other editions (133)