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Middlemarch

George Eliot

Start date: July 1, 2018

Finish date: September 30, 2018

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What Members Thought

May 05, 2013 Cleo rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: english-literature, chunkster-over-800-pages, classics, 2013-a-classics-challenge, 2013-tbr-challenge, 2013-back-to-the-classics-challenge, 2013-european-challenge, 2013-chunksters

First read 2013: 4 stars

Second read: May 2, 2025 5 stars

What a magnificent creation of a whole town, which Eliot managed with a believability that was truly special. Once again, it was difficult for me to put the book down and I found myself always wanting to pick it up again, a true testament to a story well-conceived and well-written. I found myself living in Middlemarch and being part of Dorothea's struggles and triumphs, feeling as if I wanted to help Dr. Lydgate and wanting to be part of th First read 2013: 4 stars

Second read: May 2, 2025 5 stars

What a magnificent creation of a whole town, which Eliot managed with a believability that was truly special. Once again, it was difficult for me to put the book down and I found myself always wanting to pick it up again, a true testament to a story well-conceived and well-written. I found myself living in Middlemarch and being part of Dorothea's struggles and triumphs, feeling as if I wanted to help Dr. Lydgate and wanting to be part of the Garth family.

One can see in the marriages in the novel, there was a distinct pattern. While in the marriage between Rosamond and Lydgate, a selfish, unsacrificial woman made a good man much worse, the marriages of Dorothea (to Ladislaw) and Mary Garth (to Fred) were examples of where good women could make immature and unreliable men much improved.

Commenting on the book as a whole, Mortimer J. Adler and Charles van Doren have noted that there are issues with the work. They say that Eliot's creation of a whole town is a stunning achievement but that her plot bumps and creaks along. While I don't necessarily agree with them wholeheartedly, there are certainly places where the pacing is off and, where we have been given lots of information on some characters initially, their finale is tied up rather quickly. I do like the way Eliot gives historical information on many of the characters at the end; it's interesting to learn what she envisions as their life stories.

The last two paragraphs are perhaps the best ending in literature, at least for me:

"Certainly those determining acts of her life were not ideally beautiful. They were the mixed result of young and noble impulse struggling amidst the conditions of an imperfect social state, in which great feelings will often take the aspect of error, and great faith the aspect of illusion. For there is no creature whose inward being is so strong that it is not greatly determined by what lies outside it. A new Theresa will hardly have the opportunity of reforming a conventual life, any more than a new Antigone will spend her heroic piety in daring all for the sake of a brother’s burial: the medium in which their ardent deeds took shape is forever gone. But we insignificant people with our daily words and acts are preparing the lives of many Dorotheas, some of which may present a far sadder sacrifice than that of the Dorothea whose story we know.

Her finely touched spirit had still its fine issues, though they were not widely visible. Her full nature, like that river of which Cyrus broke the strength, spent itself in channels which had no great name on the earth. But the effect of her being on those around her was incalculably diffusive: for the growing good of the world is partly dependent on unhistoric acts; and that things are not so ill with you and me as they might have been, is half owing to the number who lived faithfully a hidden life, and rest in unvisited tombs."

I, myself, was once a Dorothea, and I can only hope that I can keep her spirit of love for her fellow creatures which turned a possibly common life, into a faithful and great one. ...more

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Oct 23, 2018 Sarah rated it liked it

Shelves: owned

Well, not sorry I read it, but rather glad it's over. Read elsewhere that Eliot was like Jane Austin, but without the humor. Very true. Virtually no levity in this story at all. Probably because it would be immoral to laugh at others. The (very?) good Ms. Eliot was most concerned with morally proper behavior, having dignity and doing right were the utmost motives in life. Historians seem to say she was an atheist; though you couldn't really tell from this story. There were hypocritical Christian Well, not sorry I read it, but rather glad it's over. Read elsewhere that Eliot was like Jane Austin, but without the humor. Very true. Virtually no levity in this story at all. Probably because it would be immoral to laugh at others. The (very?) good Ms. Eliot was most concerned with morally proper behavior, having dignity and doing right were the utmost motives in life. Historians seem to say she was an atheist; though you couldn't really tell from this story. There were hypocritical Christians, but also very high-minded serious Christians. She seemed to be trying to argue against the classist British noblility system, and seemed sort of to be in support of the political reform movements of the time that were trying to expand the vote to the poorer and working classes. But if I hadn't learned that from a class about Eliot, I might have missed it. Her nobles were quite noble, even if sometimes bumbling. Her nobles were quite willing to improve the lot of the poor. Her socially grasping characters came to no good, and worst of the evil doers was a banker who is outed as one who started life as a pawnbrowker with a Jewish partner and then wife. The banker was the most sanctimonious Christian in the town of Middlemarch.

There was a definite plot, and you did want to know what happened, so I did finish (even though I'd learned the ending for the most part through the lectures). The last 150 pages was strictly a slog, like a junior high assignment I'd had to finish.

And, don't be under any misunderstanding, Ms. Eliot was hardly a feminist. The main character, Dorothea, is educated and smart, and incredibly perfect. She doesn't care about clothes or jewels, but she is entirely subservient to the men in her life. All the women are subservient to their husbands, and one, Rosamund, who takes action on her own is portrayed as a very bad wife who causes a great deal more trouble for her already troubled husband.

Though we certainly get to know each character incredibly well, descriptions and thoughts are endless, none of them seem like "real" people. Dorothea is too perfect, Rosamond is too selfish, they are each a caricature that emphasizes one trait too much to come off as real. The good are too good, the flawed to steeped in that one thing. No one is truly irredeemably bad (well, maybe Raffles?).

I just looked below to find it took me ten days to read my 620 page version. For me, that's a slow go. ...more

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