Middlemarch in Around the World in 80 Books

Dec 29, 2015 Steve rated it it was amazing

Shelves: e-books, favorites, fiction

I have no problem calling "Middlemarch" the British "War & Peace" (though there's no war). Where "Middlemarch" resembles W&P is in its epic (and penetrating) multi-character sweep. Refreshingly, Eliot avoids Tolystoyan finger wagging lectures on the meaning of History, though she does artfully insert topical issues that were the headlines of her day. But the heart heart of the novel are the characters, and the heart of the characters is Dorothea Brooke, who is one those rare fictional characters ...more

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Mar 07, 2021 Martha rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: 2020-fall-reading-list

It only took me 7 months but I'm finished. I initially struggled to read this book but ended up loving it and thinking that it's a book I'll reread again from time to time. ...more

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Aug 02, 2017 Ted Dettweiler rated it it was amazing

Shelves: goodreads-from-the-library

It was my happy coincidence of hearing of the author, George Eliot, recommended to Anne by Aunt Josephine in the last episode of season 1 of the 2017 CBC series "Anne of Green Gables". "Stories of Clerical Life" was my first reading of this Victorian (female) author who wrote under the name 'George Eliot'. I appreciated George Eliot's grasp of both the Church of England and at the same time (and place, indeed) the dissenting church, spoken of by different characters in her books as "the evangeli It was my happy coincidence of hearing of the author, George Eliot, recommended to Anne by Aunt Josephine in the last episode of season 1 of the 2017 CBC series "Anne of Green Gables". "Stories of Clerical Life" was my first reading of this Victorian (female) author who wrote under the name 'George Eliot'. I appreciated George Eliot's grasp of both the Church of England and at the same time (and place, indeed) the dissenting church, spoken of by different characters in her books as "the evangelicals", "the dissent", "Wesleyans" or even, in Adam Bede, "the Methodisses". While described biographically as an agnostic, George Eliot, having had some personal experience in Methodist circles writes from a sympathetic point of view. In fact, all the clergy, Methodist or Church of England in the books that I have entered into to date (Clerical Life, Middlemarch, and Adam Bede) are described and characterized quite sympathetically by George Eliot. Compare Thackeray, a contemporary of George Eliot's, in Vanity Fair where the clergyman only has ambitions on an income. If I could find in the history genre books that brought to life the effects of the times on individuals halfway this thorough, I would be reading them. Lacking these, George Eliot's fiction writing will be accepted quite authoritatively (by me) as she takes pains to show the religious component, large or small, of each of her characters and writes in a way that does not betray an obvious bias.

I recently finished reading the 1000 page ePub edition of "Middlemarch". It is no chore to read a tome like this when the author uses the space to extensively develop more than a dozen principle characters. The action gets going quickly as Dorothea, an idealist young woman of privileged class, makes a baffling choice of a husband out of this idealist desire to accomplish something through her marriage that is greater than the lot given to women in her times. "Middlemarch" can be read quite satisfactorily as a study in marriage, including communication between spouses. While the whole space of the novel only covers a number of years (not more than 5, I believe) the marriages described are at a variety of stages so the short time frame does not impede in making it a useful study. All novels involve conflict (not implying that Middlemarch is a story of marital conflicts, far from it). "If there isn't conflict, there isn't a story" is what every aspiring writer learns. The genius of "Middlemarch" is that the conflicts described are the proofs for better or worse of the marriages and potential matches. They are described in great detail from many different points of view. A conflict involving debt, for instance, is seen from the point of view of the husband, wife, inlaws, creditors and the community around them. In these events affecting couples come the most satisfying moments in the novel. ...more

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