From the Bookshelf of Reading the Classics…

Middlemarch

George Eliot

Start date: November 1, 2014

Finish date: December 31, 2014

Discussion: Past Group Reads

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Past Group Reads

* Washington Square - Reading Schedule
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last updated May 08, 2021 11:27AM

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What Members Thought

May 06, 2020 Paige rated it it was amazing

Shelves: read-aloud, favorites, reread-me

Middlemarch is a big book, clocking in at around 900 pages. It’s not exactly a light 900 pages either, coming as it does from the Victorian era. This is probably enough to scare many readers off, despite the book’s place in many “greatest novels” lists. My father had been recommending it to me for years, but I would look at it and sigh and think “maybe one day.” Luckily for me, a group read prompted me to pick up the book, and that day has arrived.

This book made my heart pound with suspense. Thi Middlemarch is a big book, clocking in at around 900 pages. It’s not exactly a light 900 pages either, coming as it does from the Victorian era. This is probably enough to scare many readers off, despite the book’s place in many “greatest novels” lists. My father had been recommending it to me for years, but I would look at it and sigh and think “maybe one day.” Luckily for me, a group read prompted me to pick up the book, and that day has arrived.

This book made my heart pound with suspense. This book made me laugh. This book made me tear up with joy as well as something more bittersweet. This book had me texting “OMG” to my dad. This book snuck into my purse to try and fit itself into breaks in my work, and had me thinking about it throughout the day, yearning to get back to Middlemarch. This book is completely worth the time investment.

But that’s by my reckoning; I’m sure it’s not for everyone, and it’s not without its frustrations. I can’t deny that there were moments where I wished Eliot would cut to the chase (fever hospital…..), but now that the book is over, I wish there was more of it. I can’t tell if it actually improved in the second half or if I just became so invested in the characters that I couldn’t get enough. I’m seconding guessing myself, wondering if there wasn’t something I missed in those paragraphs I originally thought unnecessary; and indeed, looking back at earlier chapters, I find myself newly riveted. And as much as I want to dive into the next book on my to-read list, I feel sure it will suffer by being read so closely on the heels of this one. I just don’t read that many books that are this good.

With a ~900 page book, there is so much to potentially cover in a review, but I always seem to be at a loss for how to sum things up even when the task is less daunting than with this book; I can write for pages and pages on a specific argument, or to defend a character, but in general reviews I flounder. I will say, though, that one of the reasons I think this book worked so well for me is that it has compassion for all its characters. I love character studies, and this is an excellent study of many different types, and how they work at cross-purposes.

I will most definitely be re-reading this one.

Update 12/5/2021: Read this one out loud with Peter this year. Such a good book, so glad that he enjoyed it too! ...more

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May 22, 2009 Everyman rated it it was amazing

Middlemarch is a rich and rewarding novel, but it is also much more than that. It also chronicles very accurately a time of great changes in English rural (or as Eliot calls it, Provincial) life. Eliot's meticulous research assures the reader that the events she moves her characters through give a detailed picture of significant developments in society, politics, and medicine during the early 1830s.

Middlemarch is not an easy book to read. Eliot is of the most intellectually capable writers that ...more

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