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Middlemarch

George Eliot

Why we're reading this: Had for about 1 year, possibly longer.
[close] Had for about 1 year, possibly longer.

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Jul 30, 2013 Kristina rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: fiction, classics

Middlemarch by George Eliot is best described as a picture of 19th century life in a small, provincial English town. The story follows a wide cast of characters from many different social situations as they work, play and live out their lives. At the center of the story is Dorthea Brooke, a smart and kindhearted woman whose strong ideals lead her into an unhappy marriage with a scholar many years her senior. In a story meant to contrast with Dorthea's, a similarly principled man named Tertius Ly Middlemarch by George Eliot is best described as a picture of 19th century life in a small, provincial English town. The story follows a wide cast of characters from many different social situations as they work, play and live out their lives. At the center of the story is Dorthea Brooke, a smart and kindhearted woman whose strong ideals lead her into an unhappy marriage with a scholar many years her senior. In a story meant to contrast with Dorthea's, a similarly principled man named Tertius Lydgate makes a bad marriage as well, but with very different results. The two plot lines play off of each other, as well as with other plots featuring other characters from the story.

It is difficult to give a more detailed plot description of Middlemarch, because the book truly is an intricate web of story lines featuring many different characters. This is a BIG book. My version contained 794 pages of pretty small print. However, Eliot's writing was clear enough to keep the characters separate in my mind. Figuring out who was related to who was a little bit tough at times, especially among the minor characters, but the writing on the major characters remained very clear. The ways in which the characters are connected to each other are clever and the story remained interesting, even when the point of view shifted to less prominent characters.

One thing I always enjoy about reading classics is discovering how life worked in the past. Often, you get to find out that while customs and language are vastly different from the present day, emotions and morals remain the same. Middlemarch illustrates this concept beautifully. While life was undoubtedly more proper for the characters in this story, love was still passionate, dishonestly was still shameful and people still wanted the same things as us- goodness, happiness and fulfillment. The fundamental truths of life fill up the pages of this novel and forge a powerful connection between a text from a bygone era and the modern reader.

The intricacy of the story, the realistic characters and the window into the past this book provides made it a five star read for me. Any fan of 19th century literature should consider this novel to be required reading. ...more

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