Dorothea Brooke is a thoughtful and idealistic young woman determined to make a difference with her life. Enamored of a man whom she believes is setting this example, she unwittingly traps herself into a loveless marriage.
Her parallel is Tertius Lydgate, a visionary young doctor from the city, whose passionate ambition to spread the new science of medicine is complicated by his love for the wrong woman.
Featuring a panoply of complex, brilliantly drawn characters from every walk of life, George Eliot's masterpiece is a rich and teeming portrait of provincial life in Victorian England. Yet her characters' struggles to retain their moral integrity in the midst of temptation and tragedy are strikingly modern in their painful ironies.
The incomparable psychological insight of Middlemarch was pivotal in the shaping of twentieth-century literary realism.
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"George Eliot rules the fascinating and selective world between Victorian fantasy and true modernism, and Middlemarch is one shining example of her expertise. Not just a good reads these are, but some of the very best." — Laura (5 out of 5 stars)
"George Eliot rules the fascinating and selective world between Victorian fantasy and true modernism, and Middlemarch is one shining example of her expertise. Not just a good reads these are, but some of the very best."
“One of the few English novels written for grown-up people.”
“[Wanda McCaddon] makes [Middlemarch] come alive. She is in wonderful form as she slides from character to character, giving them their distinctiveness through intonation and pacing. [McCaddon’s] voice is that of the genteel British woman, and it’s the perfect thing for Eliot.”
“The novel is an image of a society, political, agricultural, aristocratic, plebeian, religious, scientific…It is a microcosm, local but also universal.”
“An author whose novels it has really been a liberal education to read.”
“One of the most profound, wise, and absorbing of English novels…Above all, truthful and forgiving about human behavior.”
“No Victorian novel approaches Middlemarch in its width of reference, its intellectual power, or the imperturbable spaciousness of its narrative….No writer has ever represented the ambiguities of moral choice so fully.”
" Silas Marner and Middlemarch are terrific. The Mill on the Floss is very good, but depressing as hell. Adam Bede is above-average. "
" OK, it's really excellent. And I even copied a couple passages into my journal. And I read it fast enough, while on vacation. BUT for reasons I can't quite put my finger on, I didn't love it. "
" One of my favorite books! "
" this was my second go with this book. i read about 100 more pages, and just couldnt continue. it bounces allover the place too much, and most of the characters are quite boring. I gave up. "
" George Eliot is the greatest. Why, Oh Why doesn't anyone read her any more? It really makes you wonder if Joanna Russ wasn't right after all. "
" I thought the story was great and the characters, but it was so long. (I'm not decreasing my rating becasue of that). I like how Dorothea and Rosamond's view on marriage and life in general were such opposites. "
" I was bored reading about the hum-drum lives of this little community. At times I felt myself wishing everyone had a bit more common sense. "
George Eliot, the pen name of Mary Ann, or Marian, Evans (1819–1880), was an English Victorian novelist of the first rank. An assistant editor for the Westminster Review from 1851 to 1854, she wrote her first fiction in 1857 and her first full-length novel, Adam Bede, in 1859. In her writing, she was chiefly preoccupied with moral problems, especially the moral development and psychological analysis of her characters. She is known for her sensitive and honest depiction of life and people in works that are acclaimed as classics.
Wanda McCaddon (d. 2023) narrated well over six hundred titles for major audiobook publishers, sometimes with the pseudonym Nadia May or Donada Peters. She earned the prestigious Audio Award for best narration and numerous Earphones Awards. She was named a Golden Voice by AudioFile magazine.
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