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What are readers saying about Middlemarch?
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A Reader posted a review at 2008-03-27 02:51:36.
(Language: English)
 
I first read Middlemarch around 12 years ago. Since then, I have read it innumerable times, bought 3 editions (Penguin and Oxford are carefully deposited in my parents’ library & Wordsworth is my travelling companion) and I just can’t help reading it regularly. George Eliot’s (Mary Ann Evans) novel is certainly one of the best 19th century reads: a beautifully written masterpiece and an excellent insightful work into the 19th century England which is brought to life by Eliot’s excellent characterisation, plots and sub-plots. Furthermore, one is amazed at the depth of Eliot’s knowledge and analysis of the human psychology! As for a summary without divulging too many spoilers: Middlemarch is about the lives of landed gentry (such as the Brookes, Chettams & Casaubons) intertwined with those of the inhabitants of Middlemarch town which comprises of individuals with varying wealth, background, education, values and failings. The main heroine is Dorothea Brooke, a pious & intellectual girl whose aim in life is to be of service to others- whether it be building houses, funding hospitals or helping scholars in their mid-40s such as Edward Casaubon with their crumbling research. The idealistic and brilliant Dr Tertius Lydgate attempts at improving the health services whilst falling for the beautiful (yet self-centered) Rosamund Vincy whose brother Frederick is inclined not to complete his studies at Cambridge (St John’s I believe!). I could probably elaborate more but the novel is better read rather than reading spoilers. 
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A Reader posted a review at 2007-10-25 02:47:13.
(Language: English)
I've just finished this- it's taken me flippin' ages and it seems to me that it could have said the same amount in half the pages. I enjoyed the social commentary, and the love story gone wrong (although why Rosamund didn't get some sort of fever that carried her off into the next world because she was so hideous!) but it was such hard work to actually get there!There was an interesting study of human weakness and powerlessness of so many characters. It was only the selfish, horrible characters that seemed to have any power. And you've got to love a book where politicians of any type get vegetables thrown at them!
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A Reader posted a review at 2010-07-20 01:07:41.
(Language: English)
I've been meaning to read this since I was in college and a professor recommended it. Now I'm sorry I waited so long to read it. Excellent and intricate. Definitely a classic of English Lit and a far cry from the neatly tied up endings of Austin novels. More like a modern soap with a large cast, but classy.
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A Reader posted a review at 2010-08-30 06:09:02.
(Language: English)
I can't say that I found this book "enjoyable" to read, but I did like it,nevertheless. Dorothea is an angel.
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A Reader posted a review at 2007-10-12 05:45:31.
(Language: English)
George Eliot makes the most elegant and astute observations about people! Take the following: "An eminent philosopher among my friends, who can dignify even your ugly furniture by lifting it into the serene light of science,has shown me this pregnant little fact. Your pier-glass or extensive surface of polished steel made to be rubbed by a housemaid, will be minutely and multitudinously scratched in all directions; but place now against it a lighted candle as a centre of illumination, and lo! the scratches will seem to arrange themselves in a fine series of concentric circles round that little sun. It is demonstrable that the scratches are going everywhere impartially and it is only your candle which produces the flattering illusion of a concentric arrangement, its light falling with an exclusive optical selection. These things are a parable. The scratches are events, and the candle is the egoism of any person now absent-- of Miss Vincy, for example." The book is full of profound insights about what it means to be good, great, human, evil and happy.
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A Reader posted a review at 2008-09-05 12:12:58.
(Language: English)
Can't say enough good things about this book! Really loved it. George Eliot is really a genius; she completely understands human beings. And she has a real knack for capturing all their complexity on the page in ways that make the reader feel both connected and disconnected from human foibles. Also, Eliot's depiction of a well-intentioned but woefully misguided bluestocking's travails in marriage is captivating. Why oh why can't people write like this anymore?
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Christina posted a review at 2011-08-20 07:24:57.
(Language: English)
Wow. This is like War and Peace, set in the English countryside-without the war:-). I started it years ago, and couldn't get past the first chapter. Now I wish I had. Quite possibly the best novel in the English language and otherwise, second only to Tolstoy- in whose favor I'm incredibly biased.
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A Reader posted a review at 2010-05-11 06:06:00.
(Language: English)
George Eliot was a female writer who adopted a male name...and she wrote like one. This a story that, had it had more sentimentalisms, would have seemed to have been written by Jane Austen. Eliot portrayed the characters of this story in a realistic way, a technique she mastered. Give this book a read and you will not regret it.
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Mary posted a review at 2009-06-16 12:36:32.
(Language: English)
A gem. One of the great English classics and early feminist book written by George Eliot who was really Mary Ann Evans. Filled with 19th Century charm, city and countryside. Ok, it's long. But you won't think this book is long as it is such a good read, for both women and men. Just set some time aside in your life and READ THIS BOOK!
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A Reader posted a review at 2007-08-13 11:42:55.
(Language: English)
First, a confession. I have read this book twice. When I first read it I was about seventeen, had just read and enjoyed Silas Marner and thought 'Oh, this is supposed to be Elliot's masterwork? I'll give it a try.' It is one of the few books I have ever given up on. I got incredibly frustrated with it, it was so dense and so little seemed to be happening. I had to read it as a set text for my degree when I was about twenty and it was like reading a different novel, I loved it totally. So, I guess the lesson is, there are some novels you have to grow into. Having got that out of the way, let me say that I think this is one of the greatest novels ever written, based on acute observation of life and written with a boundless compassion and desire to see humanity become all that it can be. Let it sink deep into your soul.
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A Reader posted a review at 2008-07-13 10:56:40.
(Language: English)
There is a reason Middlemarch is considered a masterpiece and that it still holds appeal despite her (sadly, largely archaic) intellectual style. It is no mere work of entertainment, but one which is meant to teach by moving the souls of its readers in sympathy with (in the old sense of the word - not to pity, but to feel with) her characters and their experiences. She wisely noted that real sympathy must be accompanied with real understanding, and the two together are needed for true 'humanitarianism'. Eliot claims that "If art does not enlarge men's sympathies, it does nothing morally," a thought which expresses her high standards for the value of art, which she arguably best achieved in Middlemarch.Middlemarch enlarges on a theme common to Eliot's works of the relation between conventional and natural goodness - that is, what is thought to be good in a given time and place, as opposed to what is actually so. Each of her characters is an elaboration on this relation according to their nature and education, and her description of their lives helps her readers understand both how tragic the influence of common opinion can be even on outstanding minds like those of Lydgate and Dorothea, and how the tension between convention and nature can be brought into a certain harmony, however uneasy.Eliot is very explicit about how common opinion has a force beyond the control of either of these characters in shaping their lives, but what ought not to be overlooked is how greatly they are affected by what is lacking in their education, a neglect caused in part by the lack of value which is conventionally placed on anything other than education for practical benefit. Lydgate is brilliant at medicine, something valued for the obvious benefit it can bring to many people. He was never taught, however, that the same care and observation he applies to medicine might be of benefit in his personal interactions. He never learns to distinguish between conventional appearances, in view of which Rosamund shines brilliantly, and the often murky underlying world of people's true experiences, thoughts, desires. In effect, Lydgate never learned the lesson Eliot is trying to make clear to her readers, and his great disappointment in life is the sad though predictable outcome.Dorothea, like Lydgate, is led to tragic error by appearances, though appearances of a different kind. In her puritan pursuit of goodness, she tries to ignore the value of appearance as a clue to what underlies it. She tries to negate her desire for the outward appearance of beauty, and instead pursues in effect the absence of outward grace and beauty. Dorothea's mistake is her failure to realize that the negation of beauty is itself only a different kind of superficiality. She imagines that the absence of outward beauty corresponds to the presence of an inward, immaterial beauty, only to discover her error, like Lydgate, after it is seemingly too late.Eliot is not a tragedian, however; circumstances help to save Dorothea from her error. What Dorothea needed, like Lydgate, was an education in the relation between outward appearance and true beauty. Happily, true love still thrives in novels, and so Will is introduced into the story. Will, unlike all her other acquaintances, is able to see Dorothea for what she is, in all her goodness and her naive error. Recognising what she needs to save her from the danger of her errors (though seemingly too late), he is able in talking with her to plant the seeds in her mind which eventually lead her to a much better understanding of the world and its relation to her ideas and desires. Will has the insight she lacks. He does not, however, have her moral strength, though he loves it and is inspired by it. Will and Dorothea each come to perceive and love the strength of the other, both as objectively good, and as that which they need in order to fulfill their own good desires. Together, and only in love together, they are able to set out to do real good in the world. Theirs is a truly happy ending, though the warning of Lydgate's story, a fate that Dorothea only narrowly escapes, is not meant to be forgotten.
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A Reader posted a review at 2007-12-11 02:09:49.
(Language: English)
***SPOILER ALERT***This is a sprawling novel that covers the love interests of 4 young women while also making a commentary on the society of the times and showing off the nature of the men involved and how they can change. Dorothea is the oldest of two orphaned sisters residing in Middlemarch with heir politically active reform minded uncle. She must decide between two suites an older cleric or a younger very wealthy but not very deep landowner. She chooses the former because she envisions him teaching her. Instead her husband becomes ill, grumpy and paranoid. He suspects she is interested in his artistic nephew and leaves a codicil to his will upon his death precluding her from marrying the younger man. The two are drawn together and eventually marry even though it means poverty. Celia, Dorothea's younger sister marries the Lord and happily becomes a mother and quite enjoys the status. Rosamond, the town beauty, comes from a family that is poor with money - they have much higher tastes then they can afford. She marries an up and coming doctor whom she almost ruins through her expectations of a lifestyle. Eventually they move away. Mary is the sensible daughter of a lower class family who manage several estates and are much more conservative. She is counted by the troubled brother of Rosamond who over the course of the novel finds the right path and may be the best man of all. Middlemarch is less engrossing and readable than Austen but it at least reflects its time and recognizes the greater society. Similarities between Middlemarch, Jane Eyre and Austen all have different strengths and perspectives.
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A Reader posted a review at 2007-06-19 07:56:11.
(Language: English)
This is undoubtably an admirably written book. During the middle, I think it's almost too "well written" for my tastes. None of the exaggerated but enthralling drama which so endears Russian literature to me. None of Jane Austen's dry wit. None of Tolkien's brilliant use of languages and fantasy or Lewis' very Christian philosophical undertones. However, the ending chapters, when George Eliot finally returns to the original plot of the story (don't ask how that works out - read the book; Eliot really does manage to pull off the trick of almost completely ignoring the original storyline for a good portion of the book) redeem the book for me. That does, as well as the character of Dorothea. Dorothea is one of the most interesting main characters I've ever encountered. Keenly intelligent, determined to live up to the highest standards, very stubborn and rather quick tempered... she is introduced as one passionately devoted to ideals. The most interesting parts of the book (at least in my own opinion - which is likely literary heresy according to some standards) explore her gradual realization that intellectual ideals can't constitute the entire happiness of life. Almost at the opening of the book, she marries an ancient and very emotionless scholar whom she idolizes for his intellect. I for one, was terribly upset about the marriage (Yes, the talking-aloud-to-the-character-while-I'm-reading type of upset. I am a very theatrical reader at times.)and I'm jolly sure that's the reaction George Eliot was hoping to get from any reader. Dorothea, unfortunately, comes to the reader's perspective only a while later, when she finally begins to understand that living for love of an ideal makes for a far poorer existence than does living for love of an actual person. Fascinating part of the story. The only problem is that she is not nearly in the book enough. After only a little way through the book, the story drifts off to focus on a menagerie of people who are not nearly so sympathetic or interesting - Dr. Lydgate and his shallow wife Rosamond (their story revolves around money troubles); Fred Vincy (whose story does likewise); etc. The addition of other characters, particularly together with the story of their marriages, does a lot artistically to add to the theme of the book. (The money troubles also add a lot to the book: in Middlemarch society, even in Dorothea's case, money causes much contention between married couples.) It does, however, eventually drift back to Dorothea and her less despicable circle of acquaintances. And the way everything is wrapped up so that this strange structure works really can't be missed.
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A Reader posted a review at 2010-07-25 03:28:01.
(Language: English)
This will be the third time I've read Middlemarch. My undergrad mentor told me that this was the book to read if I really wanted to understand politics. I read it, and didn't get it at all. It was this book about daily life of 18th century English people, people making bad and good marriages, getting rich and dying broke and disgraced...etc. Then I read it again in grad school and I got it. It's about contingency and how little changes lead to bigger ones. The most important things that happen are often due to people whose names nobody knows. Now that I am immersed in the process of politics, I look forward to reading it, yet another time.
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A Reader posted a review at 2010-08-28 12:01:13.
(Language: English)
I like the olde worlde bodice ripping stuff, but this is ok, if not a bit too twee
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A Reader posted a review at 2009-07-26 07:13:21.
(Language: English)
I can't believe I actually got through this book. Two months of hard slog, never found it so hard not to give up on a book. Altough the general story was enjoyable in parts the sheer longwindedness of every single chapter left me fighting to finish. It does get easier/better once you have gotten through the first 200 pages or so, but to no great degree. When compared to other 'classics' I have read Middlemarch is sadly lacking. Very dissapointing.
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A Reader posted a review at 2011-12-19 03:58:09.
(Language: English)
'One of the few English novels written for grown-up people.' So thought Virginia Woolf. paragraph There's a lot of truth in Woolf's opinion: Middlemarch has a pace that seems to favour a less idealised perspective on life than one might find in other novels. However, it is very difficult to ignore those moments of romance, idealism and happy endings that help make this book a fascinating read. To the uneducated eye (I count myself in this group), I was beguiled at first by what seemed like a Hardy-like poeticism, but soon came across erudition coupled with a patient and probing insight into Elliot's story and its setting. One needs to be comfortable with this mix of perspectives. For the most part, it is more often the latter, but there are beautiful moments, especially between Mary and Fred and between Will and Dorothea. paragraph The individual versus society's straightjacket - a familiar theme. Elliot interestingly paints a more sympathetic view on how society may be right from time to time. See what you think at the beginning with this idea. In short, a great read that does require patience, but worth the effort!
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A Reader posted a review at 2008-06-29 07:56:28.
(Language: English)
This for me is the archetypal 19th Century English novel. A very rich 'study of provincial life' in a fictional town, with many convincing and likeable characters, it centres on Dorothea, a passionate and idealistic young woman who makes the mistake of marrying the physically and emotionally distant clergyman Casaubon. He's the one who sticks most in my mind after two years: an outwardly cold yet sad figure who spends years researching for a textbook that he will never complete, while missing out on life and his marriage. Wonderful book, and surely Eliot's best.
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A Reader posted a review at 2008-08-13 11:07:59.
(Language: English)
Middlemarch is the intensely detailed study of middle class life in "small town" UK circa 1830-1850. It's also a devastatingly critical assessment of young, idealistic love, and the inevitable maturing process for both individuals and relationships. The novel follows three protagonists (Dorothea Brooke, Will Ladislaw, and Tertius Lydgate) as they attempt to navigate society, love, personal responsibility and idealism. Middlemarch is a sort of "War and Peace" light (at only 750 pages, it's just about half the length of War and Peace, and is set against the relatively peaceful backdrop of British business and religious reform. The characters are well-drawn and experience growth and development, but aren't as complex as Conrad's or Dostoevski's. A fun read with, of course, a happy ending.
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A Reader posted a review at 2011-07-08 01:02:19.
(Language: English)
I really enjoyed this book. It was long and took me two months to read it, but it was well worth it. George Eliot presented a lovely mix of human characters. She was brilliant at getting into the psychology of why people did what they did. Well worth a read.
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A Reader posted a review at 2008-11-28 08:20:43.
(Language: English)
Meh. I couldn't finish it. She had three interwoven story-lines, and only one was remotely interesting. After getting a third of the way through, I skimmed the rest. Then I read an essay about it in 'Was Heathcliffe a Murderer?' and found out that she had so much more going on in her plot than I realized. I wish I had actually paid attention to the larger picture, because then I would have had a better chance at being satisfied with what I read.
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A Reader posted a review at 2010-02-19 02:57:24.
(Language: English)
after hearing so much about George Eliot, I decided to actually read one of her books. Middlemarch is an intricate, cynical but sympathetic account of the lives of the residents in an English village in the early 1800s. It takes a while to get into Middlemarch but I persisted and was rewarded with an intellectually and emotionally fulfilling read. I can't wait to get my hands on another Eliot novel.
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A Reader posted a review at 2009-04-13 04:48:01.
(Language: English)
Again, very engrossing if one can just ignore the number of pages before starting and not be dissuaded by them!Interesting, before I read this book I used to think that George Eliot was a man. She was instead a rebellious, unconventional female for her times who took on a masculine psydonym to write professionally, and had a long standing live in relationship with the man whom she loved and shared intellectual interests with, before marrying him!
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A Reader posted a review at 2008-12-21 02:28:40.
(Language: English)
I started reading this, but got too bogged down by the wordy, over descriptive first chapter. After a few months I picked it up again. A word of advice: Endure! It took a few days to finish, but it was worth it The setting is an English village with its share of social distinction, political disagreements, and residents with well kept secrets. Even though it begins with one main character (a sketch of her character/personality and also the life changing decision she makes), eventually the story pans out to include six more characters, each strong and well rounded (after a while I began to love the author's in-depth character sketches which were, at times, charming). The minor characters are also solid and well developed. The characters control the story; their words, choices, and actions not just affecting their own lives but the lives of those around them.
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A Reader posted a review at 2010-01-09 01:19:26.
(Language: English)
I've just finished reading Middlemarch. It took me quite a while to get through but I attribute this more to the fact that I was unable to get the book from the library until just a few days ago and was forced to read the online editions for the longest time. Also, I did not become engrossed in the book until I'd read almost half of it. I think this is because there are many characters and a web of story lines playing out at once, so it was hard to become engrossed in any one story until more of the interwoven plot was revealed. In some ways I found the book very similar to Tolstoy's War and Peace (minus the battlefield). Both Middlemarch and War and Peace are huge, sprawling historical novels, written around the same time in the nineteenth century but many decades after the events they describe. They are both complex epics which interweave the fates of many different characters amidst a backdrop of political unrest/reform. In Middlemarch, the characters are all neighbors living in the same place - Middlemarch. Tolstoy's characters are brought together by war. Both George Eliot and Leo Tolstoy often reveal great meaning from seemingly insignificant events and create situations forcing characters to choose between selfish and selfless behavior. Other common themes are self-determination vs fate, money and debt, compassion, forgiveness, sympathy and how our actions affect and are affected by the actions of others. Marriage is one of the main themes of both Middlemarch and War and Peace. Both novels provide intimate looks at married relationships, both suitable and unsuitable. I think Tolstoy tends to convey a more hopeful attitude toward marriage in War and Peace, although both he and Eliot delve into the complexities of relationships that take place behind closed doors, paying particular attention to communication (or lack thereof) between husbands and wives. Overall, I found War and Peace to be a bit more optimistic in its depiction of marriage than Middlemarch. Eliot focuses on the trials of Dorothea, an upper middle-class woman in Victorian England who is unable to learn Greek or Latin simply for herself and attempts to find fulfillment through the scholarly work of her husband, the dry, self-centered and much older Causabon. Through Dorothea, Eliot calls particular attention to a woman’s role in marriage. She ends the book on this thought, which makes her concerns for conventional marriage a central theme of the story. Eliot displays a keen understanding of numan nature, intricately examining each of her characters in turn, and is able to realistically convey the hopes, dreams, failures and anxieties of each as they are cought by the expectations of British society. She introduces us to Lydgate, a struggling young doctor, new to Middlemarch and in love with the simple-minded beauty Rosamond Vincy, Rosamond's irresponsible and unmotivated brother Fred and his love, practicle and plain Mary Garth, and Causabon's good-looking young cousin, Will Ladislaw, who falls for Dorothea. I found myself empathizing with characters on more than one occasion. I felt Fred's feelings of stupidity and shame when he was unable to meet his debt to the Garths and agonized with Lydgate as he became more and more entagled in debt, while wanting to smack Rosamond for her uselessness and deception. I felt both pity and triumph for Dorothea as she was unable to put into action many of her plans for helping others, but ultimately followed her heart and did not embrace the role that society dictated for her. If you are looking for an exciting read then Middlemarch may not be for you, but if you enjoy examining human nature and relationships, this book with it's large and varied cast of characters cought up in social expectations and desires may be just your cup of tea.
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