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(4.2) | 14 / 1743 | Middlemarch: A Study of Provincial Life is exactly what it claims. Its multiple plots center around the inhabitants of a fictitious Midlands town and their evolving relationships to each other. It is critical of social class, ambition and marriage, and religion. It is commonly considered one of the masterpieces of English writing, and Virginia Woolf described it as "the magnificent book that, with all its imperfections, is one of the few English novels written for grown-up people".… (more) |
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▾LibraryThing Recommendations   11 1113 Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen (shallihavemydwarf)61 The Mill on the Floss by George Eliot (Booksloth)30 My Life in Middlemarch by Rebecca Mead (Cecrow)Cecrow: One reader's relationship with this novel; also some biography of Eliot and a literary criticism. 31 North and South by Elizabeth Gaskell (PensiveCat)20 South Riding by Winifred Holtby (Booksloth)20 The Tenant of Wildfell Hall by Anne Brontë (amanda4242)20 The Victorian House: Domestic Life from Childbirth to Deathbed by Judith Flanders (susanbooks)10 The Getting of Wisdom by Henry Handel Richardson (thesmellofbooks)thesmellofbooks: The Getting of Wisdom is the rare sort of book that provokes deep self-reflection and a nudge in the direction of peace-making with self and life, and in this way brings to mind [[George Eliot]]'s [Middlemarch].
I am gobsmacked. The novel begins as an entertaining tale of a headstrong young Australian girl going to meet the world at boarding school. It gradually evolves into a subtle, simple, and stunningly real observation of the pressures of conformity and the intolerance of naïveté, which, when paired with a strong desire to be accepted, can lead to many and often rending responses in an imaginative young person.
Yet it is not a tragedy. I am left moved, affectionate, a little worried about the future, and yet joyful at the intactness of the protagonist's resilient soul.
Bravo, Ms Richardson.… (more) 00 Far from the Madding Crowd by Thomas Hardy (BookshelfMonstrosity)BookshelfMonstrosity: These 19th-century classics portray complex romantic relationships with vivid descriptions and a strong sense of place. With intricate, twisting plots, both offer their protagonists bleak outlooks that end in satisfying resolutions. 00 Deerbrook by Harriet Martineau (souloftherose)01 George Eliot. by Elsemarie Maletzke (JuliaMaria)14 Ulysses by James Joyce (kara.shamy)kara.shamy: Similar -- almost unique really -- in their tremendous breadth and depth...
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 Sign up for LibraryThing to find out whether you'll like this book. ▾Conversations (About links) | Group › Topic | Messages | Last Message | | | | 75 Books Challenge for 2010:  Group Read: Middlemarch, Second Thread | 256 unread / 256 | Jan7Smith, October 2018 |  | | | The Green Dragon: Middlemarch: The Chatty Bits (Spoilers Go Here) | 49 unread / 49 | Meredy, March 2015 | | | | 75 Books Challenge for 2014: Middlemarch Group Read 2014 | 23 unread / 23 | banjo123, August 2014 | | | | 2014 Category Challenge: Middlemarch group read | 35 unread / 35 | sjmccreary, April 2014 | | | | 75 Books Challenge for 2010: Group Read: Middlemarch, Third Thread | 110 unread / 110 | phebj, February 2011 | | | | 75 Books Challenge for 2010: Group Read: Middlemarch | 241 unread / 241 | labwriter, November 2010 | | | | 1001 Books to read before you die: ***Group Read: Middlemarch Books 7-8 | 12 unread / 12 | annamorphic, September 2010 | | | | 1001 Books to read before you die: ***Group Read: Middlemarch Books 5-6 | 6 unread / 6 | ALWINN, August 2010 | | | | 1001 Books to read before you die: ***Group Read: Middlemarch Books 3-4 | 11 unread / 11 | billiejean, August 2010 | | | | 1001 Books to read before you die: ***Group Read: Middlemarch Prelude & Books 1-2 | 12 unread / 12 | annamorphic, August 2010 | | | | Victoriana: Middlemarch | 7 unread / 7 | messpots, December 2009 | | | | Group Reads - Literature: Middlemarch: Book I | 71 unread / 71 | pechmerle, May 2008 | | | | Connecticut Nutmeggers: Middlemarch (Spoilers Here) | 27 unread / 27 | clamairy, March 2008 | | | | Connecticut Nutmeggers: Middlemarch (SPOILER FREE) | 13 unread / 13 | mydomino1978, August 2007 | |
» See also 1743 mentions » Add other authors (163 possible) | Author name | Role | Type of author | Work? | Status | | Eliot, George | — | primary author | all editions | confirmed | | Ashton, Rosemary | Editor | secondary author | some editions | confirmed | | Creswick, Thomas | Cover artist | secondary author | some editions | confirmed | | Egan, Jennifer | Introduction | secondary author | some editions | confirmed | | Faber, Michel | Introduction | secondary author | some editions | confirmed | | Haight, Gordon S. | Editor | secondary author | some editions | confirmed | | Harvey, W. J. | Editor | secondary author | some editions | confirmed | | Mathias, Robert | Cover designer | secondary author | some editions | confirmed | | Mead, Rebecca | Foreword | secondary author | some editions | confirmed | | Reading, Kate | Narrator | secondary author | some editions | confirmed | | Stevenson, Juliet | Narrator | secondary author | some editions | confirmed | | Storm, Arie | Afterword | secondary author | some editions | confirmed | | Walz, Melanie | Translator | secondary author | some editions | confirmed | | Woolf, Gabriel | Narrator | secondary author | some editions | confirmed |
▾Series and work relationships Belongs to Publisher SeriesIs contained inContainsHas the adaptationIs abridged inHas as a studyHas as a supplementHas as a commentary on the textHas as a student's study guide
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Who that cares much to know the history of man, and how the mysterious mixture behaves under the varying experiments of Time, has not dwelt, at least briefly, on the life of Saint Theresa, has not smiled with some gentleness at the thought of the little girl waling forth one morning hand-in-hand with her still smaller brother, to go and seek martyrdom in the country of the Moors? (Prelude)  Miss Brooke had that kind of beauty which seems to be thrown into relief by poor dress. | |
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Miss Brooke had that kind of beauty which seems to be thrown into relief by poor dress. Sane people did what their neighbors did, so that if any lunatics were at large, one might know and avoid them. What we call our despair is often only the painful eagerness of unfed hope. Riding was an indulgence which she allowed herself in spite of conscientious qualms; she felt that she enjoyed it in a pagan sensuous way, and always looked forward to renouncing it. Some discouragement, some faintness of the heart at the new real future which replaces the imaginary, is not unusual, and we do not expect people to be deeply moved by what is not unusual. That element of tragedy which lies in the very fact of frequency, has not yet wrought itself into the coarse emotions of mankind. At that time the opinion existed that it was beneath a gentleman to write legibly, or with a hand in the least suitable to a clerk. Fred wrote the letters demanded in a hand as gentlemanly as that of any viscount or bishop of the day; the vowels were all alike and the consonants only distinguishable as turning up or down, the strokes had a blotted solidity and the letters disdained to keep the line -- in short, it was a manuscript of that venerable kind easy to interpret when you know beforehand what the writer means. Even while we are talking and meditating about the earth's orbit and the solar system, what we feel and adjust our movements to is the stable earth and the changing day. | |
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But the effect of her being on those around her was incalculably diffusive: for the growing good of the world is partly dependent on unhistoric acts; and that things are not so ill with you and me as they might have been is half owing to the number who lived faithfully a hidden life, and rest in unvisited tombs. (Click to show. Warning: May contain spoilers.)Here and there is born a Saint Theresa, foundress of nothing, whose loving heart-beats nod sobs after an unattained goodness tremble off and are dispersed among hindrances, instead of centring in some long-recognizable deed. (Prelude) (Click to show. Warning: May contain spoilers.) | |
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▾References References to this work on external resources.  Wikipedia in English
None ▾Book descriptions Middlemarch: A Study of Provincial Life is exactly what it claims. Its multiple plots center around the inhabitants of a fictitious Midlands town and their evolving relationships to each other. It is critical of social class, ambition and marriage, and religion. It is commonly considered one of the masterpieces of English writing, and Virginia Woolf described it as "the magnificent book that, with all its imperfections, is one of the few English novels written for grown-up people". ▾Library descriptions No library descriptions found. ▾LibraryThing members' description
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By the time the novel appeared to tremendous popular and critical acclaim in 1871-2, George Eliot was recognized as England's finest living novelist. It was her ambition to create a world and portray a whole community--tradespeople, middle classes, country gentry--in the rising provincial town of Middlemarch, circa 1830. Vast and crowded, rich in narrative irony and suspense, «Middlemarch» is richer still in character, in its sense of how individual destinies are shaped by and shape the community, and in the great art that enlarges the reader's sympathy and imagination. It is truly, as Virginia Woolf famously remarked, 'one of the few English novels written for grown-up people'. | |
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| Haiku summary |
dorothea cares
in a world not quite ready
to accept her views Interwoven fates,
A tapestry of stories,
Each thread a life.
(hillaryrose7) | |
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But if that scene provides a wash of catharsis, the climactic visit between Rosamond and Dorothea is completely overwhelming. Eliot hints earlier that these women will never be friends and have little to do with each other, but it takes little more than a clasping of their hands to produce one of my favorite passages in all of literature. The epilogue is quite graceful, but unnecessary: the novel exists really solely to arrive at those tears and fingers squeezing tight. (