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Loading... Middlemarch (1872)by George Eliot
  
» 83 more Favourite Books (27) 501 Must-Read Books (22) Top British Books (31) Five star books (9) BBC Big Read (51) Folio Society (18) Female Author (29) Unread books (41) Female Protagonist (56) A Novel Cure (44) 19th Century (20) Books Read in 2020 (136) BBC Big Read (38) Out of Copyright (23) Top Five Books of 2019 (118) Women's reading list (11) Tagged Social Class (39) Books Read in 2015 (619) Books Read in 2019 (857) Readable Classics (40) Elegant Prose (6) Top Didactic Fiction (17) United Kingdom (20) Victorian Period (16) Read These Too (5) Overdue Podcast (121) Books on my Kindle (11) Books I've read (11) BBC Top Books (52) My TBR (7) Books Read in 2014 (1,955) Classics (14) I Can't Finish This Book (120) 900 pages -- and still this very good read felt more like a loosely woven blanket draped over early 19th century England than a tightly constructed canvas supporting a portrait in deepest hues. In and out of the minds and perspectives of the characters Eliot takes us as they worry, plot, dream, and live their daily lives in Middlemarch. Set in a time of change, when railroads and scientific advancements were changing society and sources of wealth, the novel peers into the marriages of several couples for insights into relationships and personal motivations that continue to ring true. Meanwhile, it also spotlights societal problems that still plague us -- homelessness, universal health care, class struggles and adapting to the impact of new technology. It's an old chestnut, but it reads so new in many ways. George Eliot -- nee Mary Ann Evans -- was a genius. (  ) MMKY | Jul 3, 2020 |  I can't write anything that would do justice to this book. Somehow I always regarded it as a minor classic (with lots of other more important books to read first.) I'm very glad to have read it and look forward to reading it again next year. (  ) bread2u | Jul 1, 2020 | It starts off slow, and a lot of the prose is a dense slog. Fortunately, the characters are well drawn and believable, and any time they are talking to one another the dialogue is wonderful. I also think it shows a range of very believable marital pitfalls. Comparing this book with Portrait of a Lady, in that novel we're asked to study a bad marriage but we're never really shown exactly how the characters fell in love. Here, we can see the bad marriages being built from good intentions, high hopes, and assumptions that prove unfounded. No one is tricked into marriage here, and there are no secret crazy wives locked in attics. The drama comes from realistic, small scale conflicts over things like household budgets and age differences between couples. I enjoyed it and found it insightful, but will admit that this low key conflict does make the book fairly dull for long passages. Still, I think it belongs on any reading serious reading list of classics. ( ) James_Maxey | Jun 29, 2020 | Luckless marriages small town lives and petty wrongs a lovely long tale. ( ) Eggpants | Jun 25, 2020 | Some discouragement, some faintness of 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 emotion of mankind; and perhaps our frames could hardly bear much of it. If we had a keen vision and feeling of all ordinary human life, it would be like hearing the grass grow and the squirrel's heart beat, and we should die of that roar which lies on the other side of silence. As it is, the quickest of us walk about well wadded with stupidity. Middlemarch is truly one of the greatest novel's I've ever read. With the possible exception of Moby-Dick, it's the most impressive English language novel of the 19th century. The psychological depth with which Eliot imbues her characters is unparalleled. Her wit, sophistication, and literary acumen are present on every page. Perhaps most impressively, the novel manages to express profound moral understanding without ever becoming moralizing. Eliot's philosophical insights into the nature of virtue, sympathy, and social relationships seems to me unparalleled by Dickens, Twain, Dostoevsky, James, Flaubert, or any of the other comparable writers of her era. The only criticism I can muster is that occasionally her syntax can become a bit unwieldy, but this criticism can be leveled (often more justifiably) against any novelist of the 19th century. As such, this observation does nothing to weaken my admiration for Eliot's work. In sum, Middlemarch is something special—something I would recommend to anyone who claims a love of great literature. ( ) drbrand | Jun 8, 2020 | Belongs to Publisher SeriesIs contained inContainsHas the adaptationHas as a studyHas as a supplementHas as a commentary on the textHas as a student's study guide
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Penguin Australia3 editions of this book were published by Penguin Australia.
Editions: 0141439548, 0141199792, 0143123815
Tantor Media2 editions of this book were published by Tantor Media.
Editions: 1400102162, 1400108632
Urban RomanticsAn edition of this book was published by Urban Romantics.
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