Middlemarch: (Penguin Classics Deluxe Edition) by George Eliot

by George Eliot

Paperback

About the author

Mary Ann Evans, known by her pen name George Eliot, was an English novelist, poet, journalist, translator, and one of the leading writers of the Victorian era. She wrote seven novels: Adam Bede (1859), The Mill on the Floss (1860), Silas Marner (1861), Romola (1862–1863), Felix Holt, the Radical (1866), Middlemarch (1871–1872) and Daniel Deronda (1876). Like Charles Dickens and Thomas Hardy, she emerged from provincial England; most of her works are set there. Her works are known for their realism, psychological insight, sense of place and detailed depiction of the countryside.
Middlemarch was described by the novelist Virginia Woolf as "one of the few English novels written for grown-up people" and by Martin Amis and Julian Barnes as the greatest novel in the English language.

Reviews

[Ron Drescher · Rating 5 out of 5]

Last year I read Moby Dick and found it extremely rewarding, so I decided to portion off a chunk of time to read another very long classic novel. That novel was Middlemarch by George Eliot (that’s a pen name, her real one is Mary Ann Evans).

Middlemarch is a slow-burn character study set in provincial England during the late 1820s. The times are a-changing for people of all social classes as the Industrial Revolution takes root. Railroad tracks are lain down across the country. The Reform Act is being debated. By the way, if you ever read this book, please be sure to look up the Reform Act on Wikipedia or something so you know what they are referencing!

When it comes to romantic plotlines, novels that I have read from this period usually end the story with a couple getting married and riding off into the sunset, happily ever after. That’s not the case for Middlemarch. We get quite a few case studies of different marriages - some happier than others. I’d say marriage, and the role of women in society, are central themes of this book but there are many others including class, religion, medicine, even what we might call “cancel culture”! We might think of “canceling” as a modern phenomenon, but people have been blackballing and shunning each other for quite a while. Especially in a society like England’s at the time, when a man or woman’s “honor” was more important than anything. Middlemarch citizens didn’t have the internet but gossip spread just as fast in those small communities, whether it was true or not.

George Eliot makes good use of humor and satire in this book, I’ve got about a hundred or more clever lines highlighted in my Penguin Classics Deluxe Edition. Which by the way, I bought this deluxe edition thinking it would have footnotes to explain things that modern audiences wouldn’t understand, but there were none at all!! There is nothing deluxe about it… if you are wanting to read Middlemarch, do try to find an edition with footnotes. I think the Oxford Classics and the standard Penguin Classics edition have them.

Eliot is fantastic at getting you inside her character’s mindset: all of their goals, dreams, fears, and prejudices come to life. Even though her characters have many personal flaws, she treats them with a lot of empathy and I was highly engaged in their lives and dramas. Shout out to Dorothea & Farebrother, who I love to love, and to Fred & Casaubon, who I love to hate.

Again, this is a slow-burn character study and it took me a couple months to get through, so my advice would be to have patience and feel free to take breaks to chew on things. I really loved this book and would recommend it to anyone who has an interest in great classic literature.

[Edward Wayland · Rating 5 out of 5]

I have read Middlemarch. This was my second attempt, and I understand now why the first one failed. Most novels, particularly contemporary not-destined-to-be-classics, are books you can read at a steady clip. They are like a visit to a well-organized grocery store, where you can dash in, get what you want (the resolution of the plot or whatever, usually at the back next to the milk) and get out. Then there are books like Middlemarch which are more like a visit to a medieval cathedral. First, you have to adjust to it, like your eyes adjusting to lower light. Eliot uses a wordier writing style than we are used to now and it takes time to get in the rhythm of it. The first time I attempted the book I found it frustrating. I found myself thinking, "all these words to tell me someone is a prig?!" But if you stick with it you come to realize that she is not wasting any words. It is a different style, but it is genius. Then, like in a cathedral, you have to closely examine every tile or fresco to get the full effect. Those long sentences and descriptions usually hold brilliant insights into a character or observations on human weaknesses that make you stop and wonder. You'll be reading along in what feels like a run-on sentence and realize she's made a point about someone or something that could only be made the way she did it. All those words to tell you someone is a prig are worth it if they do it in a way that clearly shows it to you. Often, too, her observations are humorous. Maybe not laugh-out-loud funny, but you get that she is laughing along with you at some character's flaws or silly ideas. One minor example I can recall was when she said one character was (doing this from memory, not an exact quote) "fond of pretty women and thought plain ones were something to be borne through philosophy and investigated by science." I do not think you could make the point that "this guy is so full of himself he is unconscious of it" better than putting it that way. There are also so many wise observations about people and their mistakes that I think someone could, with time and attention, extract from this novel a workable "philosophy of life according to George Eliot." What must it have been like to have her, someone who could write this novel and see the virtues and weaknesses of people so clearly, focus her attention on you? She must have been intimidating, but also fascinating.

The only negative thing I would say about the whole experience is that I found the main protagonist, Dorothea Brooke, a bit too good to be true. Late in the novel, someone compares her to the Virgin Mary and the shoe almost fits. Although having just read the "Finale" chapter, it seems Eliot was doing that deliberately. Dorothea is an example of the kind of person who, Eliot says, live quiet lives but whose goodness benefits us all. I suppose such people do exist. Sometimes, perhaps, we all play that role in small ways.

Anyway, if you find yourself wondering "Do I really need to read Middlemarch?" I would say no you do not. But you do get to read it. And should.

[Tumblyhome (Caroline) · Rating 5 out of 5]

I have started Middlemarch before but somehow never progressed far. I had a big old preconceived idea that it was about marriages and society teas. My goodness how wrong I was. Middlemarch needs and deserves so much more than my brief gibberish here.

I guess in a nutshell the book is about grand aspirations and what happens when life doesn’t give the context or capacity to achieve those dizzy heights. What can we aspire to when reality isn’t the stuff of dreams. Maybe it is up to us recognise accomplishments and how to live our best lives around our aims and reality. It is sometimes the small things and the ordinary everyday acts that make the difference to the world. Really though, that doesn’t touch the surface of the themes in Middlemarch.

The final paragraph is very 😭😭😭 but joyous too. I had to have a cry.. Maybe it is the best ending of any book.

I loved Dorothea Brooke, one of the main characters. She sits with Shakespeare’s Cleopatra, Bulgakov’s Margarita and Bronte’s Cathy, amongst my favourite female characters. She is spirited and defiant!

The book starts with a prelude that can’t really be rushed through despite it being short in length. As much as that ‘prelude’ left me initially a little bemused, the ideas in it informed the rest of the book.
The writing often isn’t easy, it is packed with ideas and is a bit convoluted at times. It defies quick reading, also skimming over political, philosophical and other digressions that might seem like unnecessary padding is not an option. Every single sentence matters.

There is a thunderstorm chapter near the end… and no spoilers but wow 🔥


In short I think it is a bloomin’ MASTERPIECE

[Annie · Rating 5 out of 5]

I regret every minute I put off reading Middlemarch. For a novel written 150+ years ago, the characters and themes are as relevant as ever: the earnest stupidity of youth, marrying for the wrong reasons, how people do crazy things for money and love, the appeal of gambling what you can't afford to lose, the ways large-scale societal change reverberates through ordinary lives. And how gossip is a currency that never devalues.