Product Description

This title inculdes introduction and notes by Doreen Roberts, Rutherford College, University of Kent at Canterbury. "Middlemarch" is a complex tale of idealism, disillusion, profligacy, loyalty and frustrated love. This penetrating analysis of the life of an English provincial town during the time of social unrest prior to the Reform Bill of 1832 is told through the lives of Dorothea Brooke and Dr Tertius Lydgate and includes a host of other paradigm characters who illuminate the condition of English life in the mid-nineteenth century.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #5640 in Books
• Published on: 1993-12-01
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 736 pages

About the Author
David Carroll is Professor of English Literature at the University of Lancaster. He edited George Eliot: The Critical Heritage (1971), and the Clarendon edition of Middlemarch (1986). He is joint General Editor of the Longman Literature in English Series.
Felicia Bonaparte is Professor of English at the City University of New York and has written extensively on George Eliot. Among her other publications is the experimental biography The Gypsy-Bachelor of Manchester: The Life of Mrs Gaskell's Demon (1992).

Customer Reviews

a page-turner
The scope of Middlemarch is so broad and includes so many characters, plots and sub-plots that 1000 words would be insufficient to give more than the bare bones of the story, and I would probably make it seem rambling and incoherent. I won't put possible buyers off by doing this. I'll just say that by the end of 'Middlemarch', the reader will be breathless-George Eliot didn't create a few select characters-she created a civilisation. It's like the reader is high above the action, looking down, able to see the complex workings of this civilisation, and further able to focus on the individual. This is a masterpiece. I must also say that the reader who condemned George Eliot for her description of Mary is utterly wrong. She is just describing an unexceptional (looks-wise) person. George Eliot was a moralist. She wrote 'Middlemarch' with a serious purpose in mind. She condemned a lot of evils in her society, and she certainly wasn't racist. After all two men fall in love with Mary, while by the end of the book the reader seriously doubts whether Lydgate (or anyone else for that matter) loves his wife-the very beautiful Rosamund Vincy. Mary is described as a hardworking and honest girl. She refuses a bribe from her employer, even though her family is poor and it would have meant security and comfort for her and them. It is in the hopes of winning her that Fred Vincy turns his life around. Please don't read racism into innocent text. No preface or analysis of George Eliots work (that I've read anyway) has ever found rascist meaning in 'Middlemarch'. I find it insulting that someone who didn't even bother to finish the book-to see if there was any possibility that they were mistaken- can so arrogantly slander an author who acted from the highest moralistic principles in writing this book.

Brilliant!
This one deserves 10 stars, it is really one of the most incredible books I've ever read. I think I've only given a brilliant rating to the Count of Monte Cristo and Bleak House. This is a fascinating character study of the people of Middlemarch, a town in Victorian England. I can't even begin to try to describe the story -- there is Dorothea who makes a dreadful first marriage to an older man, Dr. Lydgate and his disastrous relationship and marriage to the self-centered Rosamund, Fred Vincy and Mary, and much much more.

The way the author pulls her story and characters together is incredible, and the insight into the characters is nothing short of brilliant. To quote from the book jacket and Virginia Wolf "one of the few English novels written for grown-up people."

Just be warned, this is not a sit on the edge of your seat, can't put it down until it's finished type of novel. This is a story to savour and enjoy the multi-faceted characters and the author's glorious prose like a fine red wine or a box of chocolates (or both). If you are looking for high action and adventure, this is not the book for you. Highly recommended for any lover of 19th century English literature, not as dark and brooding as Hardy can be, but the prose is just as lovely, if not better.

A view of rural England
In Middlemarch Eliot gives us a glimpse of rural life in England, during the 1830's. The central theme in this book is the connection between religion and worldliness, that affects the lives of the different characters in different ways.
Eliot's style is sharp and detailed and she alternates the serious tone of the book with enough humour and cynicism.
The most fascinating aspect of this book for me are in the numerous complex characters, often driven by ambition and blinded to the consequences for themselves and others.
A beautiful book, but not an easy read and not full of suspension, so if that's what you're looking for, you had better skip this book. But if you love classics like the works of Bronte and Hardy, this book definitely belongs on your list, that is, if you have the tenacity to read this 800 page novel.