Product Description

George Eliot's Middlemarch (1871-72) is one of the classic novels of English literature and was admired by Virginia Woolf as "one of the few English novels written for grown-up people." The complex main plot and many subplots revolve around Dorothea Brooke, an ardent young woman, and her relationship to three men: Casaubon, a clergyman and scholar twice her age; Lydgate, an ambitious young doctor who shares Dorothea's enthusiasm for reform but whose flaws compromise his ambitions; and Will Ladislaw, a young man of mysterious origins, romantic temperament, and artistic inclinations. A female Bildungsroman and a study of character and society in the realistic mode pioneered by Balzac, Middlemarch is also an historical novel that offers a panorama of English society in an era of social reform and political agitation.

This Broadview edition includes a critical introduction and a rich selection of contextual materials, including contemporary reviews of the novel, other writings by George Eliot (essays, reviews, and criticism), and historical documents pertaining to medical reform, religious freedom, and the advent of the railroads.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #364215 in Books
• Published on: 1992-03-03
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 208 pages

About the Author
Gregory Maertz is an Associate Professor of English at Saint John's University in New York City. He is the editor of Cultural Interactions in the Romantic Age (SUNY Press, 1998).

Customer Reviews

Great love of humanity and depth of insight
I think that modern "mainstream" literature ought to learn something from good Nineteenth Century novels such as Middlemarch.
The richness of analysis of the human soul, the understanding of the sometimes right reasons for a wrong choice, the fascinating characters and their interactions, the wry notations on the failings of certain individuals (Casaubon who is forced to notice that his "river of passion" is in fact a very shallow torrent)and the splendid writing of George Eliot make this novel a classic to rediscover. The great expectations of Dorothea Brooke are frustrated by the conservative milieu in which she lives, where women are not expected to have political or social opinions. Her trials and errors in life are only one of the many threads in this marvelous tapestry of a novel, where men and women portrayed in marvelous authenticity interact, love and quarrel in one of the best portraits of provincial ninetheeenth century England.

One Of The Finest Novels Ever Written-A Literary Masterpiece
George Eliot, (nom de plume of Mary Ann Evans), wrote a literary masterpiece with "Middlemarch." I was forced to read this novel in school at an age when term papers and grades meant more than absorbing the riches this novel contains. I recently gave it another shot, lured to revisit 19th century English literature by rereading Jane Austen and other extraordinary authors.

Ms. Eliot created, with this book, an entire community in England in the mid-1800s and called it Middlemarch. She populated this provincial town with people of every station, local squires and their families, tradespeople, the rising middle class, the poor and destitute, ruthless and honest. She crowded them together, with their ambitions, dreams and foibles, and wove a wonderful web of plots and subplots. Ms. Eliot also used her great wit to include scathing social commentary.

The fortunes of Middlemarch are rising in this new era when machines and trains - fast, available transportation - are changing the world, the economy, the politics. Rigid social codes, the British class system, is in danger of being breached. Folks are out to make a quick shilling - anything to acquire wealth and enhance social position.

Dorothea Brooks lives in Middlemarch. She is an intelligent, sensitive young woman, who wants to dedicate her life to important endeavors. She does not want to settle for a typical marriage and family, but looks toward a more noble cause. As a woman, a professional life is not open to her, nor is the pursuit of intellect, outside of marriage. She weds the elderly Rev. Casaubon, a cold, narcissistic man, thinking that by assisting him with his scholarly research and writing, she will find happiness.

Dr. Lydgate comes to Middlemarch to begin his medical practice there. He is an idealist, who has dreams of finding a cure for cholera and opening a free clinic. He meets blonde and beautiful Rosamund Vincie, who fancies him for a spouse...along with a new house, new furniture, an extensive wardrobe, etc.

A dashing, romantic Will Ladislaw, nephew of Rev. Casaubon, enters the story, as does Rosie's brother Fred, who wants desperately to marry his Mary, but is out of work and in debt. This cast of richly drawn characters continues to grow with the introduction of Mary's family, the Garths, the banker Bulstrode, friends, relations, and an evil villain or two.

"Middlemarch," a complex novel and portrait of the times, is one of the best reading experiences I have had in a long while. I returned to George Eliot's masterwork 30 years after my initial encounter - and it was/is so worth the re-read!
JANA

The English country novel with attitude
Middlemarch is a superior example of that overused superlative, page turner. You absolutely do not want to put it down. What will Dorothea decide? What will happen to the doctor? Will people find out the secrets of one of the town's most prominent citizens? The beauty of the book is the "dark side" that it shows of English country life, the side that is coyly hinted at in all the beloved Jane Austen novels. Indeed, Middlemarch is the work that best highlights the place that Eliot occupies between Austen and the pull-no-punches cynicism of Edith Wharton.