Middlemarch by George Eliot

Title: Middlemarch

Author: George Eliot

First Published: 1872

No. of Pages: 794

Synopsis (from B&N): "Often called the greatest nineteenth-century British novelist, George Eliot (the pen name of Mary Ann Evans) created in Middlemarch a vast panorama of life in a provincial Midlands town. At the story’s center stands the intellectual and idealistic Dorothea Brooke — a character who in many ways resembles Eliot herself. But the very qualities that set Dorothea apart from the materialistic, mean-spirited society around her also lead her into a disastrous marriage with a man she mistakes for her soul mate. In a parallel story, young doctor Tertius Lydgate, who is equally idealistic, falls in love with the pretty but vain and superficial Rosamond Vincy, whom he marries to his ruin.

Eliot surrounds her main figures with a gallery of characters drawn from every social class, from laborers and shopkeepers to the rising middle class to members of the wealthy, landed gentry. Together they form an extraordinarily rich and precisely detailed portrait of English provincial life in the 1830s. But Dorothea’s and Lydgate’s struggles to retain their moral integrity in the midst of temptation and tragedy remind us that their world is very much like our own. Strikingly modern in its painful ironies and psychological insight, Middlemarch was pivotal in the shaping of twentieth-century literary realism."

Fiction or Nonfiction: Fiction

Comments and Critique: My feelings on this book are decidedly mixed. Parts of it were very enjoyable -- there's enough drama to keep the story moving, and the reader is given an extensive view of English upper- and middle-class society of the time. On the other hand, I couldn't help but feel that more editing should have taken place. There are a number of sections that are too long-winded and rambling; perhaps readers of the time could follow, but a modern reader will most likely feel overwhelmed and confused. To be fair, this is one of the books that require numerous readings to "get" everything, so perhaps these sections are more accessible on a second or third read. My initial reaction is that the author deserves a place in the listing of classic literature, but I still prefer other writers of the period more.

Challenges: 18th and 19th Century Women; 999 ("1001 Books"); Chunkster; Fill in the Gaps 100 Books Project; George Eliot mini-challenge