Middlemarch

Rating:
Summary: Get Your Hiking Boots - It's Mostly Uphill
Review: I realize I'm in the minority, but I can't agree that this is the best, greatest, most wonderful (etc.) novel ever written. It's well-crafted, to say the least, but is it really enjoyable? At over 700 pages, and much of that social commentary, it can take quite a lot of dedication to get through.

There's nothing wrong with social commentary in a novel; we could do with more of it. The problem is, it quickly becomes dated. There are entire chapters of "Middlemarch" devoted to discussions of 19th century politics -- which you do need a foundation of knowledge to appreciate. There are other chapters regarding the machinations in selecting a pastor for the new hospital, long rambles about the treatment methods of city and country doctors, and so on. As part of a study of English history, with a knowledgeable instructor to provide background information, this might be interesting... but to the casual reader it's dry, dry, dry.

Aside from that, George Eliot goes to great lengths to explain events from everyone's point of view. Hardly a thing goes by without the reader knowing what everyone thinks about it, from the main characters to the people in the local pub. It's fascinating that she was able to flesh out not only her main characters but also the minor characters with whom they come into contact. It can drag on a bit, though.

Finally, the main characters themselves: I won't be the first to note that "hearing" everyone extol Dorothea's overabundance of virtue is a chore, but the other characters do have their flaws; they are all too human, and very interesting, as are the relationships between them. The chapters where people interacted with each other and the story progressed were fantastic, but it still took weeks for me to finally put the book down.

It's definitely worth reading if you like this type of historical fiction, but I wouldn't think less of anyone who found it not to their taste.

Rating:
Summary: George Eliot's Greatest Novel
Review: For a student who studies George Eliot, "Middlemarch" can be a real battlefield of emotions and ideas. Countless allusions, Biblical and literary, numberless poems, and endless leitmotifs, make this book a treasury, a perfect find for somebody who wishes to write a perfect paper. Although I love works by Ann Radcliffe, Jane Austen, and the Bronte sisters, I think George Eliot was the greatest English "woman of letters" ever, just as Emily Dickinson was the best poetess in the language. A huge novel, and surely an ambitious one, "Middlemarch" moves from one house to another, and from one man to the next, exploring, noting, contriving. The struggle for "a breath of fresh air," the eternal dissatisfaction with life, and other countless displeasures, make the book seem tiresome at first, but it sucks you in quite unexpectedly and you become one of the people- a fellow "Middlemarcher." Pastoral realism illuminates the narrative, while the poetic excerpts provide valuable hints by simply alluding to works of art created ages before Eliot wrote her masterpiece. One warning: "Middlemarch" is not for beginners. If you're not acquainted with George Eliot's prose yet, start off with "A Mill on the Floss" or "Brother Jacob."

Rating:
Summary: Quintessential English Masterpiece
Review: This is not for the faint of heart. I'll be the first to admit that Eliot is no day-in-the-park author. She's regal, she's massive, she's intense. She's the Titanic, the way it was meant to be. The upside of all this is that you enter a world of literature so engrossing and pungent, it will be hard to pick up a less involved book afterwards. Eliot is an aquired taste for some, but, oh, what a taste! I began her books with Middlemarch and it has been my ultimate favorite ever since. It even surpasses Pride and Prejudice in my estimation, no small concession.

Middlemarch isn't a glamourous town, but it *is* full of strangely fascinating normal people. They're deliciously human, understandably flawed, and believably redeemed. Love, life, and death are not sugar-coated, but shown in all their respective glory and shabbiness. The characters, however minor, are honestly portrayed, making you feel like one of them. Idealistic Dorothea could have lived in any age, in any place. Lydgate is another. They are mirrored by the sad realism of the Bulstrode and Casaubon among others. All the other Middlemarchers fall in between these common extremes. With as broad a brush as Eliot paints with (covering religion, provincial politics, social mores, business, romance), there are also many (relevant) commentaries that have her wielding as fine as brush as an ivory-painter (intricacies of human nature, society, and the ironies of life). Eliot was an unabashed intellectual, but persuasive and logical, making it a pleasure to delve into her mind. Her works are diamonds in English Lit - captivating from afar as they are breathtaking up close. Read her for the fun plots, as well as the brilliant insights.

The characters are true, the settings are used to perfection, and the complexity is amazing. The characters may not endear themselves to you on paper, but they become so lifelike through details that they will compel feelings through reason - reaching your heart through your brain. Not a likely arrangement, but one that Eliot pulls off uncannily.

Eliot made a masterpiece of town life with Middlemarch. The same is done for pastoral life with Mill on the Floss and Adam Bede. For a shorter, sweeter story, read Silas Marner. And never lump her with Dickens, who gracelessly and grotesquely inflates life in order to make a point.

Rating:
Summary: A rewarding reading experience
Review: George Eliot's colossal novel "Middlemarch" is a literary White Pages of a rural town in pre-Victorian England, portraying several of its citizens in all the glories and disgraces (mostly disgraces) regarding their lives, marriages, and personal and professional ambitions, while using the historical and political events of the time as a backdrop. This is one of the finest examples of a character-driven novel, where the plot is customized to the characters, rather than the other way around.

A major theme in this novel is marrying wrong. Dorothea Brooke, a girl with ideas of social reform -- one of her occupations is designing cottages for poor villagers -- marries the scholarly but stodgy Edward Casaubon, who is old enough to be her father, because she is attracted to his disciplined, erudite mind. However, Casaubon employs her as a sort of secretary and assistant and becomes increasingly demanding of her. Then there is the seemingly fairy-tale marriage of Tertius Lydgate, a brilliant and promising young physician, to Rosamond Vincy, spoiled daughter of the mayor of Middlemarch, a wealthy manufacturer. Rosamond's expensive tastes endanger their marriage financially and romantically. On the other hand, the marriage of Dorothea's younger sister Celia to the dapper Sir James Chettam is nothing but bubble-headed bliss because they both are too superficial to care for anything deeper than peerage and pulchritude.

The novel ties its characters together with a few interrelated plot threads, the most important of which concerns Casaubon's young second cousin, Will Ladislaw. Will and Casaubon have little respect for each other, and when Casaubon suspects that Will and Dorothea are attracted to each other, he places a stipulation in his will denying Dorothea his fortune upon his death if she marries Will. Moreover, Will has been cheated out of his own fortune by Middlemarch banker Nicholas Bulstrode, who finances the hospital that employs Lydgate. Lydgate's association with the dishonest Bulstrode threatens to cause him further disgrace and ostracize him from the town.

Meanwhile, Rosamond's brother Fred typifies the irresponsible young man with money problems who manages to reform himself and win the respect of the girl he loves. The irony is that Fred expected a great inheritance from a rich uncle who instead, on his deathbed, offered the money to his servant Mary Garth, who happens to be Fred's beloved. Now, Fred's only options are to join the clergy, which Mary would not approve of, or get a job -- with Mary's father.

More serious and intellectual than the works of her immediate forebear Dickens, Eliot's novel seems to strike out bold new territory for British fiction of the time, especially considering the progressive mindsets of characters like Dorothea and Lydgate who act in contrast to tradition-bound grunts like Casaubon and the other town doctors. Her sophisticated prose style of intricately structured sentences and deep psychological penetration appears to have been a huge influence on Henry James. Much more than the sum of its parts, though, "Middlemarch" leaves its reader with a distinct impression of a time and place and, on reflection, the rewarding feeling of having accepted the challenge of reading it.

Rating:
Summary: Timeless themes and characters
Review: It's easy to see why Middlemarch is a classic. The theme of reality not living up to one's ideals is a thread that runs through the lives of most of the major characters, and is instantly recognizable and relevant nearly a century and a half after the book was written.

Idealism is most evident in Dorothea Brooke. She wants to lead a learned life of service to others, but Casaubon is not interested in teaching her much, and the great work she initially believes he is writing is an irrelevant, disorganized bunch of notes. Tertius Lydate is also an idealist whose ambition is to make contributions to the medical field. Before he marries Rosamund Vincy, he sees her as the feminine ideal, a woman who will provide unquestioning support and an emotional haven. Instead, she turns out to be a self-centered spendthrift who ennervates him. He ends up with no money or energy for his research, and must concentrate on making enough money to support his wife's extravagance. Interestingly, the characters who end up the happiest, Mary Garth and Fred Vincy, lack such lofty ideals.

One of Eliot's strengths is her sympathy and compassion for her characters, despite their faults. However, she is no stylist, and I found her prose to be awkward and stilted. The reader needs to be patient with this book, because Eliot's style makes it somewhat difficult to get through.

Rating:
Summary: Perfect
Review: This is absolutely one of my favorite books ever. George Eliot is a genius -- I wouldn't change a thing. This edition is nice and sturdy, and reasonably priced too.

Rating:
Summary: George Eliot's greatest novel
Review: Middlemarch has been described as the one Victorian novel written for grownups. Here, Eliot combines the multiple and interlocking plot lines so beloved by the Victorians with adult characters facing real problems. Particularly engaging is Dorothea Brooke's efforts to find a way to serve, if not achieve, greatness. Rather than undertake some great work herself -- something that Victorian women were not encouraged to do -- she chooses to dedicate herself to supporting a man that she mistakenly believes to be creating a major work. Similarly, Lydgate's slow downfall is realistically portrayed. Unlike many of the works of Dickens, Middlemarch's multiple plots work well together. If you have not read anything by George Eliot, this is the book to begin with.

Rating:
Summary: My opinion? This is the greatest novel written in English
Review: Yes, that is a strong statement, but I believe Middlemarch to be the best novel written in English. And English is a rich language, overflowing with worthy works from both sides of the Atlantic, India and beyond. The only novel as a close contender on my list is Jane Eyre, with its fearsome symmetry and romantic passion.
George Eliot has been the bane of students everywhere who suffer reading Silas Marner in high school. But later on, you, like me, may develop a taste for the classics and this book will reward you richly.
The story is about Dorothea, a young, idealist woman, born to a good family with a modest fortune of her own. She is a prime catch on the wife market--money, family name, good looks. Her parents are deceased and her friends and uncle seek to pair her up with a local baron as the ideal mate. But Dorothea, bookish, religious and dreamy, has other ideas. She chooses, instead, a superannuated cleric who finally decides to marry as he feels mortality and ill health upon him. Casaubon, the vicar of a nearby rural church is a good match except....he's old, ugly and what the heck is he doing marrying such a young beauty. But Dorothea, who's imagining a sort of superior father figure who could "teach you even Hebrew, if you wished it" wakes up to far less than a reality of marital bliss. And there's an added complication created by her unworthy husband that has dire consequences for the young Dorothea.
The subsequent examination of marriage as a partnership in hell is written with stunning modernity. Eliot not only creates the disastrous marriage of Dorothea to Casaubon, but also pairs, as a comparison, Lydgate, a doctor and his frivolous, vain, uncaring wife. The relationship of marriage to society is never more well drawn, but the internal suffering of people trapped in loveless marriage is written with sympathy and cunning insight. Eliot herself had a live-in relationship with Henry Lewes, who could not divorce his wife. She undoubtedly wrote from personal experience. The insight into human nature, such as jealousy, disappointment, recrimination, loss of trust and a feeling of desperation are themes that anyone who has ever been in a relationship will recognize as truth. If you find classic literature hard going, watch the mini-series created based on the book. Then, knowing the general plot, you might enjoy the structure and language of the novel more.

Rating:
Summary: A True Epic
Review: This book is an epic for the common people. It sheds the tradition of typical epic characters but keeps the epic form. This is a major work, and while I would be hard pressed to find any stylitically inferior passage, I still feel that it is too long. This is what will drive away many potential readers, and that's a shame. The book is a realist character study and an ethical treatise. It's hard for me to think of a superior stylist to Eliot. The story is a collage of characters, their ambitions, loves, and disappointments. It is the story of provincial British life. I have always had a problem with artificial literary beautification of plain things, but I think Eliot makes a good case for common characters - not merely simple but kind people, but people who might have been great if not for the extraneous factors surrounding their lives and clashing with their aspirations.

Rating:
Summary: And after Middlemarch...
Review: George Eliot hasn't yet gained the modern pop success of Jane Austen or Edith Wharton, but I think its only a matter of time before she catches on in a big way and we see a big. lush movie version of Middlemarch.

For now, dont be put off by her novels of great Victorian size. If you are used to the broad comic brushstrokes of Charles Dickens, you will find Eliot a much subtler artist. She paints very subtle shades of emotion and morality.

If you have already read Middlemarch, you should seek out Virginia Woolf's essay on Eliot in her book, The Common Reader. Also, Eliot figures highly in Sandra Gilbert's study of Victorian literature, The Madwoman in the Attic.