Middlemarch (Part 1)

Rating:
Summary: Too detached for my taste
Review: This classic Victorian novel was on my list of books to read, and I had heard good things about it.

This epic novel (880 pages, lots of characters) begins with the story of Dorothea Brooke, a kind-hearted young woman who gets stuck in an unfulfilling marriage. Eventually, she is able to find love. The rest of the story (and there are multiple subplots) is filled by the intricacies of the townspeople of Middlemarch. Here you will wade through stories of gambling debs, family scandal, and various other estate affairs.

If this sounds intriguing to you, then have at it. Eliot is wonderful at Victorian prose, and although she was often criticized for being "depressing," it's great stuff. If you thought "Emma" or "Pride and Prejudice" was a little slow, however, then it is likely you will not be impressed.

The main problem I can see with a book like this is that there is something in it for everybody to complain about. Victorian romance novel fans will complain that the book is not happy enough, and that Eliot doesn't talk enough about love. Epic novel fans will complain that there isn't enough going on and some things are only hinted at.

This book is notable in that Eliot was trying to write a much more serious novel than other women writers of the day, and in that she succeeded. Readers who are interested in women writers should read this book, and it is important in the history of English literature. I guess I wasn't able to see as much there as others could.


Rating:
Summary: I suposse a classic
Review: Well, here is Middlemarch considered a masterpiece by every critic death or alive, from V.Woolf to Harold Bloom, from G. Steiner to italo Calvino, so i suposse one has to read alot to get to apreciate this book in its full height. But that will always go contrary to the pleasure of reading. The book is OK, but i think getting old wrongly. Compared to Austen novels it is a heavy, bored, intellectual, pretentious book. The characters are good, but somehow, by the slowness of her style you star to not care about them. The politics and religion are a nuissance. Maybe it will stand as a good non fiction documentary of how life was the and there, but as fiction you have to be to erudite to get pleasure