A laugh-out-loud funny book about one serious lady!

books:


	• Middlemarch (Signet Classics) George Eliot Signet Classics, 2003 - 912 pages average customer review:based on 103 reviews view larger image
	for more information click here

highly recommended

A laugh-out-loud funny book about one serious lady!

Masterpiece? Greatest English novel? Well, I don't know about that -- it's very good, but it's not perfect. But it is funny, and it's a page-turner. Our heroine, Dorothea, is an intellectual stuck in a very provincial town, and she just wants someone she can have an intelligent conversation with, and whom she can help do some kind of serious work. A very marriageble but not especially bright gentleman courts her, and brings her a puppy as a present. Dorothea doesn't _mean_ to be rude, but she speaks her mind, that she doesn't approve of having pets just to pet them -- she thinks dogs are happiest when they have some serious work to do. I laughed out loud at this point, as at so many others. I know just how she feels! And I also understand the sighs that her friends sighed as they rolled their eyes. That's our Dorothea! The gentleman caller eventually marries Dorothea's sister, and they (and the puppy) live happily ever after. Dorothea lives happily ever after, too, but only after being very, very serious about things for several hundred pages. You'll love her, and you'll laugh all the way.

for more information click here

If you are getting married

Everyone should read this book before they get married. George Eliot is a master at rendering human character. She is a true sympathizer with the human condition, and merciless at the same time. Beautiful.

for more information click here

A finely crafted character study

The version of Middlemarch I read was the Modern Library edition with an introduction by A.S. Byatt. Ms. Byatt mentions that Eliot was the great English novelist of "ideas", and as such was the progenitor of Proust and Mann. Reading Middlemarch, I can understand her point. As far as Victorian novelists go, George Eliot was Dickens with a finer sense of wit, and a subtler intelligence.

Middlemarch centers on Dorothea Brooke, a young woman with fervent and noble ideas and ideals, and a hunger for intellectual enrichment. Unfortunately, she lives in a time and place which is not conducive to the attainment of her aspirations, and winds up in an unfulfilling marriage to Casaubon, a sickly cleric much older than herself, a pedantic scholar of theology and antiquity, who wanted an obedient secretary for his life's work as well as a dedicated and subservient wife, more than (as she had hoped) a life partner on the road to discovery. While married to him, she meets his cousin Wil Ladislaw, a young man of keen intellect and a passion for art, but with a dubious past and unsettled future.

Another key character is Tertius Lydgate, a young doctor who comes to Middlemarch to do research, make great discoveries for the benefit of mankind, run a hospital and practice that will utilize his knowledge for good more than for personal financial gain. He falls in love with, and marries the mayor's daughter Rosamund Vincy, a very pretty but shallow woman. Related to the Vincys through marriage is Peter Featherstone, a miserly old landowner in failing health whose demise might benefit Rosamund's brother, and Nicholas Bulstrode, a wealthy banker (with an overly pious attitude) and influential member of the town council, who has many important enemies in Middlemarch, as well as an awful secret to hide.

Middlemarch is a novel about relationships and about human aspirations and how society (in this case provincial 18th century English society), conspires to thwart those aspirations. Unlike Dickens, who likes to paint in broad strokes and vivid colors, Eliot is much subtler in her craft. Her characters have complex tones to their personalities. Middlemarch is a finely wrought study of these characters and of the times that nurtured them, influenced them, and ultimately affected their fortunes.

George Eliot is a keen observer of her environment, and beyond the people themselves, of the religious, social, and political factors which complicate interpersonal relationships. All this done with a wit and wisdom as well as a sense of understanding and compassion that exude from every page.

for more information click here

Worth the challenge

Middlemarch is a challenging book to read for several reasons. One, it is too long. Two, the author has a tendency to go off on philosophical tangents. Three, the author will sometimes spend several paragraphs on the inner workings of the mind of a very minor character who is hardly pertinent to the story. These flaws aside, I will say that I enjoyed Middlemarch very much. It is easy to get caught up in the lives of Dorthea, Will, Fred, Mary, Dr.Lydgate and Rosamond and many others. George Eliot wrote wonderful dialogue in this book--the conversations between characters are very interesting. I thought Dr. Lydgate was the most compelling person in the book. He had such high hopes and was a good and honorable man. Yet, he let himself be ensnared in a silly marriage and here the author is very insightful in portraying Dr.Lydgates trapped, disappointed existence with Rosamond. What he wants in a wife and marriage and what she wants in a husband and marriage are miles apart and so, in the end, they resign themselves to one another. I also liked the character of Mary. She's a strong woman who knows what she wants. Although Dorthea can be irritating at times, with her insistence that everyone see things the way she does, she is good and goodness is appealing in a central character. Her relationship with Will Ladislaw is portrayed well. Their love for one another was truly believable. While reading Middlemarch, there were a few times in which I felt as if I were slogging through, but there were many more times when I didn't want to put it down. So, all in all, a good read and worth the effort.

for more information click here

reviews: page 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10

Vast and crowded, rich in irony and suspense, Middlemarch is richer still in character, with two of the era's most enduring characters, Dorothea Brooke, trapped in a loveless marriage, and Lydgate, an ambitious young doctor.

hot

not?

What's your opinion?

Write a review and share your thoughts!

recommendations

The Third Age (Democratic) of Harold Bloom's Canon (Part 5)
Books to read to impress your English teacher
Novels in which Place is central
Books I Can't Part With
FAVOURITE READS

signet

The Dark Tower, Books 1-3: The Gunslinger, The Drawing of the Three, ...
The Company She Keeps
Gift from the sea (Signet books)
Hope and Help for Your Nerves (Signet)
Lover Awakened (Black Dagger Brotherhood, Book 3)

search for books
classics, middlemarch, signet

Impressum / about us