Type of bind: Paperback
EAN num: 9780140430028
ISBN number: 0140430024
Label: Penguin Classics
Manufacturer: Penguin Classics
Quantity: 1
Page Count: 912
Printing Date: December 30, 1965
Publishing house: Penguin Classics
Sale Popularity Level: 657858
Studio: Penguin Classics
Other books you might be interested in perusing:
Editor's Notes and Comments:
Product Description:
With sure and subtle touch, Eliot paints a luminous and spacious landscape of life in a provincial town, interweaving her themes with a proliferation of characters: an innocent idealist; a self-defeated young doctor; a naive young woman; and a cold man, who 'lives too much with the dead'.
User popularity level:
Rated by buyers 
-
This was very disappointing -- the "analysis" of Middlemarch. The author simply took all his lectures to college students over the years about his interpretation of Middlemarch.
There are many, many better reviews of Middlemarch. Pass on this one.
Again, I'm not sure if folks realize they are reviewing Middlemarch or the Twayne Study, or if Amazon.com is putting the reviews in the wrong place.
As for the novel Middlemarch itself, yes, it's obviously a book that must be read by anyone serious about literature.
Father of the novel: Cervantes, Don Quixote
Father of the English novel: Defoe
"Father" of the very first great modern novel: George Eliot
Rated by buyers 
-
There are numerous reasons why you should not read George Eliot's epic novel of 19th century life in England, Middlemarch. First of all the book is quite long--700 plus pages depending on the edition. More significantly, the novel largely deals with the romantic, social, cultural and political life of a small English country town during the three years 1829 to 1832, with particular reference to the efforts to pass a Reform Bill. This subject is not likely to be everyone's cup of tea. Thirdly, the book is, to quote Virginia Woolf, "one of the few English novels written for grown up people." It is certainly erudite, but to a large degree it is esoteric as well. The grown up person should also be an English major concentrating on 18th and 19th century British and European literature, with a graduate degree in world history, a familiarity with Greek and Latin literary history, a firm grounding in British 19th century political history, be an expert Trivial Pursuit player and be on intimate terms with at least four George Eliot scholars! The book reads like a college student's term paper in English Lit 101 in which the student tries to impress the professor by using a big word where a small one will do nicely and by using every name and obscure reference the professor alluded to in the lecture in hopes of getting an A. Granted there are footnotes (some 300) in the back of the book to explain the more obscure references, but it is a pain to have to keep flipping back and forth to learn that Tully Veolan is a Perthshire estate in Sir Walter Scott's novel, Waverly, or that Grinling Gibbons was a 17th century sculptor and painter. Finally, given the large cast of characters and the fact that many of them are related to each other it is difficult to keep track of who is who and their relationship to each other. The book would have benefited from a listing of the characters (a practice with many such books of this scope, as for example the works of Dickens).
To be fair, the last half of the novel, when Eliot develops the human drama of the story and moves away from the social and political issues foci is gripping and compelling reading. Some people have criticized this part as being too negative, but it is when people are trying to deal with adversity, in real life and in fiction, that we most associate with them.
The plot centers around the comings and goings of various characters in the community of Middlemarch, but focuses on two main characters. Dorothea Brooke is a young (19), idealistic, religiously devote girl who chooses to marry the Rev. Edward Casaubon, a much older religious scholar of sorts inspired by the idea of developing mentally under the guidance of her wise husband. But Casaubon is a prig, set in his ways, and ultimately the marriage flounders as he is revealed as a venial and jealous man.
The second focus is on Dr. Tertius Lyngate, a young idealist surgeon who comes to Middlemarch and is installed, despite local opposition, as the head of a hospital by a wealthy banker with a dark past which comes back to haunt him. Dr. Lyngate marries Rosamond Vincy, the beautiful daughter of the mayor but that marriage also flounders because of her shallowness and material desires.
Sub plots abound: the affairs of Sir James Chettam, a wealthy neighbor of Dorothea who, after being disappointed in seeking her hand, marries her sister Celia; the political aspirations of Dorothea's uncle; the aspirations of Will Ladislaw, a seeming upstart with an attachment to Dorothea; the affairs of Fred Vincy, a likable but profligate young man who loves Mary Garth an unattractive but good hearted girl; the actions of Peter Featherstone, a rich old man whose money and estate many people aspire to, and ultimately the appearance of his mysterious son; the belated appearance of Mr. Raffles, an unscrupulous man with knowledge of the past that affects several of the characters.
Money and religion seem to be at the heart of most folks in Middlemarch and small town gossip abounds. If this sort of thing, wrapped in eloquent language, is enjoyable reading for you then Eliot's novel will give you hours of pleasure. But given the comments above, I really cannot give it more than three stars.
Rated by buyers 
-
This is a wonderfully sophisticated, intelligent book with sharp commentary on multiple social issues of her time.(and ours in certain aspects) All of the characters are wonderfully imperfect, restrained and original and are caught in the intriguing webs of dilemmas but their behviors are very coherent with their characters and subcultures. This author truly deserves our utmost respect.
Rated by buyers -
My comments are related only to the electronic version/aspect of this edition of Middlemarch rather than on the classic story. While this edition is readable it's a huge disappointment. There are so many typos that the reader is easily and regularly disturbed by trying to sort out misspellings, missing periods, or mangled sentences and paragraphs. Very unprofessional of Amazon to offer books that haven't been thoroughly edited. Kindle is a wonderful device - why not make sure the books are perfect? Why should a customer expect less in an e-versions than one does in hard copy?
Rated by buyers 
-
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.
Find other books like this one:
