Brilliant...gorgeous...engrossing! While I can't say I'm an expert on British literature, I am confident when I pronounce [b:Middlemarch|19089|Middlemarch|George Eliot|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1481264628s/19089.jpg|1461747] as one of the best novels to come out of the UK. Every character, every action moves the story along to its incredibly satisfying conclusion. I would even say that there wasn't a character I disliked, not even Casaubon. Poor Casaubon, he was ill-equipped for love and should never have married Dorothea, but then we wouldn't have this amazing story. There were some parts I wondered why they were included, such as the characters of Rigg and Farebrother, but it all comes together and makes sense in the end. Ms. Eliot was meticulous with her research, especially the medical knowledge she included in the novel. I think such dedication is commendable and Ms. Eliot has left us with a novel that we can immerse ourselves in and feel as if we are there in Middlemarch. ( )

This was supposed to be one of my last books for 2022. Then I realized it is worth reading it a bit slower, book by book, and letting it settle a bit. I've read it before although it had been awhile - I was still in high school when I met the denizens of Middlemarch for the last time and my memories had lost most of the details (and curiously enough, some of the characters).

Published in 1871-1872, the story takes place mostly in the invented town of Middlemarch (with a quick stop in Rome, Italy) and is set 40 years earlier (in 1829-1832 to be exact). Using an invented town allows Eliot to set things where she needs them instead of getting all tangled in real geography and history. And yet, in a lot of ways, Middlemarch is England in the early 1830s, much more than any depiction of a real town in other novels.

On the surface, the novel is very similar to the first book by Eliot - the 1858 collection "Scenes of Clerical Life" covers a lot of the same topics and you can even see some of the later novels scenes shadows in the earlier ones. And yet, Middlemarch feels a lot more mature and complete - it is a slice of life story about 4 women and the men they marry and love (not always the same ones) and about the changing England of the 1830s. This kind of novels can end up with characters who read more like types than like real people (and the early stories did have a bit of that happening). But here, all of the characters are fully realized - even the ones we see for a few minutes only - they all are real people with both good and bad mixed into their characters.

I call it slice of life but that does not really do justice to the scope of the novel. It is a romance (or 3). It is a coming of age story. It is a chronicle of a time and place. And it is neither of those things and all of those things mixed into one glorious novel. And it is worth the reread and the time required to actually work through it - because it slows you down and makes you read slower than usual - there is such abundance of details and people that you need time to catalog and acknowledge them in your head - usually without realizing that you are doing it. That verbosity may sound unappealing but every word and detail is necessary and required. And my only problem when I closed the last page was that I had to part from the good (and not so good people) of Middlemarch. ( )

If you want to read 18th-century literature--I would not start with this one but I would work my way up to it and read it as I did with a fantastic group of other readers. ( )

Whew! This book is long! I liked many of the main characters and was interested in their stories, but the novel did feel wordy to me and too bogged down in small town politics.

I'm sure that many well-read people recognize some sort of genius in all that, but it didn't suit me to have so many asides. I didn't want to know so much about the internal craftiness of the pious hypocrite Bulstrode, or the gossip of the local doctors and politicians. In general, I don't believe in abridgement, but I would be a huge fan of a Middlemarch abridgement!!

However, that aside, I liked Dorothea, the earnest and passionate young woman who believes that marriage to a serious older man will give her a sense of purpose... she's wrong, but even though the reader deplores her choice, one never exults in her suffering. She may be misguided, but she's got potential. I also liked Ladislaw, her husband's cousin who comes into her life like a breath of fresh air. I didn't think he was terribly well defined as a character, but I liked him.
I also had a tolerable interest in Lydgate, the young doctor who gets entangled with Rosamond, and the maze of trouble they get into by marrying without a strong foundation. It's sad, but cautionary.

Anyway, I wouldn't read this a second time, but I'm ready for the movie! Time to hunt down the miniseries from the 90s! ( )

A big powerhouse of a book. ( )