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3.64k reviews for:
Middlemarch: (Barnes & Noble Collectible Editions) (Barnes & Noble Leatherbound Classics)
George Eliot
4.06 AVERAGE
3.64k reviews for:
Middlemarch: (Barnes & Noble Collectible Editions) (Barnes & Noble Leatherbound Classics)
George Eliot
4.06 AVERAGE
Amazing book. George Eliot was a trailblazer in her use of POV and really served as the essential link between realism and modernism. This is definitely a thesis book. It only gets better the more I study it (indeed, as a casual read, it can be a bit frustrating - it is a book that needs to be lived with and examined). Read for 19th Cent Brit Lit.
adventurous
emotional
reflective
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
A perceptive and intelligent novel, and an interesting book to think about, but not one I especially enjoyed reading.
The copy of the book I read was left behind on a free shelf by a professor who retired from the English department. It had been sitting in the sun for so many years that the cover had turned brown. I enjoyed seeing his comments and notations.
It took me a while to get through it, though some of it is quite funny. It was well worth it once I got to Book VIII - just amazing for the way she unfolded the way hypocrisy and gossip created scandal and ruined lives. The novel could be read as a caution against marrying early as well as a meditation on what hinders greatness. It seems significant that her characters are mostly of the middle class. Her use of the historical and political context adds to its realism, but I feel I need to have a better historical grounding to really appreciate it. I guess I will need to read the essays and background material in this edition. The way she presented Rosamund made it hard to ignore a postmodern interpretation of the construction of the gendered self along the lines of Judith Butler (Loved it!) The scene between Mr. and Mrs. Bulstrode in chapter LXXIV after she finds out what happened rates right up there with the more emotional scenes of sharing human despair in Paradise Lost. Also, her quoting of Pilgrim's Progress at the beginning of chapter LXXXV and her unusually direct comment on it fit perfectly with the entire work and hints at Eliot's didactic and perhaps even allegorical intentions in the novel. I quote a bit for you here: "The pitiable lot is that of the man who could not call himself a martyr even though he were to persuade himself that the men who stoned him were but ugly passions incarnate - who knows that he is stoned, not for professing the Right, but for not being the man he professed to be" (567).
The strongest impression left me will be of the valiant kindness and soul beauty of Dorothea, but Mary Garth is a great character as well. Neither woman professes to be anything she doesn't embody.
Though I forgive Dickens for being long winded, I find I hold a bit of a grudge against Eliot on this point. However, for realistic and strong female characters, Dickens fails us and we must look to Eliot in this time period. Having said this, I much prefer BH to MM. Both were published as serials - BH precedes MM by about 20 years. The setting of MM is pastoral/town while BH is estate/city. MM was written about a time 40 years before the time of writing, while Dickens was presumably writing about his time though there seem to be fewer obvious time markers. Dickens features the destitute, disabled and damaged though melodramatically. Eliot includes a few laborers with realistic voices and protestation. Now that I have started dissecting them, Eliot's lack of melodrama is coming through favorably - there is a realism but lots of telling rather than showing, some of which I can do without. Finally, I prefer MM to the other texts I've read by Eliot. Overall, she is well worth reading.
It took me a while to get through it, though some of it is quite funny. It was well worth it once I got to Book VIII - just amazing for the way she unfolded the way hypocrisy and gossip created scandal and ruined lives. The novel could be read as a caution against marrying early as well as a meditation on what hinders greatness. It seems significant that her characters are mostly of the middle class. Her use of the historical and political context adds to its realism, but I feel I need to have a better historical grounding to really appreciate it. I guess I will need to read the essays and background material in this edition. The way she presented Rosamund made it hard to ignore a postmodern interpretation of the construction of the gendered self along the lines of Judith Butler (Loved it!) The scene between Mr. and Mrs. Bulstrode in chapter LXXIV after she finds out what happened rates right up there with the more emotional scenes of sharing human despair in Paradise Lost. Also, her quoting of Pilgrim's Progress at the beginning of chapter LXXXV and her unusually direct comment on it fit perfectly with the entire work and hints at Eliot's didactic and perhaps even allegorical intentions in the novel. I quote a bit for you here: "The pitiable lot is that of the man who could not call himself a martyr even though he were to persuade himself that the men who stoned him were but ugly passions incarnate - who knows that he is stoned, not for professing the Right, but for not being the man he professed to be" (567).
The strongest impression left me will be of the valiant kindness and soul beauty of Dorothea, but Mary Garth is a great character as well. Neither woman professes to be anything she doesn't embody.
Though I forgive Dickens for being long winded, I find I hold a bit of a grudge against Eliot on this point. However, for realistic and strong female characters, Dickens fails us and we must look to Eliot in this time period. Having said this, I much prefer BH to MM. Both were published as serials - BH precedes MM by about 20 years. The setting of MM is pastoral/town while BH is estate/city. MM was written about a time 40 years before the time of writing, while Dickens was presumably writing about his time though there seem to be fewer obvious time markers. Dickens features the destitute, disabled and damaged though melodramatically. Eliot includes a few laborers with realistic voices and protestation. Now that I have started dissecting them, Eliot's lack of melodrama is coming through favorably - there is a realism but lots of telling rather than showing, some of which I can do without. Finally, I prefer MM to the other texts I've read by Eliot. Overall, she is well worth reading.
I tried. I really tried. I just could not get into this book. I did finish the book but it never got any better.
emotional
reflective
sad
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
They started with two interesting characters and then switched to another set of characters, and I was more interested in following the first pair of characters.
challenging
emotional
hopeful
reflective
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
lighthearted
reflective
relaxing
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No