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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
I have no doubt that academically this is an extremely important novel and were I studying it at university I might well find much in it to interest me, but I really can't say much in favour of it as a 'good read'. Elliot's written style feels rather flat to me; there's little here in terms of striking imagery or stylistic flourish, and her sentence construction and syntax are positively labyrinthine. Of course the endless sentence is a feature of a great deal of Victorian writing, but here the lack of stylistic substance lays it so bare that it simply feels inelegant and prolix. Her characterisation and dialogue are certainly the best features of the novel, but the cast of secondary characters are often rather tedious in terms of their contributions and many of her principals are pretty unbelievable as real people - especially Dorothea, whose saintly representation stretches credibility and leaves her feeling too simplistic to be credible as a genuine human being.
That said, there's the odd good acerbic authorial aside (very much in the Austen tradition) and when the novel is actually focussed on genuinely moving the narrative forward the reader is left with enough narrative suspense to want to keep on reading (but only just).
Hard work and certainly not worthy of being credited as the greatest novel in the English language!
That said, there's the odd good acerbic authorial aside (very much in the Austen tradition) and when the novel is actually focussed on genuinely moving the narrative forward the reader is left with enough narrative suspense to want to keep on reading (but only just).
Hard work and certainly not worthy of being credited as the greatest novel in the English language!
Just about my favorite novel ever. Spoke to my heart again and again, across an ocean and ~150 years. You set a high bar, Ms. Eliot -- hard to decide what to read next.
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Diverse cast of characters:
No
damn i really do be loving my books about colonizer upper middle class english people’s drama!
but in all seriousness, MIDDLEMARCH was a fucking banger. it’s a very hefty read and took me over a week to get through, but i never stopped marveling at george eliot’s intelligence and wit (she’s literally hilarious like this is hands down the funniest victorian i’ve ever read), as well as the compassionate and nuanced ways in which she depicted her characters.
MIDDLEMARCH is also genuinely moving. yes, it really is technically just about english provincial life and the woes and romances of upper middle/middle class white people, so its ability to offer a universal study of what it’s like to be a human is irrefutably limited — but it does offer a careful study of what it means to aspire toward goodness. eliot is serious about morality without sermonizing; she’s able to achieve this via her narrator/authorial voice and the omniscience this grants her. by being so compassionate toward each of her characters (even the worst of them), eliot makes it clear that it’s impossible to be a human in a vacuum, and that we are who we are in relation to others.
MIDDLEMARCH is long but worth the read — beautiful, intelligent, funny, kind, all the good things! 5 stars to another classic about colonizers! loved it!
but in all seriousness, MIDDLEMARCH was a fucking banger. it’s a very hefty read and took me over a week to get through, but i never stopped marveling at george eliot’s intelligence and wit (she’s literally hilarious like this is hands down the funniest victorian i’ve ever read), as well as the compassionate and nuanced ways in which she depicted her characters.
MIDDLEMARCH is also genuinely moving. yes, it really is technically just about english provincial life and the woes and romances of upper middle/middle class white people, so its ability to offer a universal study of what it’s like to be a human is irrefutably limited — but it does offer a careful study of what it means to aspire toward goodness. eliot is serious about morality without sermonizing; she’s able to achieve this via her narrator/authorial voice and the omniscience this grants her. by being so compassionate toward each of her characters (even the worst of them), eliot makes it clear that it’s impossible to be a human in a vacuum, and that we are who we are in relation to others.
MIDDLEMARCH is long but worth the read — beautiful, intelligent, funny, kind, all the good things! 5 stars to another classic about colonizers! loved it!
Meh. I took this book on a trip to Ireland so I'd *have* to finish it. I had trouble finishing it because I couldn't really cheer for one of the characters...which could be a great strength of this book. The people are fairly realistic instead of archetypes.
My girl Mary has a way of writing that feels so timelessly relatable. There was a moment I forgot I wasn’t reading a modern historical fiction. I love the characters, I love the setting, but good god I thought it would never end.
emotional
funny
reflective
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
I have started Middlemarch before but somehow never progressed far. I had a big old preconceived idea that it was about marriages and society teas. My goodness how wrong I was. Middlemarch needs and deserves so much more than my brief gibberish here.
I guess in a nutshell the book is about grand aspirations and what happens when life doesn’t give the context or capacity to achieve those dizzy heights. What can we aspire to when reality isn’t the stuff of dreams. Maybe it is up to us recognise accomplishments and how to live our best lives around our aims and reality. It is sometimes the small things and the ordinary everyday acts that make the difference to the world. Really though, that doesn’t touch the surface of the themes in Middlemarch.
The final paragraph is very
slow-paced
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Many thanks to my friend Amber for suggesting I reread this book. I don’t know what book I read that I thought was Middlemarch, but it was an entirely different story.