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sllord 's review for:
Middlemarch
by George Eliot
3⭐ - Middle of the road because that is how this book feels to me for a variety of reasons. I'm normally fine with long books if they hold my attention but this one was difficult, so I finished it a month later than anticipated. The writing and language are beautiful, and Eliot is a great writer, I will not deny that. There's so much beautiful prose. However, this book could have been a fraction of the size and still gotten the same points across and I would not have missed what was edited out. I understand the nature of when this was originally published in individual books/papers and that, to me, seems more palatable than the entirety at once. I can imagine the excitement of reading the next book and learning what happened to the characters. In fact, the intrigue of wanting to know how the characters ended up was my sole reason for finishing this book instead of DNF when I passed my original book club deadline. But there was so much among the pages I just did NOT care about and it seemed at the end to not matter anyway. There was a lot of talk of reform and political topics only to by the end feel like they had no actual conflict behind them and they had no relevance. I can't remember a single instance of them actually creating a major conflict in the book besides one character not having as good of business as he anticipated because he practiced new methods of medicine. Maybe some of it was lost on me and maybe I'm not a real sophisticated classics reader but those plot points fell so flat to me I could have done without them.
But overall I found myself very invested in the characters and their stories, from the romance to money troubles, to business and family. It was a great ensemble of characters with a wide range of personalities and conflicts and for that I think it was a good book. I just think for me personally for a book this long there needs to be more there. I think it's a great read especially if you pace yourself with it slowly and really take it in for its beautiful writing. The epic descriptions and writing are quite lengthy so while they make for beautiful prose they make what is a five-minute interaction seem like hours long. If you are having trouble getting through it I highly recommend the audiobook narrated by Juliet Aubrey, as her talent made what would have been a slog of chapters much more lively and palatable.
But overall I found myself very invested in the characters and their stories, from the romance to money troubles, to business and family. It was a great ensemble of characters with a wide range of personalities and conflicts and for that I think it was a good book. I just think for me personally for a book this long there needs to be more there. I think it's a great read especially if you pace yourself with it slowly and really take it in for its beautiful writing. The epic descriptions and writing are quite lengthy so while they make for beautiful prose they make what is a five-minute interaction seem like hours long. If you are having trouble getting through it I highly recommend the audiobook narrated by Juliet Aubrey, as her talent made what would have been a slog of chapters much more lively and palatable.