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A review by lit_terary
Middlemarch by George Eliot
5.0
Truly one of the greatest novels I've ever had the pleasure of reading. A literary masterpiece. This review won't give it justice, and there are lots of brilliant reviews that do a better job than this, so I recommend you check those out. Regardless, I'll list all the things I loved about it.
1) The writing style is impeccable, and right up my alley; it's detailed, precise and luscious without feeling too heavy or too flowery - as classics often tend to be.
2) Despite its formidable length and density of content, the book never felt dragged or slack. The plot moved incredibly fast, always progressing at each chapter, and often jumping from one story to another, always keeping me engaged though-out.
3) The book follows a very large cast of characters, but each one of them is so distinct that they all stand out one way or another. Every character is fascinating and extremely well depicted and genuinely flawed, you will not find perfect heroes in this one and that's one of the strongest traits of Eliot's realism.
4) The narrator's voice - which is George Eliot's own voice I believe - was just the perfect companion for this journey: wise, funny, ironic, inquisitive and much more. I'm in love.
Now, I do believe that this might not be everybody's cup of tea; as I said, it's a very dense story, seemingly going nowhere, whose sole purpose is to give back a very detailed picture of the English countryside society in the 1830s, so if you're not interested in this aspect you would probably find it an excruciatingly tedious book to get through and probably DNF it after the first chapter. But, if you think you might enjoy it, even a little bit, then please give it a chance because it's truly a magnificent piece of literature that shows what an amazing, masterful, brilliant writer George Eliot is.
1) The writing style is impeccable, and right up my alley; it's detailed, precise and luscious without feeling too heavy or too flowery - as classics often tend to be.
2) Despite its formidable length and density of content, the book never felt dragged or slack. The plot moved incredibly fast, always progressing at each chapter, and often jumping from one story to another, always keeping me engaged though-out.
3) The book follows a very large cast of characters, but each one of them is so distinct that they all stand out one way or another. Every character is fascinating and extremely well depicted and genuinely flawed, you will not find perfect heroes in this one and that's one of the strongest traits of Eliot's realism.
4) The narrator's voice - which is George Eliot's own voice I believe - was just the perfect companion for this journey: wise, funny, ironic, inquisitive and much more. I'm in love.
Now, I do believe that this might not be everybody's cup of tea; as I said, it's a very dense story, seemingly going nowhere, whose sole purpose is to give back a very detailed picture of the English countryside society in the 1830s, so if you're not interested in this aspect you would probably find it an excruciatingly tedious book to get through and probably DNF it after the first chapter. But, if you think you might enjoy it, even a little bit, then please give it a chance because it's truly a magnificent piece of literature that shows what an amazing, masterful, brilliant writer George Eliot is.