A review by lizzie_purplephoenix
Middlemarch by George Eliot

5.0

I already know and love the story and characters really well, thanks to the 1994 BBC series. that I watched a few times in my late teens/early 20s. I did read the book years ago, when I was younger, skim reading much of the long waffly parts, but this time around I listened to Kate Reading's audiobook (she is excellent) and devoured every word. It is brilliant writing. It's true that I find long paragraphs intimidating and a bit of a drag when I'm physically reading but in this case, I think even if I had physically read it I wouldn't have had a problem with that aspect this time around. There is a lot of 'telling', mostly in the form of drawn out explanations of the internal emotions and thoughts of all the characters, but the depth to which we get to know them is awesome. Add in the explorations of marriage, medical progress, politics; and this is a masterpiece really.

It's hard to say what I would have made of it had I not seen the BBC series, because the characters were very much alive in my mind, but what I will say is that reading the book this time around demonstrated just how excellent the series is and how faithful to the source material - every single character perfectly cast, any waffle about the characters' inner thoughts and feelings conveyed by one shot, etc.

Mary Garth, her father, and Fred Vincy, are my absolute favourite characters, including in the BBC series, I love them so much and

Spoiler

I'm so happy that Fred & Mary get a perfect happy ending.

This is definitely one of my favourite classics of all time, if not the favourite.