Reviews

Middlemarch by George Eliot

cardinalcardigan's review against another edition

challenging hopeful reflective slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

benjaminj1996's review against another edition

challenging emotional funny hopeful informative inspiring reflective relaxing sad tense 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

5.0

This is, at times, a book that’s quite hard work. And when I had read reviews that said the hard work is most certainly worth it, I must admit I had my doubts. But I can tell you for sure that it really is worth persevering. 

 

Eliot takes the reader on a slow, winding, patchwork of a journey over the long term involving the lives and interactions of various people in Middlemarch. Their stories connect in all sorts of ways and over about 840 pages, the backstories and characters are exponentially deepened. Set against the backdrop of the implementation of the Reform Bill, this book masterfully juxtaposes societal change with personal challenges and changes, depicting a changing society, changing attitudes and remarkably profound perspectives with such insight that Eliot’s grasp on human nature feels just as relevant in 2023. It feels timeless, in fact. 

 

Eliot uses long sentences that sometimes require rereads to fully understand, but also there is an incredible beauty in her prose. Despite the time it took me to read and the way I struggled with some of it, I can definitely see why this is considered one of the greatest English language novels of all time. And in the final two sections or so, I have to say that the narrative itself was a stroke of genius, combining various colours and shades set up throughout the novel into something genuinely surprising and thrilling. There were so many moments throughout actually where I almost couldn’t believe what I was reading. I was genuinely surprised by what this novel was capable of. I think there are people who could learn a thing or two by reading it. I loved the powerful, fully drawn women in this book - the way they represent some of the most important and impactful elements of human nature. I’ll say no more to avoid spoilers - but the final paragraph is evidence that this book’s core philosophy is wise in a way no fiction I’ve read to date has reached. This book is entirely worth the immense patience required to read it for an enlightened view of human nature and the expertly, intricately woven threads sewn together with beautiful, profound prose. 

 

I actually wouldn’t have believed I’d be writing a review like this even half way through this book. But the novel viewed as a whole is quite clearly something even more than a masterpiece. 

matandrub's review against another edition

emotional hopeful reflective sad slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

annabellelitchfield's review against another edition

informative inspiring 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

4.0

logophile_life's review against another edition

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

3.0

thevaliantqueen's review against another edition

challenging slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.0

borumi's review against another edition

5.0

I decided to re-read Jane Eyre and read Middlemarch and Frankenstein for the first time after I watched Netflix's Anne with an E. I'm so glad to have read this in my middle age. I probably would have been sorely disappointed by the ending as I have been by Anne Shirley's later life as a housewife. Although George Eliot certainly didn't live the life of a conventional housewife and Middlemarch was written decades before Montgomery's Anne Shirley series, I think both Eliot and Montgomery has a full knowledge of what it felt to have an overbrimming imagination and aspirations as a young girl and then have felt bound by society's oppressive restrictions and also experienced the hardships of an unhappy marriage (or lack thereof). Perhaps they deeply felt the need to come to terms with the life they were thrown into and the dreams to which they still strive, yet with a wiser and more reflective regard, as if looking through a mirror of many lives instead of directly staring at a narrower, egocentric view of one's own life.

lordbrainless's review against another edition

4.0

Really enjoyable, it wasn't exactly what I was looking for, but still, it was close enough.

THe narrartor was perfect, Dorothea felt a bit slow at first but is one of hte best characters; wish that Caleb Garth had more page-time, specially since going into business with Fred.

nate_meyers's review against another edition

5.0

I absolutely loved this book, and it ranks among my favorite novels. First and foremost, Eliot is the queen of all wordsmiths. She captures human emotions, feelings, and actions better than 99% of writers out there. Further, each chapter begins with a quote showing her extensive literary knowledge and the symbolism in the book is incredible. In particular, I appreciated the symbolism of yew and lime trees juxtaposing the changes in Dorothea and Mr Casaubon's relationship. Second, this is a book about marriage. Perhaps the best to ever be written. The book follows three marriages, that of Dorothea Brooke & Edward Casaubon, Rosamund Vincy & Tertius Lydgate, and that of Fred Vincy & Mary Garth. (I guess you could add the fourth marriage between Celia Brooke and Sir James Chettam. But Sir James sucks even more than Edward Casaubon, and such little is made of this marriage). The first two marriages are doomed from the start, with each partner having expectations that don't match reality. While the third marriage requires significant change in the characters before they're wed such that expectations do match reality. I'm sure many essays have been written about each of these three marriages, and deservedly so. This quote from an essay in Plough sums it up nicely: Eliot "excavates, with unnerving insight, the secret desires and anguished needs that drive the loves, fraught decisions, and difficult marriages of ordinary people" (source: https://www.plough.com/en/topics/culture/literature/middlemarch-marriages).

Of course, the book has a ton of secondary themes. Including, but not limited to, sainthood (in Dorothea's contemporaneous motivations to eschew wealth, build cottages for the poor, and pursue the scholarly life), the marks of true vs artificial Christianity (Dorothea's quest for Sainthood, Bulstrode's fundamentalist-like zeal and crazy self-justifications, Lydgate's atheism, Mary Garth's strong view the Fred Vincy's pursuit of priesthood would be inauthentic), and the quest for reform / improving the plight of the poor.

I honestly can't wait to re-read this book and love it so.

aprendizdeleitor's review against another edition

5.0

“De quando em quando, entre os patinhos do turvo lago nasce um cisne, para desalento de todos, e não consegue encontrar o caminho para o vivo riacho na companhia dos seus irmãos com patas de remo. De quando em quando, nasce uma Santa Teresa que nada irá fundar, e cujas lágrimas e amoroso anseio por um bem inatingível vão vacilando até se dispersarem por entre os obstáculos, em vez de se concentrarem num feito capaz de perdurar na memória.” (Prelúdio)