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Middlemarch

15 years ago

On another website, someone posted that Middlemarch is "the best novel ever written". Or so a fellow student English major told him some 40 years ago. He is now, finally, reading it - having promised himself at that time to do so. He says it has richness and depth and agrees with the rating.

What say ye?

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Comments (13)

timallan
15 years ago
I would hesitate to state that it is the best novel ever written. It is an enormous, dense novel. But nonetheless, I found it to be a very satisfying reading experience. But then again, I love Victorian literature. The average reader may not feel the same.
veer
15 years ago
I only know Middlemarch through the excellent BBC series of a few years ago, although I have read and quite enjoyed Silas Marner and Mill on the Floss, both of which were 'set texts' at school.
It is generally thought that Middlemarch is Eliot's most difficult book.

Here is a link that might be useful: BBC Middlemarch
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Woodnymph, re Middlemarch: She [your friend] claims it is the greatest classic in the English language, and an early feminist work. Do you agree with my friend about "Middlemarch"? Your friend agrees with Virginia Woolf who famously said of George Eliot's magnum opus that it is "one of the few English books written for grown-up people." AS Byatt, another writer who admires Eliot, says "it's one of the greatest novels of all." It has undoubtedly been interpreted as an early feminist work -- at least it was later adopted by feminists who have chosen to see the feminist angle as Eliot's main intent. I don't necessarily agree with your friend or Woolf or Byatt or the legions of readers who subscribe to the feminist interpretation. While it seems to be true that Eliot (Mary Ann Evans) chafed under the strictures on women during the Victorian era, there is also good evidence that her political and religious stances were just as important to her in her writing. Mary, I've had problems with everything I've tried to read by Eliot. Her style is didactic. She also tended to get preachy, although she eventually disavowed formal religion. Many readers during the nineteenth century had a higher tolerance for slow development of story/plot, minutiae, and flowery phrasing than many readers have today -- I'm one of them. To me Middlemarch is a slow soap opera. Another problem I have with Eliot's style is it ignores the writing dictum of "show, don't tell." For instance, Eliot tells her readers (in third person) that her character Dorothea Brooke is a paragon -- over and over she reminds us readers, lest we forget -- but I don't think she shows us very often how or why Dorothea is an exemplar. Eliot makes similar pronouncements about many of her other characters. Middlemarch is long and it has so many characters that I have a hard time remembering most of them. I suppose it might be a worthy book to study -- taking notes, drawing up lineage charts, putting certain aspects of the development of 19th century British politics, cultural mores, and the Industrial Revolution in rough chronology. I didn't find, however, that Eliot's style (by itself) made these things clear enough. It didn't entertain me enough to help me find those subjects memorable, either. Of course, it's a matter of an individual reader's taste and mood. I don't particularly want to be told that a work is classic, when I want to make up my own mind about it.
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junek-2009
15 years ago
I have a copy however I have put off reading it, as it is sooo long, 800 pages with very small print. Maybe one day.
timallan
15 years ago
In discussions of Middlemarch, often there is a tendency to concentrate on the figure of Dorothea Brooke. She is not a very sympathetic character, at least to this reader. She finds redemption only after much unhappiness and suffering. She stays with reader after the novel is finished, so perhaps I am being too harsh on her.

I found the character of plucky Mary Garth much more endearing. Eliot's sympathy seems to always lie with intelligent yet overlooked women.

Veer, I would heartily recommend Adam Bede, which in my opinion equals the two books you mention.
veer
15 years ago
Thank you Tim, it is about time I read another 'classic' (I try to 'do' a couple a year). I'll order it from the library.
martin_z
15 years ago
800 pages?

It's at times like this that eBook readers come in useful - your wrist doesn't hurt.

I've not read Middlemarch. Perhaps I should. Perhaps we should discuss it?
lauramarie_gardener
15 years ago
At a Jane Austen website a bunch of us did a group read of "Middlemarch." I gave up on it after reading the first 50 pgs. word-for-word. At first I was taken with Eliot's deep truths about Life put into one or two sentences. They kept popping up every other page or so. I'd put down the book, get out my journal and jot the wisdom down. After awhile, I got tired of this. ... In fact, after awhile I was just plain tired of all her profundity. She seemed as if she was trying so hard to be PROFOUND, as if she were showing off about it -- her cleverness about Life. Irritating ! ! Also, I found the story as dry as a dinosaur bone. When I skipped waaaay ahead, there was one character I liked -- a Polish (Anglo?) painter. That's about all I can say FOR that book.

When I posted this, a woman at the site said, "Thank you !!" ... and wrote that she'd also given up on "Middlemarch", and so did quite a few others. Of course, there were people who were really taken with it. That was about five years ago, and I still don't understand what they liked about it, let alone found so fabulous about it. BTW: I watched the BBBC version of it ... that is, I tried to. Even gave up on that, too. Just not my "cuppa" !
ladyrose65
14 years ago
Very Interesting comments here. Though, I can tell in the few chapters that I have read, how Dorothea will play out in this book. However, the book is extremely well written. She is a superb writer. But I love Austen. I've read Pride and Prejudice twice.
lauramarie_gardener
14 years ago
Ouch!! What a devastating review I wrote. ... However, I must admit that I still think the same way about the book. I haven't read any of her other books; so maybe there are one or two Eliots I'd like. I couldn't stand that creepy guy Dorothea married -- painful to read about it. You could start out and see how you like it...if no, then dump it.

As for Austen -- she, to me, is just about the best writer -- The Best? -- of her time, and one of the best in our time, too!
frances_md
14 years ago
A few years ago I listened to Middlemarch for about 50 hours, as I remember. I had the book handy for when the audiobook was difficult to follow but overall I actually ended up enjoying it. It couldn't have been too bad because my attention span is rather short and to stick with it for so many hours must mean something.
lauramarie_gardener
14 years ago
If you really *love* a book, 800 pgs is alright. But if you just *like* it -- but aren't really taken with it, then I can see where 800 pgs is more than you'd want to take on. Maybe you should just try the first 50 - 100 pgs. ... see how it works for you.
Jodi_SoCal
14 years ago
I don't know how long it will last but Middlemarch is currently a free download for Kindle.

Jodi-

Here is a link that might be useful: Middlemarch on Amazon
phoebecaulfield
14 years ago
I've read Middlemarch a few times but wouldn't say it's the best novel ever written--or even George Eliot's best novel.

I'm partial to The Mill on the Floss.

Isn't it a bit risky to state that something is the best novel ever written? Really fine novels are so different from one another....

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