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Middlemarch

George Eliot

Start date: February 1, 2018

Finish date: April 30, 2018

Discussion: 2018 RT Tournament of Books

Why we're reading this: February 2018 Classic group read, 2018 RT Tournament selection
[close] February 2018 Classic group read, 2018 RT Tournament selection

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What Members Thought

Jul 01, 2011 El rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: 1001-books-list, 19th-centurylit-late, big-effing-books

This is the book that I would answer if I were hypothetically asked what book could have single-handedly become the reason that my relationship would ever fall apart. More so than Infinite Jest or Proust, other examples of books that have consumed or are consuming my life in one way or another. I didn't realize I had a reading problem until I realized that my boyfriend was unpacking around me; literally unpacking boxes right from under my feet - while I sat there and turned the pages. Or when I This is the book that I would answer if I were hypothetically asked what book could have single-handedly become the reason that my relationship would ever fall apart. More so than Infinite Jest or Proust, other examples of books that have consumed or are consuming my life in one way or another. I didn't realize I had a reading problem until I realized that my boyfriend was unpacking around me; literally unpacking boxes right from under my feet - while I sat there and turned the pages. Or when I realized the house was suddenly quiet because he had taken the dogs out for a walk. He could have lit his face on fire and I'm not entirely sure I would have even noticed. Even while I was helping with the moving, or at work doing work-y types of things - I was usually thinking about Middlemarch. So, people in my daily life? The glazed look on my face, all of the, "I'm sorry, what did you say"'s? It was because of this book. And there's not even a good reason for that.

Infinite Jest is the kind of book that it seems okay to let the rest of your life fall apart around you as you read it. It seems appropriate to become one of those people while reading Infinite Jest. It lends itself to that sort of behavior. But George Eliot? Middlemarch? Pshaw! I would have said before I read it. Are you kidding me? Get a life, woman!

But, dude. I totally became that person. Admitting there is a problem is the first step to seeking help. So I'm here. Seeking help.

Just like Infinite Jest it's a book that could be re-read numerous times and you'd probably get something different out of it each time. That Eliot was a whip-smart woman, and I bemoan the fact that I just don't know enough about history at times to keep up with a brain like hers. The notes in the end were exceptionally helpful, though annoying at times when they pointed out chronological mistakes - like the characters couldn't possibly have known about a certain popular book yet because in the real world it hadn't been published yet during the time in which the story was to take place. Whoops! I don't need to know those sorts of things, but thanks anyway.

If you don't like details about every little thing, you won't like this book. There's so much detail it makes the whaling chapters in Moby Dick sound almost appealing. (Never mind, I just got over it. Whew.) I can't imagine writing a book like this, just like I couldn't imagine David Foster Wallace writing a book like Infinite Jest. The amount of time, and energy - holy cats, the psychic energy that must have gone into putting down so much information that covered such a wide variety of topics - it makes me need a nap just to process it.

Middlemarch - the 19th-century answer to Infinite Jest? Hmm.

Highlight: Oh dear, I just found out that there was a 1994 TV version of the story - with Rufus Sewell. You know how most women are all ga-ga over Colin Firth and none of them can really explain why? I'm that way about Rufus Sewell.

He's the dreamboat in the red coat. Just in case anyone thought I was all drooly-cup over the old guy. ...more

52 likes · Like · see review

Nov 25, 2011 Petra rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: favorites

What to say about this book? I don't know where to beging.
First, Eliot nailed it. Everything. Plot, people, society, egos, fears, doubts. You name it; she got it right.
Middlemarch follows a handful of people through life; individually, societally and within the context, limits and pressures of the times they live in. What Eliot shows is that both inside (personal) pressures and outside (society, the times, experiences) shape a person into what they become. Change one; you change the person. Ea ...more

42 likes · Like · see review

Dec 16, 2011 Lise Petrauskas rated it it was amazing

Shelves: novels, read-at-least-twice, favorite-books, bloom-western-canon, britain, 19th-century, 500-women

What a book! How is it possible that one person could have so much insight into human motivations and impulses and tempers and also be able to write that well!? I'm in awe. I want to start it again from the beginning.

Finished it for the second time in a month! Still just as good the second time! ...more

11 likes · Like · see review

May 02, 2018 Heather(Gibby) rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Wow--I finished this, finally, I feel as if I just did something amazing, like running a marathon, or climbing a mountain.

If I would have rated this book 100 to 500 pages in, I probably would have given it 2 or 3 stars, but the last 300 or so pages, just reeled me right in, and finally I got invested in what happens to these people.

It is a huge task to systematically outline how society, family, relationships and our own inner dialogue shape the choices a person makes in life, doing this with ...more

8 likes · Like · see review

May 22, 2009 Everyman rated it it was amazing

Middlemarch is a rich and rewarding novel, but it is also much more than that. It also chronicles very accurately a time of great changes in English rural (or as Eliot calls it, Provincial) life. Eliot's meticulous research assures the reader that the events she moves her characters through give a detailed picture of significant developments in society, politics, and medicine during the early 1830s.

Middlemarch is not an easy book to read. Eliot is of the most intellectually capable writers that ...more

5 likes · Like · see review

Nov 14, 2014 Camelia Rose rated it it was amazing

Shelves: audio, location-uk, classics

Thanks to the audio book, I finished the impossible 800 pages' Middlemarch in 10 days!

Serious and dense, Middlemarch is everything Jane Austen is not. It is not a romance, nor it ends with a marriage or a few. Young women, intelligent like Dorothea or vain, shallow like Rosamond all make mistakes in men. Happy ending is reserved for the practical and sensible.

As the title suggested, it is a study of provincial life. There are neighbourhood gossips and politics, and life of middle class and poor ...more

4 likes · Like · see review

Apr 07, 2018 Karen Michele Burns rated it it was amazing

Shelves: my-5-star-books, 1001-books-completed

The presence of a noble nature, generous in its wishes, ardent in its charity, changes the lights for us: we begin to see things again in their larger, quieter masses, and to believe that we too can be seen and judged in the wholeness of our character.

Sunset and Sunrise, Chapter 76

I want to be judged and judge others by the wholeness of our characters and this quote near the end of Middlemarch jumped out at me as the kernel of what George Eliot was trying to portray in this book. Relationships w ...more

3 likes · Like · see review

Jan 02, 2012 Sera rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: favorites, own, classics, kindle, 2012-victorians-challenge, 1001-books

An amazing piece of work that is well-researched, thought-out and perceptive in its depiction of the provincial life in Middlemarch and its inhabitants.

I really enjoyed the characters in the story and how they reacted to the events that took place around them or changed their status. What happens if the ideals that we seek are not met? What happens when we marry for love but the person whom we married makes us feel less positive about ourselves? How do we keep progressing as a society in a way t ...more

3 likes · Like · see review

Feb 06, 2018 Elise rated it really liked it

Shelves: fiction, read-in-2018, women, 1800s

Eliot is, to quote Deadwood, "a keen fucking student of the human scene." These characters are some of the most masterfully and fully formed in existence. Without resorting to sensationalism, Middlemarch demonstrates how marriage, capitalism, and adherence to the letter of moral law can lead to the inadvertent downfall of those we care about. One can't go into "A Study of Provincial Life" expecting an exciting plot, and while there is some boring stuff to trudge through, it serves as a foundatio ...more

3 likes · Like · see review

Jan 23, 2008 Meghan rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: classics, own, brit-lit, british, challenge, bookish

Despite what my rating implies, I did not enjoy this book nearly as well as Anna Karenina or Bleak House. And yet, I was captivated by the characters. And after meandering through the desert of the first 400+ pages, the story hooked me. At times I felt this was a hodge podge of other influences--Austen, Dickens, even Flaubert. And many times I felt these other influences had done it better or at least first, making her seem less original.

My gut says that there are better and shorter Eliot storie ...more

2 likes · Like · see review