Middlemarch Book Summary

In 'Middlemarch', George Eliot weaves a tapestry of interconnected lives in a provincial English town during the early 19th century. The novel explores the aspirations, disappointments, and moral dilemmas of its vibrant characters, including the idealistic Dorothea Brooke and the ambitious Tertius Lydgate. As their personal struggles unfold against the backdrop of social and political change, the reader is drawn into a rich examination of love, ambition, and the quest for meaning. Eliot's intricate narrative challenges societal norms and offers profound insights into human nature. Will the characters find fulfillment or be ensnared by the very society they strive to change?

By George Eliot

Published: 2018

"It is never too late to be what you might have been."

Book Review of Middlemarch

Designed to appeal to the book lover, the Macmillan Collector's Library is a series of beautifully bound pocket-sized gift editions of much loved classic titles. Bound in real cloth, printed on high quality paper, and featuring ribbon markers and gilt edges, Macmillan Collector's Library are books to love and treasure. Dorothea Brooke is a beautiful and idealistic young woman set on filling her life with good deeds. She pursues the pompous Edward Casuabon, convinced that he embodies these principles, and becomes trapped in an unhappy marriage. Then there is Tertius Lydgate, an anguished progressive whose determination to bring modern medicine to the provinces is muddied by unrequited love. They, and a multitude of other brilliantly drawn characters, reside in the town Middlemarch – the background to George Eliot’s incomparable portrait of Victorian life. An eternal masterpiece of candid observation, emotional insight and transcending humour, Middlemarch is a truly monumental novel. This beautiful Macmillan Collector’s Library edition features an introduction by Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist Jennifer Egan.

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It is never too late to be what you might have been.

Middlemarch

By George Eliot