Put off reading Middlemarch for fear it would be too much like 18th c books that don't usually appeal to me, but this audio version kept me walking for hours! It is not just about the agonies of women trying to find marriage partners but it is an excellent feminist account of the mores of the time with insights into the present day. And the story is so compelling I couldn't wait to get back to it just to find out who did what next! ( )

We all have to exert ourselves a little to keep sane. (Mrs Cadwallader to Dorothea p.391)

My particular 1956 edition started falling apart just as I began to read it. By page 40 there were pages everywhere so I switched to an audio book masterfully (if I can use such a gendered word) read by Juliet Stevenson. Here I should quote George Eliot (Anna Evans),

I am not sure that the greatest man of his age, if ever that solitary superlative existed...

This wry moment of confidence between writer and reader characterizes what I love about Eliot's wonderful writing. First, the understated distance between the author and her characters. Second, the precision of her sentences. Third, the gentle and sympathetic humour which leads to gleeful chuckling on my side of the page.

Before I opened Middlemarch I was concerned that I'd be overwhelmed by another 'bonnet novel' of dubious interest, but almost immediately I found that I was in a different space altogether. Something timeless about the insights into character and situation.

This is a wonderful book in which the story is merely incidental to the beautifully articulated and extraordinary perceptions of the author. I chuckled my way through this narrative with a mixture of joy and awe

Unwonted circumstances may make us all rather unlike ourselves: there are circumstances under which the most majestic person is obliged to sneeze, and our emotions are liable to be acted on in the same incongruous manner. (p.459)

"It would have been better if I had called him out and shot him a year ago," said Sir James, not from bloody mindedness. but because he needed something strong to say.
"Really, James, that would have been very disagreeable," said Celia. (p.597)

( )

Too. Fricking. Long. ( )

It was a little bit of a challenge to tackle this book. I put it off reading for some time, but I am so glad that I finally picked it up and read it. I would highly advise listening to the audiobook version by naxos with Julius Stevenson as the reader. I have found in my personal reading, when working my way through a 19th century English literature book, that the audio version helps me get into the mindset and language of that time period. Juliet Stevenson is probably one of the finest readers I have come across. She especially does an excellent job with all the different character voices.
As for the book itself. George Elliott really shines with her observations of human nature, psychology, and exploring those avenues through her characters and their relationships. The plot slowly works its way along a path that never really bores you. By the end of the book you will have grown to care so much about the interactions with each character that you will be turning pages, and finding new time in your life to read further. 900 pages is daunting, but by the end of the book you could keep on reading a few more hundred pages. If you like character development, this book is for you. Put it on your TBR, and find the time sometime in the future where you can explore the debts of George Elliott's world in Middlemarch. ( )

I have more of a taste for fantasy and adventure than for this type of novel of manners and social description, but I was prodded to read this by all of the fawning references in book reviews and literary notes. I was repaid with a long immersion in the country of 1832 England (the possible passage of the first Parliament reform bill is the subject of several episodes in the book), and remained interested to the end in the fates of the characters. Dorothea and her regrettable marriage to the rigid and self-absorbed Casaubon form the armature of the book, around which the other characters are arrayed. Dorothea in the end achieves some happiness despite Casaubon's spite from the grave. As a physician I was very interested by Dr. Lydgate, his medical theories and the practices of his fellows, and the very well described symptoms and psychologies of his patients. I knew how it is to have judgement hooded by beauty, and to suffer the consequences, not of debt, but of loss of reputation. I identified with the head down and diligent Caleb Garth, and I thought Fred Vincy was the luckiest of the characters, with the most witty, steady and engaging fiancé. The older, less impulsive and idealistic characters are either noble, like Mr. Farebrother, or compromised, like Bulstrode. It took me about 3 weeks of reading most days for an hour or more to finish, but I was carried along by the complex prose, difficult vocabulary, and Eliot's wit, insight and cleverness. ( )