Search results
Dec 7, 2015 · Some of Middlemarch’s best passages offer a kind of user’s guide, as if the book itself were telling you how to read it. The greatest is the pier-glass metaphor at the start of Chapter 27.
Nov 21, 2019 · “Middlemarch” is a historical novel, set in the early eighteen-thirties—approximately four decades before it was written. ... That the tills and ledgers of Britain will take a hit from the U ...
- Overview
- Summary
- Analysis
Middlemarch, novel by George Eliot (pseudonym of Mary Ann Evans), published in eight parts in 1871–72 and also published in four volumes in 1872. It is considered to be Eliot’s masterpiece. The realist work is a study of every class of society in the town of Middlemarch—from the landed gentry and clergy to the manufacturers and professional men, fa...
Dorothea is an earnest intelligent woman who makes a serious error in judgment when she chooses to marry Edward Casaubon, a pompous scholar many years her senior. Dorothea hopes to be actively involved in his work, but he wants her to serve as a secretary. She comes to doubt both his talent and his alleged magnum opus. Furthermore, the controlling Casaubon becomes jealous when she develops a friendship with Will Ladislaw, his idealistic cousin. Although disappointed, Dorothea remains committed to the marriage and tries to appease her husband. After Casaubon has a heart attack, Dorothea is clearly devoted to him, but he bars Ladislaw from visiting, believing that his cousin will pursue Dorothea when he dies. Casaubon subsequently seeks her promise that she will follow his wishes even after his death. She delays answering but ultimately decides that she should agree to his request. However, he dies before she can tell him. Dorothea later discovers that his will contains a provision that calls for her to be disinherited if she marries Ladislaw. Afraid of scandal, Dorothea and Ladislaw initially stay apart. However, they ultimately fall in love and marry. Ladislaw later becomes a politician, and, despite her sacrifices, Dorothea is content, because “the growing good of the world is partly dependent on unhistoric acts.”
Britannica Quiz
Famous Novels, First Lines Quiz
During this time, Lydgate’s story unfolds. He is a progressive young doctor who is passionate about medicine, especially his research. Soon after arriving in Middlemarch, he becomes involved with and later marries Rosamond Vincy, whom he finds to be “polished, refined, [and] docile,” all qualities he wants in a wife. For her part, Rosamond believes that marriage to Lydgate, who she does not realize is poor, will improve her social standing.. Lydgate comes to realize that he has made a mistake in choosing Rosamond. She is shallow and uninterested in his work, and her expensive lifestyle forces her husband to the brink of financial ruin. He seeks a loan from Nicholas Bulstrode, a widely disliked banker, but is refused.
In addition to creating a thoroughgoing and rich portrait of the life of a small early 19th-century town, Eliot produced an essentially modern novel, with penetrating psychological insights and moral ambiguity. Eliot also broke with convention by refusing to end the work with the inevitable happy ending, as women writers of romance fiction were the...
Middlemarch, A Study of Provincial Life at Wikisource. Middlemarch, A Study of Provincial Life is a novel by English author George Eliot, the pen name of Mary Ann Evans. It appeared in eight installments (volumes) in 1871 and 1872. Set in Middlemarch, a fictional English Midlands town, in 1829 to 1832, it follows distinct, intersecting stories ...
- George Eliot
- 1871
Oct 13, 2021 · Reading Middlemarch can be dangerous in the age of social media. In the 150 years since George Eliot’s great humanist novel was published, readers have been professing that it has made them more sympathetic, less judgemental, more enlarged as a person. It is, as Virginia Woolf famously (and gratifyingly) claimed, “one of the few English ...
Nov 21, 2018 · Eliot brilliantly shows how financial pressures painfully squeeze the affection out of this marriage. As Henry James admiringly said, “It is a tragedy based on unpaid butchers’ bills, and the urgent need for small economies.”. It is an ordinary disaster. In Middlemarch, debt is a powerful influence.
People also ask
Is Middlemarch A True Story?
When did Middlemarch come out?
Who wrote Middlemarch?
Why is Middlemarch A Tragedy?
2. Synopsis. Middlemarch" is a sprawling Victorian novel written by George Eliot (the pen name of Mary Ann Evans) that weaves together the lives and aspirations of the residents of the fictional town of Middlemarch in the early 19th century. At its heart, the novel explores the intricacies of human relationships, politics, and societal change.
