Customer Reviews

Middlemarch (Barnes & Noble Classics Series)

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

George Eliot, (nom de plume of Mary Ann Evans), wrote a literary masterpiece with "Middlemarch." I was forced to read this novel in school at an age when term papers and grades meant more than absorbing the riches this book contains. I reread it recently, after thirty years, and it was/is so worth the revisit! The Barnes and Noble Classic Series Edition of "Middlemarch" contains an excellent Introduction by author and poet Lynn Sharon Schwartz. There is also a brief biography of George Eliot included.

Ms. Eliot created here, an entire community in England in the mid-1800s and called it Middlemarch. She populated this provincial town with people of every station, local squires and their families, tradespeople, the rising middle class, (Middlemarch, right?), & the poor and destitute, ruthless and honest. She crowded them together, with all their ambitions, dreams and foibles, in this magnificent literary soap opera, and wove a wonderful web of plots and subplots. Ms. Eliot also wrote scathing social commentary and used great wit.

The fortunes of Middlemarch are rising in this new era when machines and trains - fast, available transportation - are changing the world, the economy, the politics. Rigid social codes, the British class system, is in danger of being breached. Folks are out to make a quick buck, or a shilling - anything to acquire wealth and enhance social position.

Dorothea Brooks lives in Middlemarch. She is an intelligent, sensitive young woman, who wants to dedicate her life to important endeavors. She does not want to settle for a typical marriage and family, but looks toward a more noble cause. As a woman, a professional life is not open to her, nor is the pursuit of intellect, outside of marriage. She weds the elderly Rev. Casaubon, a cold, narcissistic man, thinking that by assisting him with his scholarly research and writing, she will find happiness.

Dr. Lydgate comes to Middlemarch to begin his medical practice there. He is an idealist, who has dreams of finding a cure for cholera and opening a free clinic. He meets blonde and beautiful Rosamund Vincie, who fancies him for a spouse...along with a new house, new furniture, an extensive wardrobe, etc.

A dashing, romantic Will Ladislaw, nephew of Rev. Casaubon, enters the story, as does Rosie's brother Fred, who wants desperately to marry his Mary, but is out of work and in debt. This cast of richly drawn characters continues to grow with the introduction of Mary's family, the Garths, the banker Bulstrode, friends, relations, and an evil villain or two.

This complex novel and portrait of the times, is one of the best reading experiences I have had in a long while. I cannot recommend it highly enough. 5+ Stars!
JANA

The author is a mindreader. The book is readable and funny and the descriptions and dialogue and ideas are great. It has all kinds of stories in it, and many different people.

This novel doesn't need my praise. But this edition needs censure. I have found over fifty typos and legitimate mistakes, the kind of thing you almost never see except in translations. "Unconquerable" is rendered "conquerable," "in" becomes "is" (so you get things like "All force is twain is one"). You can't read more than a few pages without being distracted.

It's embarrassing that this edition slipped by even a single editor.

I've written a review on this somewhere under another edition, but I wanted to comment on the Barnes and Noble Classic Series edition. It's very nice with an introduction by someone scholarly, and footnotes that are included at the very end, but the cover has that filmy stuff over it that tends to start curling off pretty quickly.

The story itself is wonderful.

I bought the Barnes and Noble edition of this book back in 2004. I just got around to reading it. I enjoyed it a lot. It's a rich novel with lots of still-relevant insights regarding life. But the edition! There were spelling mistakes or typos on practically every page. It's jarring to read and it began to drive me crazy towards the end. Hopefully there is a new Barnes and Noble edition of the book and they have since corrected these mistakes.

That is high praise, I know, but I couldn't think of any better superlatives. George Eliot writes with such keen insight into such diverse lives, it staggers the imagination. Virginia Woolfe wrote that Eliot was one of the few nineteenth century authors who wrote for grown up people, and I couldn't agree more. She never insults her readers by telling them what their opinion should be of any of her characters. They are all intricately drawn with an even hand, good traits and bad. Just when you think you've found a character that it is impossible to sympathize with, Eliot debunks your opinion in a single poignant paragraph.

I read and loved this book in college, and I've read it every two or three years since. It never wears thin. Anyone who wants to know how perfectly seamless a novel can be must read this masterpiece.

George Eliot has woven a wonderful story here about marriage, rural life, and reputations in 19th century England. The characters are all flawed but I enjoyed them nonetheless. Life is full of decisions, and, unfortunately our decisions can come back to haunt us all our lives. Still we must make the best of things and the characters here do (in their own ways). I was impressed with the author's (Ms. Eliot?) wit and searing intelligence. She doesn't overwhelm with details and descriptions - there is rarely a wasted word - hard to imagine over this many pages. The volume has lots of helpful footnotes. It is a great bargain for anyone who wants to see what a truly great novel is.

This is a must read book considering all the references to it in literature. But why? The dialog and narrative direction are remarkably similar to that of Jane Austin books and neither is especially relevant from anything but a historical perspective. I suspect that apart from those values there are the wonderfully insightful lines such as these:

"Souls have complexions too: what will suit one will not suit another."

"A man's mind - what there is of it - has always the advantage of being masculine, - as the smallest birch-tree is of a higher kind than the most soaring palm, - and even his ignorance is of a sounder quality."

"...when a woman is not contradicted, she has no motive for obstinacy in her absurdities."

"Pride helps us; and pride is not a bad thing when it only urges us to hide our own hurts - not to hurt others."

"...the mistakes that we male and female mortals make when we have our own way might fairly raise some wonder that we are so fond of it."

"The difficult task of knowing another soul is not for young gentlemen whose consciousness is chiefly made up of their own wishes."

"But Aquinas, now - he was a little too subtle, wasn't he? Does anybody read Aquinas?"

"...it is seldom a medical man has true religious views, - there is too much pride of intellect."

I started it twice and literally had to force myself the third time to read this book. My sister gave it to me and told me it was great. High society British, set in days of old stuffy society. Dorthea, so full of her intelligence, decided to marry a self acclaimed writer, who was putting together research for a never to be written book. In fact Mr. Cassobaun did nothing but research. Dorthea, realizing a woman of those times could not write and be taken seriously, would do the next best thing by assisting the great man with his building of a great book. Like a sponge, she married this stuffy "intelligent" man, and found he didn't really want an eager assistant, but he thought his research was over her head. Meanwhile, her likeable sister married and had a great life. Of course, she eventually sees that she made a mistake and blah, blah, blah, you know how it goes. Dorthea was a drag and without her sister and colorful uncle, I would have tossed it. Also, of course, since my sister gave it to me, I felt obligated to finish it.