Customer Reviews

Middlemarch (Penguin Popular Classics)

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

 

 

Rarely have I enjoyed a classic with more surprise than Middlemarch. It looks to be an endless and boring morality tale from the plot summary, but reads like a work of high psychological art.

The only other writer who has taken me so convincingly inside the thoughts of so many characters is Shakespeare. A strong compliment, but Eliot shows that she had the goods and somehow weaves an epic and beguilingly entertaining tale out of a quite depressing subject and period.

I recall not wanting this book to end; for an 800-pager, that's strong praise indeed.

They don't write 'em like this anymore!

I love this Penguin edition; they've been doing it right for so long that their versions of the classics have all the right, simple touches.

Truly great writing makes you feel ennobled for having read it; Middlemarch is most decidedly one of those books.

Middlemarch is a justifiably world-famous classic. However, this edition frequently sapped all the joy I experienced from George Eliot's witty dialogues and colloquies. It is full of misspellings, paragraph indentations that actually interrupt sentences, and even missing words, so that there were points when I could barely come to understand what had been Eliot's original meaning. When I was choosing which edition to buy, I read reviews of several other editions that mentioned poorly edited copies, but this one had no comment on the actual edition itself, just on the content (which I took to mean the path was safe). Nobody will dispute what a great read is Eliot's perception of the inner mind -- this is an early psychological thriller, if you are interested in people living in ambiguity and conflict and if you choose to read it that way. But I wanted to hurl this edition at the wall on numerous occasions. Considering that it was not one of the cheapest on the market, this product is shameless. Come on, Digireads, get a copy editor! You should refund people's money for such a shoddy job!

great book I loved reading it its written so beatifully, I definately recomended it brings you back to england in the 1800's .