Middlemarch is a recognized masterpiece that explores the complex social world of nineteenth-century England. It is concerned with the lives of several ordinary people, albeit ones with high social standing.The novel is set in the small town of Middlemarch and follows the interrelated lives of several characters. At the heart of the book is Dorothea, a kind-hearted and honest woman who longs to find some way to improve the world. She marries an older academic, Casaubon, against the advice of her friends and family. Casaubon tries to assert his influence over Dorthea, but she refuses to succumb to his will. Casaubon soon dies of a heart attack, and Dorothea marries his cousin, Will. But, in a final attempt to control Dorothea's life, Casaubon's will states that if Dorothea marries Will, she will lose her claim to Casaubon's estate.Meanwhile, the young doctor, Lydgate, comes to Middlemarch to start his own practice. He soon falls in love with Rosamund, a woman who has spent her life in Middlemarch, and they eventually marry. Fred Vincey, used to a lavish lifestyle but also a gambler, falls into debt as he waits to inherit money from a rich neighbor. He drifts toward the clergy and longs to marry Mary Garth. But until he proves himself worthy, Mary will have nothing to do with him.Through these various characters and their relationships, the novel explores the very fabric of Victorian society in the 1800s, showing how various human passions-heroism, egotism, love, and lust-interrelate within this society.
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About the Author
George Eliot is the masculine pen name of Mary Ann Evans (1819–1880), one of Victorian England's leading novelists. Her first stories appeared in Blackwood's magazine, followed by such novels as The Mill on the Floss, Silas Marner, and Middlemarch. Her work was popular with critics and the public alike, and in later years her novels were especially valued for their detailed portrayals of rural English life. Kate Reading has been a freelance narrator for over twenty years. She received an Audie Award for Bellwether by Connie Willis; an Audie nomination for The Gathering Storm by Robert Jordan and Brandon Sanderson, recorded with her husband, Michael Kramer; and an Audie nomination for Blow Fly by Patricia Cornwell. She has also received numerous Earphones Awards from AudioFile magazine, which has named her Narrator of the Year and, for two years running, Best Voice in Science Fiction and Fantasy for her narration of Jim Butcher's Codex Alera series. As Jennifer Mendenhall, she has worked as a stage actor in the Washington, D.C., area and has been a member of the Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company since 1987. Her work onstage has been recognized by the Helen Hayes Awards Society, the Washington Theatre Lobby Awards, and the Carbonell Awards in Florida. She and her husband live in Hyattsville, Maryland, with their two children.
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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Great novel imperfectly read,
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This review is from: Middlemarch, with eBook (Audio CD)
"Middlemarch" is such a glorious work that even an audiobook reading that doesn't express all its astonishing fecundity can still be a more satisfying experience than a silent reading. And so it is with Kate Reading's interpretation. She has a pleasant voice and she reads the dialogue very well but obviously doesn't grasp what George Eliot is getting at much of the time. Every sentence has rapier-like point, most of it humorous, and Reading rarely seems to get the joke. She passes obliviously over the words which require the emphasis of a consummate joke-teller; it's like hearing a joke flatly told. You might get it but it needs work on your part.
Reading also makes a hash of Eliot's frequent long sentences. She begins them breezily, seems to have them under control, but then starts to labour as the additional clauses make their appearance, and almost sputters to a halt before effortfully spurring them on to the bitter end. To be fair to her, sentences such as these are rarely to be found in any literature under a century old and the tradition of the Epic Sentence has foundered somewhere in Hemingwayville. Still, I think anyone attempting a reading of any work should know precisely what they're reading and not a mere approximation of it. However, I'll point out that Reading is not alone in this sin. Despite these misgivings, I still like this reading because it only requires a bit of extra concentration and inner modification of Reading's delivery to bring Eliot's magnificent novel to life. I can't think of a work that so unequivocally and consistently articulates its ideas: it comes closer to providing an education it itself than any other novel I can think of.
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