Middlemarch (English Library) (original 1872; udgave 1965)

A beautifully told tale of the interweaving of characters lives, their desires, their failures, and for a few, their overcoming. ( )

I guess this would be labeled as a period drama or maybe historical realism. It follows several several people in their regular lives. A lot of the focus seems to be about the ideas of the time and changes in ideas. ( )

Fabulous!!

11/10 Read it again and reminded again why it is so good. There are very few books of such a broad spectrum that show how little human nature changes. People, pride, relationships, marriage, prejudice...all there. A women writing a book in the late 1800's about the early 1800's and still in the early 2000's I know someone like every character in her book. ( )

£ 9.13
Oxford University Press, London, 1959. Condition: BUONO. With an Introduction by R. M. Hewitt. cm.9,5x15,3, pp.XVI,896, Coll. The World's Classics, 497. London, Oxford University Press 1959, cm.9,

I read this book on a recommendation from my local library when I was looking for some classics to read last summer. I haven't read much Victorian fiction yet, so it took me a while to become accustomed to the writing style, but by the end I found it to be one of the most rewarding reading experiences I've ever had. I read it as an ebook, and I found myself regularly making notes on little passages that I enjoyed. Many of those notes were basically me just repeating that I love the way the book was written; it is quite possibly the most well-written book I have ever read - George Eliot showing a complete mastery of both the English language and the human condition. I don't know how best to describe it, other than that the book really feels "alive" in a way that I've rarely felt with books. I can easily see myself coming back to this book eventually, and I feel like it will be even more rewarding on subsequent reads.

One final little note: as a longtime fan of the progressive metal band Dream Theater, I was delighted when I recognized a little quote from late in the book: "Our deeds still travel with us from afar, And what we have been makes us what we are", which the band paraphrased in their song "Beyond This Life" from the 1999 album "Scenes from a Memory" as "Our deeds have travelled far / What we have been is what we are". I had never seen this mentioned anywhere before, so it was a really wonderful little surprise. ( )