Middlemarch

George Eliot, first published 1871

In the neighborhood of a rural English town in the 1830s, several men and women struggle with love, marriage and fortune.

Length: 87 chapters
Reading time: About 22 hr 5 min
Words: 315,260

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About the book

“George Eliot” was the pen-name of Mary Ann Evans, one of the greatest of English novelists of the Victorian era. Her long novel Middlemarch, subtitled A Study of Provincial Life, is generally considered to be her finest work.

Published in eight installments between 1871 and 1872, Middlemarch tells the intertwined stories of a variety of people living in the vicinity of the (fictional) midlands town of Middlemarch during the early 1830s, the time of the great Reform Act. The novel is remarkable for its realistic treatment of situation, character and relationships and also demonstrates its author’s accurate knowledge of political issues, medicine, politics, and rural economy. Yet it also includes several touches of humor.

The novel’s main characters include: Dorothea Brooke, a religiously inclined and very intelligent young woman who marries a much older man believing that she can assist him in his scholarly studies; Dr. Tertius Lydgate, a doctor who comes to Middlemarch to further his medical research and implement his ideas for treatment, but whose plans are thrown into disarray by an unwise marriage; Fred Vincy, an idle young man, the son of the town’s Mayor, who gets into a mire of debt; and several others.

The initial reception of the novel by critics was mixed, with a number of unfavorable reviews, but its reputation has grown through time and Middlemarch is now generally considered to be one of the best novels ever written in English.

On these lists

Victorian novels

This edition

Text from Standard Ebooks, who proofread and typeset it and dedicate their edition to the public domain. George Eliot died more than 70 years ago, so the work is out of copyright in the UK. Includes the original dedication, prelude.