Description:
Dorothea Brooke is an ardent idealist who represses her vivacity and intelligence for the cold, theological scholar Reverend Edward Casaubon. One man understands her true nature: the artist Will Ladislaw. But how can love triumph against her sense of duty and Casaubon's mean spirit?
Meanwhile, in the little world of Middlemarch, the broader world is mirrored: the world of politics, social change, reforms; betrayal, greed, blackmail, ambition, and disappointment.
Dorothea Brooke is an outstanding heroine; Middlemarch is filled with characters that are vivid and true, comic and moving. It is one of the greatest novels in the English language.
Brief description:
George Eliot, the pen name of Mary Ann, or Marian, Evans (1819-1880), was an English Victorian novelist of the first rank. An assistant editor for the Westminster Review from 1851 to 1854, she wrote her first fiction in 1857 and her first full-length novel, Adam Bede, in 1859. In her writing, she was chiefly preoccupied with moral problems, especially the moral development and psychological analysis of her characters. She is known for her sensitive and honest depiction of life and people in works that are acclaimed as classics.
Review Quotes:
"There is no better companion for long socially distanced walks than all thirty-five hours of Eliot's greatest novel, which is the most engrossing, gossip-filled soap opera imaginable. Juliet Stevenson's narration is a miraculous performance, with each of the innumerable characters fully imagined and distinct. It is pure, glorious pleasure."
-- "Garth Greenwell, New York Times bestselling author (audio review)"