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:
"I lost myself in the narration of Middlemarch, a book I could not get through in high school or college, but that drew me in completely because of the fabulous narrator, Juliet Stevenson...I became completely involved with all the characters; fell in love with some, hated others. Stevenson's narration makes the book incredibly compelling."
--Eilene Zimmerman, author of Smacked (audio review)