George Eliot's Middlemarch Part 1

Please join us this fall for an 8 session read through and discussion series on George Eliot's Middlemarch. Please read the Prelude and Book One: Miss Brooke for this Meetup.

Middlemarch, A Study of Provincial Life is a novel by English author George Eliot, the pen name of Mary Ann Evans. It appeared in eight installments (volumes) in 1871 and 1872. Set in Middlemarch, a fictional English Midlands town, in 1829 to 1832, it follows distinct, intersecting stories with many characters. Issues include the status of women, the nature of marriage, idealism, self-interest, religion, hypocrisy, political reform, and education. Leavened with comic elements, Middlemarch approaches significant historical events in a realist mode: the Reform Act 1832, early railways, and the accession of King William IV. It looks at medicine of the time and reactionary views in a settled community facing unwelcome change. Eliot began writing the two pieces that formed the novel in 1869–1870 and completed it in 1871. Initial reviews were mixed, but it is now seen widely as her best work and one of the great English novels.

Online Text Link:
https://gutenberg.org/cache/epub/145/pg145-images.html

Oxford World Classics Edition Amazon Purchase Link:
https://www.amazon.com/Middlemarch-Oxford-Worlds-Classics-George/dp/0199536759

Clarendon Edition Amazon Purchase Link:
https://www.amazon.com/Middlemarch-Clarendon-Novels-George-Eliot/dp/0198125585