As I prepare to enter a PhD program in the fall, at which point presumably I won’t have much leisure time for reading what I want when I want it, I’ve decided to dedicate my summer to checking off some boxes on my pleasure reading bucket list. One huge entry on that list was George Eliot’s 800 page behemoth Middlemarch, often hailed as one of the great novels written in English. It’s been in my sights for awhile – it even had a whole Twitter campaign devoted to it - but I’ve put it off because of its length and intimidation factor. I’m very glad I finally got around to it, and I certainly think it lives up to its lofty reputation. Instead of a traditional review, I thought I’d offer up a few things I really appreciated about the book, in an effort to convince the uninitiated that it really is worth their while.
Middlemarch is an epic of place
The book has an amazing spiraling structure. At the beginning it looks like it will focus on just one pair of sisters, especially the elder sister Dorothea. But as Dorothea enters into a fateful marriage, the narrative spins outward to begin to touch on other citizens of the town of Middlemarch and its surrounding areas. People from all classes and walks of life enter into contact with each other and get entangled in the messiness of life. By the end the book follows several main characters and dozens of secondary ones, most of whom are vivid and memorable. Through this method Eliot helps remind the reader than any story is arbitrarily told, that the people who litter the sidelines have their own hopes and dreams and lives.
In addition, the book takes place during a time of uncertainty and transition, just before the passage of the Reform Bill of 1832 (which extended voting rights to a wider swath of the British [male] population) and at the advent of the widespread use of railways. Eliot explores both of these in detail, sussing out how technology and the rule of law can have drastic social effects even in places far away from centers of power. Because of this the novel is a paradox: at once a sweeping, overarching epic, and a book enamored with the microcosm of the everyday.
Middlemarch Has Real, Developed Characters
What’s amazing about the large cast of characters in Middlemarch is how fleshed out most of them feel. Some writers of epics cut their supporting cast from stock cloth. As much as I love Dickens, many of his characters border on caricatures, or at least serve only one function in the story. But Eliot has taken time and care to make her characters multi-dimensional and capable of change. Several times in the story, characters are introduced who seem bad, or dull, or somehow less worthy of pity and consideration than others. Consistently, though, Eliot goes out of her way to humanize her characters, lending them depth and real motivation.
The best known example comes from what is perhaps the most famous em-dash in all of literature. Talking of Dorothea’s strained relationship with her older, ill-suited husband, Eliot stops mid-sentence with a plaintive question: “– but why always Dorothea?” Why must we always take sides, for or against certain characters? Eliot makes sure that even the “villains” in Middlemarch are not evil, merely complex and run down by life.
Middlemarch Treats Religion with Fairness and Subtlety
George Eliot grew up in a very religious household, then famously abandoned her upbringing when she grew up. Unlike most Internet atheists, though, whatever private animus Eliot might have held towards Christianity did not make it onto the pages of Middlemarch. Instead, we get a shaded, detailed account of the role religion plays in the lives of normal people. The ideas and themes of Christianity are part of the warp and woof of Middlemarch life, and as such religion is treated as a normal, not extraordinary phenomenon. All the characters have basic familiarity with its principles, and several members of the clergy play significant parts in the story.
What is especially perceptive about Eliot’s treatment of Christianity is the wide variety of Christian experiences she captures. Some of the characters do indeed practice the rigid faith of legalism, including in Mr. Bulstrode, one of the “villains” of the story. But even with him his faith is treated as a thing of complexity, with the action of grace scratching below the surface of his law keeping. A more grace-filled picture of Christianity comes in the character of Mr. Farebrother, a curate who pursues his vocation imperfectly but enthusiastically, taking upon himself the burden of loving others in the mold of his Master. Mr. Farebrother is a remarkable character, one of the best in the book, and he represents whimsical, winsome faith at its best.
Middlemarch Has a Keen Eye for the Role of Women in Society
No surprise that a book written by a female author who was considered a rebel against the expectations of society contains a sharp view of the limitations placed on women, but Middlemarch does a remarkable job of placing its women in context, while still critiquing their place. In other words, Eliot has her female characters behave within the bounds of established 19th Century British society while still pointing out the numerous flaws in that system. There’s a good deal of satire with regard to where women fit in Middlemarch’s world, but never any mouth frothing.
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Poor Rosamond. Will her busy, important husband every listen to her?
Dorothea in particular embodies this struggle. A woman of boundless interests and curiosities, she finds herself helplessly restricted by her husband’s dull view of what she is capable of. She longs for more, and finds subtle channels into which she releases her pent up energy. But there’s nothing of the tired old formula of breaking off chains here; what is remarkable about Dorothea is the way she navigates the system she finds herself in.
Middlemarch Is Incredibly Funny – and Fun
I’m aware that all my previous points might be inflating Middlemarch’s status as an important book at the expense of trumpeting its accessibility. As I’ve discovered with many of the classics of the canon, Middlemarch is anything other than dry. It’s a book bursting with life and interesting characters and romantic situations. I don’t know if I can describe any 800 page book as a brisk read – and it took me a few weeks of off and on again reading to finish it – but I can vouch for the fact that it is a consistently engaging and absorbing book.
Best of all, it is remarkably funny. Eliot follows the Jane Austen formula for comedy, combining acidic wit in her descriptions with characters that have buffoonish characteristics. My favorite comic character in the book is probably Mr. Brooke, Dorothea’s uncle and guardian, who has progressive political notions but a fop’s idea of how to carry them out. Or maybe it’s Mr. Trumbull, the self important auctioneer. Or maybe one of several others.
Go read Middlemarch. You won’t regret it. Unless you are a person who hates good books, in which case there’s not much hope for you anyway.
Image may be NSFW.
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Image may be NSFW.Clik here to view.
