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The Guardian view on Middlemarch: the greatest novel in the English language
George Eliot’s masterpiece of provincial life still has much to teach us about sympathy and tolerance
TL;DR
- Middlemarch, by George Eliot, has been voted the best novel of all time in a poll of writers, academics, and critics.
- Praised by Virginia Woolf and Henry James, the 900-page novel depicts 19th-century provincial life.
- The novel centers on Dorothea Brooke, a high-minded young woman whose idealism clashes with reality, and features other characters like Tertius Lydgate.
- Eliot's work is noted for its exploration of female interiority, influencing subsequent authors like Isabel Archer, Mrs. Dalloway, and characters in Sally Rooney's novels.
- The author uses an empathetic narrative voice, treating sympathy as a moral obligation.
- Despite its literary acclaim, Middlemarch is sometimes seen as dull or preachy and is less adapted to screen than works by Austen or Dickens.
- The novel's themes of sympathy, tolerance, and the celebration of unremarkable lives remain timely and relevant.
- Middlemarch is described as a joy to read, immersing the reader in its world and its imperfect inhabitants.