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Middlemarch by George Eliot - 4 stars - My Review

Primary protagonist, Dorothea, is an independent-minded woman. She thinks by marrying an educated older gentleman that she can become a true partner in his academic pursuits; however, she is sorely disappointed as she runs up against the patriarchal society and its narrow view of a woman’s ability to contribute. We meet many other residents of Middlemarch, including Dorothea’s guardian, sister, and brother-in-law; Bulstrode, the banker; Lydgate, the newly arrived doctor with his advanced medical thinking; Lydgate’s beautiful wife, Rosamond; Fred and Mary, a young couple hoping to marry; and Will Ladislaw, a young man with a background of lesser repute who is attracted to Dorothea, but prohibited by circumstances from courting her.

I will not attempt to summarize the plot since this is an extremely long book with lots of characters. I counted four main storylines. It is primarily character-driven until near the end. This is a true Victorian novel, published in 1871 and set in the 1830s in a fictional small English town. It addresses social issues of the author’s time, such as the role of women, reluctance to adopt medical advances, and social stratification.

We are privy to the characters’ inner thoughts and can easily see how actions can be misconstrued. We identify the mismatched partners, and their marital difficulties are not surprising. The writing style is elaborate, using many paragraphs to say what we would now express in a couple sentences. This style will obviously not be for everyone. I knew what I was getting into, but even so, I had to read several passages more than once to get the gist of what was being conveyed.

“But this vague conviction of indeterminable guilt, which was enough to keep up much head-shaking and biting innuendo even among substantial professional seniors, had for the general mind all the superior power of mystery over fact. Everybody liked better to conjecture how the thing was, rather than simply to know it; for conjecture soon became more confident than knowledge, and had a more liberal allowance for the incompatible. Even the more definite scandal…was, for some minds, melted into the mass of mystery, as so much lively metal to be poured out in dialogue, and to take such fantastic shapes as heaven pleased.”

I think in current times this novel would have been pared down considerably and focused more on the protagonist. Dorothea disappears for long stretches of the narrative. I recommend reading it slowly, and it is structured in short chapters that make this easy to do. By the end, everything gels. I ended up enjoying it much more than expected. I am glad I finally got around to reading this classic.