Middlemarch Classic Illustrated Edition edition by George Eliot A White Literature Fiction eBooks
Download As PDF : Middlemarch Classic Illustrated Edition edition by George Eliot A White Literature Fiction eBooks 
* Beautifully illustrated with sketches from early editions and a number of atmospheric images, Middlemarch was an overnight bestseller upon first publication and remains hugely popular today as one of the great works of English literature.
* Eliot's epic novel traces the daily lives of the colourful inhabitants of a fictitious West Midlands village called Middlemarch and deals with a variety of themes that include women's rights, religion, and education. Despite being written well over a century ago, the novel is just as compelling today as it was all those years ago.
* This meticulous digital edition from Heritage Illustrated Publishing is a faithful reproduction of the original text.
Middlemarch Classic Illustrated Edition edition by George Eliot A White Literature Fiction eBooks
I first read 'Middlemarch' over 20 years ago. It was one of those essential English novels to read for any self-respecting English major that I was never exposed to while an English major (I took an American Novel rather than English Novel course). It was not quite what I expected. I was expecting something more formulaic as in Jane Austen. Before you Austen-lovers get riled let me say that Austen is probably the best at comedies of manners full of misunderstandings leading to entanglements which all get untangled with all remaining loose ends tied up by novel's end. 'Middlemarch' includes plenty of misunderstandings and entanglements but it cuts much deeper and follows characters through several more transitions, trials and stages of growth before tying the loose ends and letting them go about their lives.I was struck by the fact that Eliot presents characters choosing unwisely and yet, due to her penetrating prose, we understand their rationales for making the best decision based on what they know at the time. Unfolding experience and increased information and awareness allow them to realize the bind they've gotten themselves in and what they must do to extricate themselves. I was very bound in my personal life when I read the novel and so I could relate to characters making choices that led to painful disillusionment. Re-reading it after 20 years of life experience at a point when I believe that I am much less entangled by disastrous choices I can admire the breadth of the journey Eliot reveals to us for these people even more fully than I did the first time.
The two characters whose tumultuous journeys are explored most fully are Dorothea Brooke, an idealistic young woman who wants to improve the quality of life for those less affluent than herself and participate in some great intellectual awakening, and young, idealistic physician Tertius Lydgate, who also wants to improve the quality of contemporary society by employing more progressive methods of medical treatment and improving the quality of health care in general. He is not prepared for all the political and social compromises that he is expected to make in order for any of his grand plans to have a chance of being placed into action. Dorothea sees the dour, pedantic scholar Edward Casaubon as the perfect companion, a man who will give birth to a great scholarly work (saddled with the pompous title 'A Key to All Mythologies') and sees that she has an opportunity to help him in a secretarial manner to bring this great work into being. Casaubon is emotionally cold and sterile and leaves Dorothea feeling stifled, suppressed and unnecessary. Meanwhile, his cousin Will Ladislaw, closer to her age and just as idealistic and passionate as she is, has vibrant life in him and makes her feel appreciated and alive. Lydgate also chooses an unfortunate mate--Rosamund Vincy, the spoiled, materialistic daughter of the mayor of Middlemarch. Rosamund encourages Lydgate to spend beyond his means and begins to sabotage all of his efforts at financial belt-tightening.
All of these characters, along with half a dozen others with their own subplots, move through mazes of decision, reevaluation and renewed efforts at self-fulfillment. This is a historical novel, set at the beginning of the 1830's, roughly forty years in the past at the time of the novel's publication. It is a very thorough look at a fictional, provincial town at a time when railways were being laid and changing everyone's way of life, reforms were being discussed and debated and young medical men such as Lydgate were full of plans for medical innovation and political journalists such as Will Ladislaw wanted to play an integral part in social reforms.
At no point in the novel did I feel any hint of plot contrivance or coincidence. Every twist and turn in every character's journey seems to unfold naturally. Eliot depicts an intricate interpersonal web of social beings. This image could be seen to embody the interconnectedness she is illustrating:
'Your pier-glass or extensive surface of polished steel made to be rubbed by a housemaid, will be minutely and multitudinously scratched in all directions; but place now against it a lighted candle as a centre of illumination, and lo! the scratches will seem to arrange themselves in a fine series of concentric circles round that little sun. It is demonstrable that the scratches are going everywhere impartially and it is only your candle which produces the flattering illusion of a concentric arrangement, its light falling with an exclusive optical selection. These things are a parable. The scratches are events, and the candle is the egoism of any person now absent...'
Eliot's style has put many people off for generations. She is obstinate in her determination to take her time telling her tale and will give you as much information as you need to understand the depths of each character's motives, fears and hopes. She is an author that gives you far more than you asked for (or possibly wanted). Her very deliberate, thorough narration is punctuated by fast-paced passages propelled by the intensity of a character's dramatic dilemma. To fully appreciate Eliot one must surrender all notions of 'show, don't tell' narration as practiced in the 20th/21st century and put oneself in the mind of Eliot. The passion and the intellectual power are extremely vibrant when one enters a nineteenth century mindset. This is a different world from ours and yet the struggles these characters wrestle with are universal.
Dorothea in particular undergoes a radical transformation and growth. We are sympathetic with her even as we want to shout out, 'Don't do it!' when she makes disastrous choices.
We follow in her footsteps as she faces emotional devastation and wakes after a dark night of the soul with an epiphany:
'She opened her curtains, and looked out towards the bit of road that lay in view, with fields beyond outside the entrance gates. On the road there was a man with a bundle on his back and a woman carrying her baby; in the field she could see figures moving--perhaps the shepherd with his dog. Far off in the bending sky was the pearly light; and she felt the largeness of the world and the manifold wakings of men to labor and endurance. She was a part of that involuntary, palpitating life, and could neither look out on it from her luxurious shelter as a mere spectator, nor hide her eyes in selfish complaining.'
She is not destined to achieve great things in the eyes of the world but Eliot is not concerned with the lives of any major rich and famous or infamous figures in history. Dorothea is one of the unrenowned masses. As Eliot concludes:
'But the effect of her being on those around her was incalculably diffusive: for the growing good of the world is partly dependent on unhistoric acts; and that things are not so ill with you and me as they might have been, is half owing the number who lived faithfully a hidden life, and rest in unvisited tombs.'
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Middlemarch Classic Illustrated Edition edition by George Eliot A White Literature Fiction eBooks Reviews
Saving for future reading. So highly acclaimed, who wouldn't give it 5 stars.
Quick and easy. exactly what i needed. I got the correct book super cheap for a university course. couldn't be more pleased.
A book of major proportions with an amazing development of characters and excellent insight into the time, politics, relationships, etc.
I was surprised to see many current themes cleverly tackled by Eliot, so there is relevancy in this otherwise tedious tome.
Along the lines of a Jane Austen novel. Gives the reader a lot to think about.
Loved every page, all the characters, their problems and resolutions of them. Beautiful language, added much to vocabulary aand enjoyed every minute spent with these friendly to read characters, especially the amazing sensitivites con fronting the females. Reread last 100 pages because it was tugh to let go. Yvewtte Levy
The story itself is superb along with the language.
The characters were filled with enthusiasm. You truly could connect with them. Even though the book was written long ago, many of the sayings hold true in today's world. I loved this book and want the hard copy for my book collection. This book was filled with positive thought-provoking opinion, I recommend this book.
I first read 'Middlemarch' over 20 years ago. It was one of those essential English novels to read for any self-respecting English major that I was never exposed to while an English major (I took an American Novel rather than English Novel course). It was not quite what I expected. I was expecting something more formulaic as in Jane Austen. Before you Austen-lovers get riled let me say that Austen is probably the best at comedies of manners full of misunderstandings leading to entanglements which all get untangled with all remaining loose ends tied up by novel's end. 'Middlemarch' includes plenty of misunderstandings and entanglements but it cuts much deeper and follows characters through several more transitions, trials and stages of growth before tying the loose ends and letting them go about their lives.
I was struck by the fact that Eliot presents characters choosing unwisely and yet, due to her penetrating prose, we understand their rationales for making the best decision based on what they know at the time. Unfolding experience and increased information and awareness allow them to realize the bind they've gotten themselves in and what they must do to extricate themselves. I was very bound in my personal life when I read the novel and so I could relate to characters making choices that led to painful disillusionment. Re-reading it after 20 years of life experience at a point when I believe that I am much less entangled by disastrous choices I can admire the breadth of the journey Eliot reveals to us for these people even more fully than I did the first time.
The two characters whose tumultuous journeys are explored most fully are Dorothea Brooke, an idealistic young woman who wants to improve the quality of life for those less affluent than herself and participate in some great intellectual awakening, and young, idealistic physician Tertius Lydgate, who also wants to improve the quality of contemporary society by employing more progressive methods of medical treatment and improving the quality of health care in general. He is not prepared for all the political and social compromises that he is expected to make in order for any of his grand plans to have a chance of being placed into action. Dorothea sees the dour, pedantic scholar Edward Casaubon as the perfect companion, a man who will give birth to a great scholarly work (saddled with the pompous title 'A Key to All Mythologies') and sees that she has an opportunity to help him in a secretarial manner to bring this great work into being. Casaubon is emotionally cold and sterile and leaves Dorothea feeling stifled, suppressed and unnecessary. Meanwhile, his cousin Will Ladislaw, closer to her age and just as idealistic and passionate as she is, has vibrant life in him and makes her feel appreciated and alive. Lydgate also chooses an unfortunate mate--Rosamund Vincy, the spoiled, materialistic daughter of the mayor of Middlemarch. Rosamund encourages Lydgate to spend beyond his means and begins to sabotage all of his efforts at financial belt-tightening.
All of these characters, along with half a dozen others with their own subplots, move through mazes of decision, reevaluation and renewed efforts at self-fulfillment. This is a historical novel, set at the beginning of the 1830's, roughly forty years in the past at the time of the novel's publication. It is a very thorough look at a fictional, provincial town at a time when railways were being laid and changing everyone's way of life, reforms were being discussed and debated and young medical men such as Lydgate were full of plans for medical innovation and political journalists such as Will Ladislaw wanted to play an integral part in social reforms.
At no point in the novel did I feel any hint of plot contrivance or coincidence. Every twist and turn in every character's journey seems to unfold naturally. Eliot depicts an intricate interpersonal web of social beings. This image could be seen to embody the interconnectedness she is illustrating
'Your pier-glass or extensive surface of polished steel made to be rubbed by a housemaid, will be minutely and multitudinously scratched in all directions; but place now against it a lighted candle as a centre of illumination, and lo! the scratches will seem to arrange themselves in a fine series of concentric circles round that little sun. It is demonstrable that the scratches are going everywhere impartially and it is only your candle which produces the flattering illusion of a concentric arrangement, its light falling with an exclusive optical selection. These things are a parable. The scratches are events, and the candle is the egoism of any person now absent...'
Eliot's style has put many people off for generations. She is obstinate in her determination to take her time telling her tale and will give you as much information as you need to understand the depths of each character's motives, fears and hopes. She is an author that gives you far more than you asked for (or possibly wanted). Her very deliberate, thorough narration is punctuated by fast-paced passages propelled by the intensity of a character's dramatic dilemma. To fully appreciate Eliot one must surrender all notions of 'show, don't tell' narration as practiced in the 20th/21st century and put oneself in the mind of Eliot. The passion and the intellectual power are extremely vibrant when one enters a nineteenth century mindset. This is a different world from ours and yet the struggles these characters wrestle with are universal.
Dorothea in particular undergoes a radical transformation and growth. We are sympathetic with her even as we want to shout out, 'Don't do it!' when she makes disastrous choices.
We follow in her footsteps as she faces emotional devastation and wakes after a dark night of the soul with an epiphany
'She opened her curtains, and looked out towards the bit of road that lay in view, with fields beyond outside the entrance gates. On the road there was a man with a bundle on his back and a woman carrying her baby; in the field she could see figures moving--perhaps the shepherd with his dog. Far off in the bending sky was the pearly light; and she felt the largeness of the world and the manifold wakings of men to labor and endurance. She was a part of that involuntary, palpitating life, and could neither look out on it from her luxurious shelter as a mere spectator, nor hide her eyes in selfish complaining.'
She is not destined to achieve great things in the eyes of the world but Eliot is not concerned with the lives of any major rich and famous or infamous figures in history. Dorothea is one of the unrenowned masses. As Eliot concludes
'But the effect of her being on those around her was incalculably diffusive for the growing good of the world is partly dependent on unhistoric acts; and that things are not so ill with you and me as they might have been, is half owing the number who lived faithfully a hidden life, and rest in unvisited tombs.'
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