Middlemarch (Oxford World's Classics) - Softcover

Eliot, George

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0192834029 ISBN 13: 9780192834027

Publisher: Oxford Paperbacks, 1998

Synopsis

Writing at the very moment when the foundations of Western thought were being challenged and undermined, George Eliot fashions in Middlemarch (1871-2) the quintessential Victorian novel, a concept of life and society free from the dogma of the past yet able to confront the scepticism that was taking over the age. In a panoramic sweep of English life during thr years leading up to the First Reform Bill of 1832, Eliot explores nearly every subject of concern to modern life: art, religion, science, politics, self, society, human relationships. Among her characters are some of the most remarkable portraits in English literature: Dorothea Brooke, the heroine, idealistic but näive; Rosamond Vincy, beautiful and egoistic: Edward Casaubon, the dry-as-dust scholar: Tertius Lydgate, the brilliant but morally-flawed physician: the passionate artist Will Ladislaw: and Fred Vincey and Mary Garth, childhood sweethearts whose charming courtship is one of the many humorous elements in the novel's rich comic vein. Felicia Bonaparte has provided a new Introduction for this updated edition, the text of which is taken from David Carroll's Clarendon Middlemarch (1986), the first critical edition.

About this title

Review

"Excellent text--one of the best editions of any 19th century novel available in paper."--Alexander S. Gourlay, University of Nebraska "Like the other World's Classics, this is a good text in a well-designed format, with adequate but unobtrusive editorial aids and introductions, biographical information, notes--at a fair price."--Robert D. Beckett, Southwest Missouri State University "Excellent text--one of the best editions of any 19th century novel available in paper."--Alexander S. Gourlay, University of Nebraska "Like the other World's Classics, this is a good text in a well-designed format, with adequate but unobtrusive editorial aids and introductions, biographical information, notes--at a fair price."--Robert D. Beckett, Southwest Missouri State University "Excellent text--one of the best editions of any 19th century novel available in paper."--Alexander S. Gourlay, University of Nebraska "Like the other World's Classics, this is a good text in a well-designed format, with adequate but unobtrusive editorial aids and introductions, biographical information, notes--at a fair price."--Robert D. Beckett, Southwest Missouri State University "Excellent text--one of the best editions of any 19th century novel available in paper."--Alexander S. Gourlay, University of Nebraska "Like the other World's Classics, this is a good text in a well-designed format, with adequate but unobtrusive editorial aids and introductions, biographical information, notes--at a fair price."--Robert D. Beckett, Southwest Missouri State University

From the Publisher

In Middlemarch George Eliot gives us a portrait of provincial life in Victorian England that has never been surpassed.

Wit, irony, pathos and brilliant insight into human nature colour every strand of plot and every beautifully drawn character. Foremost among these and Dorothea Booke, passionate to use her spirit and talent in a wider world than that typically afforded to women in the 1830s; Casuabon, the dry, jealous academic; Doctor Lydgate, who dreams of pioneering research in medical science; spoilt, pretty Rosamond Vincy who sees as 'a man whom it would be delightful to enslave'.

The novel centres on the marriages of Dorothea and of Lydgate, and on the web of relationships that connects us to each other. While eagerly awaiting the next part of the Middlemarch serial in 1872, the Spectator critic declared that 'Middlemarch bids more than fair to be one of the great books of the world'.

Edition details

• Publisher: Oxford Paperbacks
• Publication date: 1998
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0192834029
• ISBN 13: 9780192834027
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 864
• Editor: Carroll David