Middlemarch

One sentence synopsis... A story of human nature, disillusionment, and self-deception amongst members of every class of society in a provincial English town.

Read it if you like... Hardy, Austen, disastrous marriages, unfulfilled potential, failing to live up to expectations, settling, Stars Hollow but everyone ends up disenchanted or publicly shamed.

Dream casting... Scoot McNairy as Garth. Stephen Root as Bulstrode.
Nicholas Braun as Fred. Anna Baryshnikov as Mary. Phoebe Fox as Dorothea.

I very rarely give books 5-star ratings on Goodreads. I don't think I've even left a review here.

Middlemarch deserves both.

I generally like reading English novels from the 18th to 19th century, and I thoroughly enjoy most of those that I have read so far. Middlemarch is my first foray into George Eliot's work, but I expected a similar, serene vibe that I usually get from novels of this time period. What I got was akin to a 19th century soap opera. I would say that this was a 19th century Days Of Our Lives, except the storyline was so much tighter than any soap opera I've known.

Middlemarch is subtitled “A Study of Provincial Life”, and that's a great summary of what it is. It's a panoramic study of life in the fictional English village of Middlemarch, with not just one or two, but at least four central characters, and a whole intricate background of secondary, tertiary and other minor characters spreading out from there like concentric circles. With such a busy canvas to work with, I was simply bowled over by George Eliot's masterful way of weaving her tale. The book was 782 pages long for my edition, but shit was going down in almost every chapter, there were plot twists, and new developments that never seemed to stop coming.

Even more amazing was how Eliot did not compromise on the characterisation despite all the action in her story. The central characters were well fleshed out, their growth and maturity throughout the novel flowed naturally from their changing situations, and their every action throughout the story was realistic and unforced. The parts that every character played in every crisis or new development fit together seamlessly. Sometimes, small gestures that appear insignificant at first are revealed to have larger consequences later, yet everything was always believable. I've never read a truer representation that captures the elaborateness of human nature and social reality, and I'm awed by Eliot's mastery over realist writing.

I think when it comes to reading older English novels, I am always captivated by its characterisation most of all, as there is certainly a different flavour to how it was done in previous centuries than it usually is in contemporary novels. Middlemarch illustrates everything I love about this aspect, which explains why I thoroughly enjoyed this book. I will certainly be checking out more of Eliot's other works, but this book's reputation as “one of the greatest novels in the English language” is certainly not undeserved.

The only little thing was, I spent probably 90% of the book expecting and wishing that Dorothea would end up with Lydgate because they always seemed so suitable for each other, but ah well. Lydgate's life ended up more pitiable than I would've wished.