Middlemarch

Middlemarch is a book by George Eliot, first published in 1871–1872. Set in a fictional provincial town in the English Midlands, this classic Victorian novel offers a richly detailed portrait of everyday life during a period of social, political, and moral change. Through its interwoven stories, the book examines how private ambitions collide with public expectations in a closely observed community where reputation, tradition, and reform are constantly in tension. At the heart of the novel is Dorothea Brooke, an idealistic young woman yearning for a meaningful life, whose marriage to the scholarly but emotionally limited Edward Casaubon leads her into unexpected disappointment. Running parallel is the story of Dr. Tertius Lydgate, a progressive physician determined to modernise medicine, whose personal choices—particularly his relationship with the charming but status-conscious Rosamond Vincy—gradually undermine his professional ideals. Around them move a wide cast of characters, including Fred Vincy and Mary Garth, whose quieter moral struggles offer a counterpoint to grander ambitions. Eliot explores marriage, money, religion, and reform with unusual depth, showing how good intentions can falter under the weight of habit, pride, and social pressure. Regarded as one of the greatest novels in the English language, Middlemarch remains strikingly modern in its understanding of human motivation and social complexity.