I read it in college and loved it. Really made you think about what was important in life! Though my professor jokingly recommended we read it again when we were closer to middle age or mid life crisis ?
I absolutely loved it. I tried reading it as a teen and didn’t get very far. Picked it back up in college and didnt want to put it down. It’s in my top 10 favorites. I’m reading Silas Marner now by Eliot and it is good as well.
A professor that facilitated a British Classics book club I attended suggested reading 25 pages a day and staying with the novel for an extended period of time. I did that for Great Expectations and Far from the Massing Crowd. Loved that technique.
Mill on the floss is probably the best one to start with, it’s more active and easier to read (and it is terriffic), but middlemarch is much more profound. It is, as some have commented, a slow book, but to be fair to Eliot, it was written for readers in a time when they had fewer distractions than we have today and so could devote more attention to it. But what is remarkable is the depth of feeling and perception in her realisation of the everyday, in which she can find more import and strangeness than lesser writers can find in extreme action and paragalactic meanderings… If you can stay with it, it’s a life changing novel. On top of all that, it’s an important early document of female interiority, an important riposte to patriarchal ideas of women’s existence as mere objects to be looked at or controlled.
It’s one of those books like Anna karenina which you go back to time and again and find whole new swathes of meaning as your life experiences expand you and arm you to understand and confront the intricacies of such books, which are always much more involved and intelligent than a first reading reveals.
It is next in line for me. Recently read The Mill on the Floss. Looking forward to it.
I read it in college and loved it. Really made you think about what was important in life! Though my professor jokingly recommended we read it again when we were closer to middle age or mid life crisis ?
I have never read it. I will.
I absolutely loved it. I tried reading it as a teen and didn’t get very far. Picked it back up in college and didnt want to put it down. It’s in my top 10 favorites. I’m reading Silas Marner now by Eliot and it is good as well.
Loved it! Not as moving as Mill on the Floss but great characters and storyline.
Her, greatest book probably
Tried but didn’t get far. I liked it ok but just wasn’t good timing Moved slowly and huge book
I really enjoyed it! May be time to re-read as Recommended by @Michele’ professor ?
I just finished leading a read along of it with some online friends. It was my second time reading it. I absolutely love it.
I was just thinking I need to reread it! It’s been too long, and it’s such a wonderful book.
If you haven’t read Rebecca Mead’s “My Life In Middlemarch,” I recommend it to anyone who loves “Middlemarch.”
I keep meaning to read that one. Thanks for the reminder.
A professor that facilitated a British Classics book club I attended suggested reading 25 pages a day and staying with the novel for an extended period of time. I did that for Great Expectations and Far from the Massing Crowd. Loved that technique.
please tell us about the read along. That sounds like a great idea.
Sorry, I sure thought I typed @Kathy.
@Carolyn I typed up a big reply and don’t know where it is. I swear I submitted it. I will try again tomorrow.
I loved it…but it was a slow read.
Ingrid Dominique, what do you think of Middlemarch?
I haven’t read it. I have the book. I’m contemplating on reading it.
Mill on the floss is probably the best one to start with, it’s more active and easier to read (and it is terriffic), but middlemarch is much more profound. It is, as some have commented, a slow book, but to be fair to Eliot, it was written for readers in a time when they had fewer distractions than we have today and so could devote more attention to it. But what is remarkable is the depth of feeling and perception in her realisation of the everyday, in which she can find more import and strangeness than lesser writers can find in extreme action and paragalactic meanderings… If you can stay with it, it’s a life changing novel. On top of all that, it’s an important early document of female interiority, an important riposte to patriarchal ideas of women’s existence as mere objects to be looked at or controlled.
It’s one of those books like Anna karenina which you go back to time and again and find whole new swathes of meaning as your life experiences expand you and arm you to understand and confront the intricacies of such books, which are always much more involved and intelligent than a first reading reveals.
❤️❤️❤️❤️