I listened to the audio book version of George Eliot’s Middlemarch last year and enjoyed it having never read or listened to any of the author’s other work. As I enjoy books about books I thought this would be an interesting book to read before I tackled the book itself in print. I was not disappointed. This is part autobiography, describing how the author had been influenced by Middlemarch throughout her life and how her opinions of it have changed as she changed.
The book is also about George Eliot’s life and about her other books as well as about Middlemarch. You could almost call it a Middlemarch miscellany. I found it interesting reading and I’m sure it will motivate me to read the book itself which is a little daunting in its size and density. The author shows that Eliot was far from humourless and there are many amusing descriptions and authorial interjections in Middlemarch which will at least make the reader smile.
I thought the biographical details of Eliot’s life and her very unconventional relationship with George Lewis were as interesting as the insights into Middlemarch itself. There are notes on the text as the author quotes from and refers to many critics and biographers throughout the text. I think this is a book which is better read after you have some knowledge of Middlemarch itself rather than as an introduction to the book. For Eliot fans it is a must read book.
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