Middlemarch (Penguin Classics)
by George Eliot

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• ISBN13: 9780141439549
• Condition: New
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Book Reviews of Middlemarch (Penguin Classics)

Book Review: Less Would be More
Summary: 3 Stars

One main plot thread is that of the fatally flawed Nicholas Bulstrode who, though drawn to Christian religious sentiment, has feet of clay that ultimately destroy his plans for fame and honor. It is the destruction of Bulstrode that provides the most interesting story line in the novel. Bulstrode has, in his nefarious past, deeply wronged Will Ladislaw who comes to the town in the form of a cousin to the man, the Reverend Edward Casaubon, who will become Dorothea's first husband. Dorothea Brooke, the other main plot thread, is a super virtuous, moderately wealthy woman of puritan values and a naive zeal for service to some great cause. unfortunately,Dorothea's zeal overcomes her good sense, in spite of considerable advice from friends, and she marries Casaubon who she sees as a man with a mission. Unfortunately, Casaubon has not the ability to carry out the mission that he has chosen but he will be resolutely supported by the virtuous Dorothea in spite of her recognition of his short-comings. Fortunately, the Reverend dies early in the story, leaving Dorothea rather impressive wealth to carry out good intentions. Unfortunately, the Reverend puts a poison pill in his will that seems at first to thwart the virtuous Dorothea's desire to take the also virtuous Will Ladislaw for her second husband. Fortunately, Dorothea's virtue has no bounds and the Reverend's poison pill will have little ultimate effect.

Mingled with these threads and bulking up the novel, not always to its benefit, are a number of other threads of miscellaneous colors. There is the young physician, Dr. Lydgate, who is newly arrived and thus jealously regarded by the established physicians of the town. Lydgate is of good character but poor judgement and so is deservedly punished by becoming inextricably snarled in the destruction of Bulstrode, giving the virtuous Dorothea a chance to demonstrate her virtue by saving Lydgate from total destruction. There is the Vincy family which has produced a son, Fred, and daughter, Rosamond (who marries Lydgate in the course of the novel), of imperfect character who thus impact other persons in the story to their detriment. Again the virtuous Dorothea rides to the rescue by demonstrating to Rosamond what the true character of a wife should be. An almost entirely separate story is that of Caleb Garth and his family who represent the Victorian ideal, hard-working, pastoral people of the earth whose morality exceeds that of the wealthy (except, of course, for the virtuous Dorothea.) Caleb and his daughter, Mary, demonstrate that pastoral virtue by saving Fred Vincy from himself. There is the struggling parson, Mr Farebrother, supporting his sister, mother and aunt who resorts to penny-ante gambling to eke out his finances; the virtuous Dorothea saves him from himself. There are many other minor characters, one of which is instrumental in the downfall of Bulstrode, but the ones discussed above represent the bulk of the story lines in the novel.

Eliot chose to write her novel as the omniscient observer, giving her the chance to comment on anything she chose to and this is probably the weakness of the novel and the cause of its excessive length. She gives her readers little chance to form their own judgements, carefully analyzing her characters' faults and mistakes in judgements and adding extensive philosophical commentary. Take for example her description of Mr Farebrother's reaction to another man of the cloth who has bested him in getting a position which would have greatly reduced Mr Farebrother's need for outside income:

"But Mr Farebrother met him with the same friendliness as before. The character of the publican and sinner is not always practically incompatible with that of the modern Pharisee, for the majority of us scarcely see more distinctly the faultiness of our own conduct than the faultiness of our own arguments or the dulness of our own jokes. But the Vicar of St Botolph's had certainly escaped the slightest tincture of the Pharisee, and by dint of admitting to himself that he was too much as other men were, he had become remarkably unlike them in this - that he could escuse others for thinking slightly of him, and could judge impartially of their conduct even when it told against him."

Eliot has to some extent defeated her own moralizing in this novel. Although Dorothea is a viruous woman, in the end it is always the fact that she has wealth that enables her to carry out solutions to problems.

Eliot had not the ability of her contemporary, Charles Dickens, to draw memorable characters such as Fagin and the Artful Dodger but she included a much wider social swath and intensity of emotion than that of her predecessor, Jane Austen. Jane Austen, however, gave her readers more room for their own judgements and could write with an intoxicating style - for days after reading "Emma" I caught myself thinking in Austen's modality and tempo. Although Harold Bloom has included Eliot in his Western Canon, I could not bring myself to give her that status on the basis of "Middlemarch" as he seems to do. In my opinion, a reader would spend time to better effect by reading two or three of Eliot's shorter works such as "Adam Bede" and "Silas Marner."

Summary of Middlemarch (Penguin Classics)

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