Why Middlemarch is the Best Novel of All Time




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ClassGraphic George Eliot’s Middlemarch (Norton, 2000) recently appeared atop The Guardian’s list of 100 Best Novels of All Time. Let’s read the novel and see why or whether it deserves this honor. From her perspective in the 1870s, Eliot looks back at English village life in the early 1830s. It was a time of immense change in England. The coming of the railroads was a symbol of industrialization, and they opened up the rural hinterlands.  Villages like Middlemarch were no longer as isolated as they once were. The political climate was changing as reflected in the Reform Act of 1832, which expanded the franchise even to the urban bourgeoisie. Medical practice was modernizing. The Anglican church’s grip on society was beginning to weaken. We find Dorothea Brooke, our idealistic protagonist, as she attempts to discover her purpose in this changing environment. Through Dorothea’s story and the stories of the other residents of the village, we see how those who lived through this turbulent era each dealt with marriage, politics, religion, and scientific and industrial change. As did readers in the Victorian era, we will read and discuss the book in its serialized form, one of its eight Books at a time. Any edition of the book is acceptable.
 

Class Details

14 Session(s)
Weekly - Wed

Location
Wieboldt Hall

Instructor
Multiple

Tuition:  $0.00

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Schedule Information

Date(s) Class Days Times Location Instructor(s)
9/9/2026 - 12/9/2026 Weekly - Wed 01:15 PM - 03:15 PM Chicago, Wieboldt Hall  Map Lynne Carpenter  ; Robert Relihan