George Eliot, Middlemarch

Nathan Uglow (Trinity All Saints, Leeds)
Download PDF Add to Bookshelf Report an Error

George Eliot's epic novel

Middlemarch

was published by Blackwoods in 8 parts from December 1871 to December 1872, and as a 4-volume novel in the following year. It was begun when Eliot amalgamated two separate stories: the first concerning a doctor passionate about medical reform, and the second about a young woman passionate about scholarship. The novel took Eliot nearly 5 years to complete and the recent publication of her notebooks has now revealed the extraordinary extent of her research into areas such as the history of medical reform in the 1830s, and the most recent work on the nature of mythology.

Though Middlemarch is a small provincial village it is also a microcosm of society at large. At the top of the social ladder we find the scholarly Reverend Casaubon (at Lowick Manor),

2224 words

Citation: Uglow, Nathan. "Middlemarch". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 01 April 2002 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=3605, accessed 28 March 2024.]

3605 Middlemarch 3 Historical context notes are intended to give basic and preliminary information on a topic. In some cases they will be expanded into longer entries as the Literary Encyclopedia evolves.

Save this article

If you need to create a new bookshelf to save this article in, please make sure that you are logged in, then go to your 'Account' here

Leave Feedback

The Literary Encyclopedia is a living community of scholars. We welcome comments which will help us improve.