Middlemarch

George Eliot

The novel is set in and around the provincial town of Middlemarch, a growing commercial center of the countryside that surrounds it. If beautiful country scenes are what we expect, the novel is a disappointment, for its landscape is primarily human. George Eliot fills us in on the dense hierarchy of the town—with its mayor, lawyers, doctors, businessmen, and even its auctioneer. Encircling the town is the country, with its own hierarchy, from the landowners and vicars down to the tenant farmers. The novelist catches them all on the threshold of a great change—the social churning to be brought about by the Reform Bills of 1832 and 1867.These two legislations symbolized first, the struggle of the middle classes to unseat the landed gentry and then that of the working class seeking a share of the benefits. Yet, Middlemarch is not a political novel. All these currents serve only to enrich...