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Siobhan's Reviews > Middlemarch
Middlemarch
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Best. Goddamned. Book. Ever.
Seriously, this shit's bananas. B-A-N-A-N-A-S. 750 pages in, and you're still being surprised. It's 800 pages long and EVERY SINGLE PAGE ADVANCES THE PLOT. You cannot believe it until you read it.
This is a writer's book. By which I mean, and I say this with love, that if you write, but you do not love Middlemarch with everything that's in you, then stop writing. Yesterday.
Seriously, this shit's bananas. B-A-N-A-N-A-S. 750 pages in, and you're still being surprised. It's 800 pages long and EVERY SINGLE PAGE ADVANCES THE PLOT. You cannot believe it until you read it.
This is a writer's book. By which I mean, and I say this with love, that if you write, but you do not love Middlemarch with everything that's in you, then stop writing. Yesterday.
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Reading Progress
July 18, 2007
– Shelved
Started Reading
August 1, 2007
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Finished Reading
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Laura
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Apr 19, 2009 11:42PM
Just about to start it, and your funny review makes me want to read it even more :D
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This is my favorite review of all time.
I'm not sure why Good Reads showed me this review now, years after you posted it, but I had just bought the book. And now I'm reading it. And it's so witty and incisive, I'm blown away.
This review is amazeballs. Totally agreed.
I see you're a fellow New Yorker. Do you listen to Leonard Lopate on WNYC? Because this month's group read is My Life in Middlemarch, which is a fan memoir. The author will be interviewed on the show on March 28, I believe.
One of my favorite books. When I finished it I felt smarter and more alive. It is on the re-read shelf certainly.
I read My Life in Middlemarch and then read Middlemarch. I suppose that's the wrong order, but I did enjoy both of them. Middlemarch is not that easy to read, it takes quiet and time to get through the long passages and plot threads. In that way it is much like Edith Wharton.
I couldn't agree more!!!
"Middlemarch is not that easy to read, it takes quiet and time to get through the long passages and plot threads. In that way it is much like Edith Wharton."Quiet time? Quiet and time, you say? Middlemarch is now on my list, but with two little ones, this may be on the "to-read" list for a while. I love Edith Wharton, so I am hoping this is up my alley. The last Edith Wharton book I finished was 6 months before my daughter was born. :/
Literally just bought this book based on your review. Haha!
Well, now I gotta read this book! I love this review!😂
Just skimmed "small talk" from this weekend's FT and between the glowing rave and your LMAO review, I'm all in.
Took me a month to read because I savored every page.
One of my top favorites!
Idk about telling people to stop writing because they don't agree with you.
Dunno why but i am just not able to concentrate on the characters. I am irritated with myself actually. Leaving it will be like...admitting defeat. And nit ready for that.😛
Foolishness. It's a fantastic book but hardly the 'be-all-end-all' of the English language and is not the universal apogee of writing for everyone.
It’s very good- I can tell I’m going to give it a 5 and I’m only 200 pages in. I just don’t hand those out very much. It has to be pretty tremendous- or maybe I just end up reading way too many mediocre books. My daughter can’t stand it. I read Mill on The Floss at her age and was like -meh. But fast forward 30 years to this one (and of course I realize I bring a lifetime of experience that is making all the difference) and it’s definitely like swimming in the ocean as opposed to the pool.
Siobhan,I disagree with your comment. I know it's old, but it's writers like you that I can't stand sometimes. I'm a writer and I could barely make it through this book. This was surely a test of endurance and my patience. The writing community is suppose to build each other up, not tear each other down. I'm more into fantasy and crime novels and this ain't my cup of tea. Good day to you, though.
Any way you could have written this without all the profanity?
Omg the uptight people on these replies. Lol. Shut up her review is funny.
Definitely a cut above other books
relationships. Among her characters are some of the most remarkable portraits in English literature: Dorothea Brooke, the heroine, idealistic but naive; Rosamond Vincybeautiful a
I've read quite a few books written in the 1800s and many are slow going where nothing happens until the last volume/handful of chapters. This book is not one of them. Im about 250 pages in and cannot agree enough that every single pages advance the plot. It's interesting and has a good pace to it
I write, but I do not love Middlemarch with everything that's in me as I can see it has faults as well as some good aspects. I do not intend to stop writing.
You definitely have to be older to enjoy this I think. I am 380 pages in and absolutely in love with this writing. I started it 40 years ago and couldn’t get into it, but now the superb writing keeps me riveted.
I found this book overrated compared to War and Peace which is the actual greatest novel of all time and far greater in depth characterization and philosophy than Middlemarch.
Any way you could have written this without all the profanity?
You hooked me. After I finish Henry James' Portrait of a Lady, in whose preface referred repeatedly to Eliot and Middlemarch, this one's next, and I can't wait! Thanks!
I am reading this now and agree with you. I actually enjoyed the flavor your profanity added to the review.
Loved this entertaining review!
Best review of Middlemarsh! Review more
