Rec. #221: Middlemarch

What: George Eliot's Middlemarch is a "classic." Generally speaking, that usually implies that it is a British novel, it is from the mid-nineteenth century, it is roughly 800 pages long, tragic things happen in it, and sometimes people are very, very smug about reading it. This is all true.

But! It's also very modern and biting and relatable and even funny. I can't explain how George Eliot came to know everything there is to know about life, but she did.

Comparable to: Other long British books from the mid-nineteenth century that seem intimidating until you actually start to read them. 

Opening lines: "Miss Brooke had that kind of beauty which seems to be thrown into relief by poor dress."

Representative quote: "Sane people did what their neighbours did, so that if any lunatics were at large, one might know and avoid them."

You might not like it if: "Ugh, that seems like something for school, I can't, I can't, I don't believe you, I just can't, I can't bear to."

How to get it: Public domain! It is all over the place. There's even a Coralie Bickford-Smith edition of it.

Connections to previous Wreckage: I previously mentioned Middlemarch during Personal Wreck Week (List #3).

You can continue the British mid-nineteenth-century novel kick with Elizabeth Gaskell (Mary Barton was Rec. #57) and Charles Dickens (Our Mutual Friend was Rec. #88).