Middlemarch: Part 1 (Classic Books on Cassettes Collection)

Book Description

Vast and crowded, rich in irony and suspense, Middlemarch is richer still in character, with two of the era's most enduring characters, Dorothea Brooke, trapped in a loveless marriage, and Lydgate, an ambitious young doctor.

Download Description

On April 10, 1994, PBS stations nationwide will air the first episode of a lavish six-part Masterpiece Theatre production of Eliot's brilliant work, Middlemarch, hosted by Russell Baker and produced by Louis Marks. The Modern Library is pleased to offer this official companion edition, complete with tie-in art and printed on acid-free paper. Unabridged.

Customer Reviews:

A fun read and a good story.......2007-06-20

Remember the first time you read a classic, expecting it to be hard work, dreary "educational" stories, and abstruse language? And then you read it and found out to your delight that good writing meant it was easy to read and kept your interest? Middlemarch is simply fun to read. The language is high, and for some readers perhaps "wordy," but not the type of wordiness that has too many descriptions of things. It's thoughtful. Middlemarch is really an elevated soap opera, with completely filled out and amusing characters, angst filled situations, and lots of interesting history. If you like to read about the Victorian era, enjoy the repression they live under, and like to long for people to speak their hearts when they feel they can't, then you'll like this book. It is very long, but I always appreciate that when it's a good story, and this is definitely a good story.

Brilliant!.......2007-05-29

This one deserves 10 stars, it is really one of the most incredible books I've ever read. I think I've only given a brilliant rating to the Count of Monte Cristo and Bleak House. This is a fascinating character study of the people of Middlemarch, a town in Victorian England. I can't even begin to try to describe the story -- there is Dorothea who makes a dreadful first marriage to an older man, Dr. Lydgate and his disastrous relationship and marriage to the self-centered Rosamund, Fred Vincy and Mary, and much much more.

The way the author pulls her story and characters together is incredible, and the insight into the characters is nothing short of brilliant. To quote from the book jacket and Virginia Wolf "one of the few English novels written for grown-up people."

Just be warned, this is not a sit on the edge of your seat, can't put it down until it's finished type of novel. This is a story to savour and enjoy the multi-faceted characters and the author's glorious prose like a fine red wine or a box of chocolates (or both). If you are looking for high action and adventure, this is not the book for you. Highly recommended for any lover of 19th century English literature, not as dark and brooding as Hardy can be, but the prose is just as lovely, if not better.

too much for me.......2007-05-13

I am an avid reader of many different types of literature, and am used alot of different styles of prose. Despite my past readings however I simply could not enjoy this book. It has a style all of itself. Perhaps other readers enjoyed this highly rated novel, but I did not care for the overall style and the excessive wordiness.

Best Victorian Novel?.......2007-04-13

Most people consider Dickens the greatest English novelist or the greatest Victorian novelist at the very least. While I admire Dickens' abilities, none of his novels that I've read comes close to MIDDLEMARCH in terms of accessibility, wisdom, character development or coherant plotting.

This is not to argue that MIDDLEMARCH is a perfect work of literary art, or at least not in the eyes of today's readers. Many a modern reader will be put off by its length, the challenging vocabulary and complex sentences, Eliot's frequent allusions to political, religious, literary, artistic and philosophical esoterica, her characters' hyperbolic fear of "scandals" (laughable by today's standards), their views on the place of women in society, and Eliot's fussy Victorian "not" phrases that overflow throughout. (A random turn of the pages yields the following examples: "One fine morning a young man whose hair was not immoderately long ...." Same paragraph: "He was sufficiently absorbed not to notice ...." Next paragraph: "... a breathing blooming girl whose form, not shamed by ....") These begin to NOT thrill the reader before too long.

But my litany of minor criticisms aside (and they are minor), Eliot's masterwork certainly challenges GREAT EXPECTATIONS, BLEAK HOUSE and DAVID COPPERFIELD for sheer reading pleasure, and far exceeds Dickens' novels in seriousness of topic and tone. As Virginia Woolf famously observed, MIDDLEMARCH was written for grownups.

The one area in which Eliot clearly cannot challenge Dickens is humor. Dickens was a gifted humorist and created many a character simply to make his readers laugh, whereas Eliot appears to have been mostly uninterested in such trivial pursuits. Perhaps serious Victorian grownups weren't supposed to laugh?

But fear not, if you give it a chance, you too will be swept up into Eliot's MIDDLEMARCH world, and you will find yourself caring a great deal about the fate of Dorothea Brooke, Tertius Lydgate, Will Ladislaw, Mary Garth, and the rest of her pantheon of characters, all of whom, far more than any of Dickens' creations, seem of flesh and blood rather than caricatures on a page.

So, to answer the title question: is MIDDLEMARCH the best Victorian novel? Hard to say, but it gives GREAT EXPECTATIONS an excellent run for the money.

High on my lengthy soon-to-read list: Eliot's DANIEL DERONDA, THE MILL ON THE FLOSS and ADAM BEDE.

One of the Greatest Novels.......2007-01-29

George Eliot was the greatest sculptor of characters. She could do grand magic with words. Through the words of George Eliot, we know each and everyone of the characters in her novel with intimate details and deep sympathy - we could see their faces up close: now they blushed, or darkened, or twitched, or pouted, or lighted up, or looked bewildered. She expressed the most difficult, the most ambiguous, and the most awkward feelings with precision, charm and force. In Middlemarch, the story had a simple, rambling plot, put together to support the cast of characters Eliot lovingly sculpted. Many argue that Middlemarch is one of the greatest novels of all times. Yes, I agree.

Average customer rating:

Classical Gas
Cuts to the Heart of Things
George Eliot's timeless short novel of a miser who finds gold in the gift of parental love
Silas Marner
Silas Marner

Silas Marner (Bantam Classics)
George Eliot
Manufacturer: Bantam Classics
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Mass Market Paperback

Classics | General | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books

Look Inside Fiction Books | Trip | Specialty Stores | Books

All 4-for-3 Deals | 4-for-3 Books Store | Stores | Books
Similar Items:

ASIN: 055321229X
Release Date: 1981-09-01

Book Description

Embittered by a false accusation, disappointed in friendship and love, the weaver Silas Marner retreats into a long twilight life alone with his loom. . . and his gold. Silas hoards a treasure that kills his spirit until fate steals it from him and replaces it with a golden-haired founding child. Where she came from, who her parents were, and who really stole the gold are the secrets that permeate this moving tale of guilt and innocence. A moral allegory of the redemptive power of love, it is also a finely drawn picture of early nineteenth-century England in the days when spinning wheels hummed busily in the farmhouses, and of a simple way of life that was soon to disappear.

Download Description

Exiled by superstition and betrayal from Lantern Yard, and cut off from faith and human love, for fifteen years the solitary simple-hearted weaver Silas Marner has plied his loom in Raveloe and devoted himself to the amassing of a hoard of golden guineas. Silas's chance of redemption, when it appears one New Year's Eve, is intimately connected with the fate of Godfrey Cass, son of the village Squire. Clandestinely married, then blackmailed by his dissolute brother Dunstan, Godfrey like Silas has been trapped by his past, from which he is seeking to escape. Humorous, richly symbolic, subtly characterized and meticulously plotted, George Eliot's 'sudden inspiration' in this slim novel of rural England cut across her plans for Romola, her vast Italian Renaissance epic.

Customer Reviews:

Classical Gas.......2007-08-03

About halfway through when the little bundle of joy shows up in Silas's house I couldn't help thinking Dickens would have done a much better job with this story. As it is, the second part (which is actually the last third of this slim novel) is awkward and sloppy and doesn't make a lot of logical sense. Why does the father confess after he finds out he's going to get away with it scot-free? In "The Telltale Heart" Poe established the kind of guilt that made the eventual confession make sense, but there's nothing like that here to prod the father into doing anything--especially when he's waited so long as it is. By the time he does come forward and want to take responsibility there's really no point in doing so anymore as Silas has done the work for him.

Anyway, I could see why kids would hate reading this. I'd recommend they watch the old "Wishbone" episode from PBS instead. That got to the point and trimmed out a lot of the useless fat and would be far more entertaining for your kids--who doesn't like to see a dog wearing clothes?

That is all.

Cuts to the Heart of Things.......2007-06-09

Like some of the other reviewers, I found this a heartwarming story about Silas Marner, a solitary hermit who discovers things about himself he has forgotten, or may never have known. When his solitary existence is turned upside down by the departure of his treasure and the arrival of an unexpected guest, Silas takes the opportunity to examine his life and make the best of what life has given him. I felt this was an uplifting story telling how much the choices we make define who we are, and that it's never too late to decide to be something more.

George Eliot's timeless short novel of a miser who finds gold in the gift of parental love.......2006-11-30

Silas Marner is a nineteenth century Englishman. He belongs to a religious community; is falsely accused of theft and repairs to the isolated midland village of Raveloe. He is considered an alien by the clannish townsfolks. Marner is a Midas who enjoys collecting gold coins earned through long hours of weaving. One day the money is stolen by the dissolute Duncan Cass the son of the wealthy Squire Cass.
Marner is devastated by this theft. And then love enters his life. Love is incarnated in little Effie the child who is orphaned by the death of her opium eating mother who dies on her way to confront Godfrey Cass with the child he and she have had together. Effie's mother was abandoned by Cass who seeks to wed the rich znd lovely Nancy.
Through a series of plot machinations the ending is resolved when Effie is wed and is able to live with Silas. Godfrey Cass repents of his sordid past; acknowledges his parentage of Effie and confesses all to his forgiving wife Nancy.
George Eliot wrote this short novel in 1861 prior to beginning her long and largely forgotten novel "Romola "The novel reminds this reviewer of the tale woven on the loom of Dickens imagination called "A Christmas CArol" dealing with the redemption of the miser Ebeneezer Scrooge. Scrooge is redeemed by the ghosts of Christmas and the sick lad Tiny Tim.
George Eliot was a freethinker who held to a high moral standard of behavior. She knew rural England and its folkways well for it was here she grew to womanhooid. Her use of the customs, dialects and culture of the British peasantry is superb. She was before Thomas Hardy on the literary landscape and surpasses that great author in her ability to delve deeply into the human heart in conflict with itself.
Many readers may have been turned off to Eliot through being forced to read "Silas Marner" in high school. These readers deserve to reread this beautiful parable of love and redemption. "Silas Marner" was the favorite novel by George Eliot. It deserves to live as long as the English language. Its message of loving hope is eternal.

Silas Marner.......2006-11-23

Silas Marner spends his days weaving for the village-folk of Raveloe, weaving and saving, hiding his money in leather bags in the floor of his home. At nights, he counts the money, tinkling it between his hands, memorising the increasing total. He spends little, and has no friends or family. His life consists of waiting to leave his life, an endless weave that seems to have no beginning and no end.

But Silas was not always a weaver. As a young man, he was engaged, and living in another town. But his best friend, William Dane, who was jealous of his good fortune and hopeful prospects, engendered a plan to strip Silas of everything he held dear. His hometown, convinced he was involved with the robbery of a senior deacon, accused him of theft and he was forced to leave. He stumbles upon Raveloe and begins to weave, and fifteen years past.

It is to George Eliot's credit that a story with such fairy tale qualities is so successful. From the very beginning we are made aware of character-types and ideas, with Silas being an innocent man wrongly accused, and then, as a weaver, a giant metaphor of toil and struggle in an unfair world. The townsfolk of Raveloe, as they are outlined, remain simply that - a thick line that purports to show the broad details of a person, but in no way offers the subtle shading that makes a character come to life and become a person. But this is to the story's credit, for we are not interested so much in depth of character and complexity of situation, as we are in the constant weaving, the endless sadness, of Silas Marner's self-imposed exile.

While we learn of Marner's new life as a hoarder, a miser, a weaver, we come to see other characters and situations. There is a young man, Godfrey, who is running out of money and seeks a desperate measure to fix his worries. There is his father, who disapproves of his life and choices. One New Year's, the two stories intersect, and after Silas is robbed of all his money, a young girl, blonde and innocent and nameless, is found on his doorstep. Her mother, an opium addict, is discovered nearby, frozen to death. A father, if there is one, does not step forward.

Here, Eliot allows us to know the secret well before Silas or Eppie, his newly christened adopted daughter. Godfrey is the father, and it is a secret he carries with him well past necessary. His duplicitous action is flagged at a very early stage, which sets in our mind the idea that a comeuppance, or a truth revealing set piece, is somewhere along the line. Because this is known - for what fairy tale does not, in the end, end in goodness and retribution and justice for those who deserve it? - we are able to enjoy the experience of Silas as he becomes a good father, and learns how to love.

In a sense, the themes surrounding Silas are trite and over-used. The idea of a sad, lonely man discovering the beauty of the world again through love, is nothing new. Yet Eliot's mastery of character and evocation of place allow us to sail along with Silas as he sheds the hard carapace of armour that he has placed around himself. He becomes, as we do, devoted to Eppie. She is a caricature, a purely good and ultimately pure girl who, through the tutelage of her father, understands the meaning of love even where Godfrey, her real father, does not.

Eliot makes heavy use of dialect in Silas Marner. As a personal taste, I distinctly dislike dialect, because I find I spend more time translating what is being said than enjoying and understanding the character as they are presented. Yes, it can aid in characterisation and 'realism', but at what cost? Much like Wuthering Heights, several characters in Silas Marner were ruined for me, purely because I had to work so hard at what they were saying. And of course, upon figuring out their obscure words, I realised that they were saying nothing meaningful at all. A great disappointment, that.

Throughout, various characters are introduced and then pushed to the background, as needed by the story. When Silas is in difficulties concerning the raising of a child, a goodwife is found, Dolly Winthrop, who provides him with advice and stresses that the child must be christened. Later, a love interest is given to Eppie, because what happy ending does not finish with a wedding?

But these are minor quibbles. As a fairy tale, Silas Marner excels. There are good people done wrong, and bad people who come right in the end. There is a happy - or mostly happy - ending for everyone who deserves it, and a few that don't. But more than that, there is the construction of a wholly sympathetic man, and that is Silas Marner himself. Eliot does not stray down an easy route with him - when he becomes a miser, there is sadness, not avarice, in our minds as we sympathise.

This novel is considered minor Eliot; it is not hard to fault that estimation. Middlemarch is a towering literary achievement, whereas Silas Marner is merely a single flower in a garden of like experiments with words. But what flower does not deserve to be smelled, at least once?

Silas Marner.......2006-11-08

A great book that shows how no matter what people still change given the right situations.

The Mill on the Floss (Penguin Classics)

Average customer rating:

Eliot is superb as always! I would give this 10 stars if I could
not Dickens, but as good as Dickens
unequivocally a great company in times of perplexity
Nature repairs her ravages
George Eliot's most autobiographical novel is a literary masterpiece

The Mill on the Floss (Penguin Classics)
George Eliot
Manufacturer: Penguin Classics
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Classics | General | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books

Literary | General | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books

All 4-for-3 Deals | 4-for-3 Books Store | Stores | Books
Similar Items:

ASIN: 0141439629
Release Date: 2003-04-29

Book Description

New chronology and updated further reading.

Edited with an Introduction by A. S. Byatt.

Customer Reviews:

Eliot is superb as always! I would give this 10 stars if I could.......2007-10-02

This is Eliot's semi autobiographical novel, and tells the story of Maggie Tulliver and her brother Tom. The story takes place in the village of St. Ogg, and at the Mill on The Floss that's been in the Tulliver family for generations. Other reviewers have told enough of the story (in some instances too much) that I don't see the need to go into it again. I thoroughly enjoyed the way Eliot depicted the sibling relationship between Maggie and Tom with all of those ups and downs that we all have experienced with our siblings, and culminating in the final finish of the story that thoroughly blew me away. I think I just sat for a good ten minutes just saying Oh Wow over and over again, and then felt the need to seek out my brothers and give them both a big hug.

The joy of reading this novel or any other by Eliot is her gorgeous prose and brilliant characterizations, even with the minor characters. Just be warned, this is not an action packed, sit on the edge of your seat, can't put it down until it's finished type of novel. This is a story to savor and enjoy the multi-faceted characters and the author's glorious prose like a fine red wine or a box of chocolates (or both). If you are looking for high action and adventure, this is not the book for you. Highly recommended for any lover of 19th century English literature, not as dark and brooding as Hardy can be, but the prose is just as lovely, if not better.

not Dickens, but as good as Dickens.......2007-09-29

Never read George Eliot? If you like Dickens or Wilky Collins, you need to read George. (she's a woman).

unequivocally a great company in times of perplexity.......2007-04-02

George Eliot with her keen observation of human attribute, had written another novel about man's struggle with ephemeral follies and victorious governance of emotion towards what is right.

This story preludes with sibling fondness of Tom and Maggie Tulliver with each other marred by the former's occassional bullyness and the latter's childish peevishness. As manifested on the personality of the brother and sister, Tom's perusal of Latin in boarding school where Philip Wakem also attends and excells fuels his repugnance towards the deformed Philip. During her visits to Tom, Maggie meets Philip whose intellectual interest matches hers and instantly initiates friendship with the physically deformed lad.

To Maggie however, the feud between the Tullivers and Wakem clan doesn't put a damper on her clandestine meetings with Philip in the mill. Until she meets her cousin's lover Stephen Guest. Torn between Philip's undying love and Stephen's fleeting adoration, she finally succumbs to rendezvou with the young and handsome coxcomb.

It is not unusual for a woman of caliber to make indelible mistakes and for a learned man to let his boorishness seeps out of the cracks of his soul. Nonetheless, a woman of higher intellect on command can disengage liquid glue that travels short distance from her brain to mend a broken heart.

The novel ends with poetic justice. For relationships cultivated out of soil of deceit will bear sweet but poisonous fruit; and the toxic seeds will proliferate to feed the mouth hungry for misery.

Nature repairs her ravages.......2007-03-05

The merits of the novel deserve a more worthy arena to be debated and highlighted. It is specifically with the Penguin Classics Edition in mind that I write this review. A.S. Byatt offers an introduction that well-becomes the subject and the now absolutely essential appendix "The Placing of Stephen Guest". Anyone who has read the book or plans to do so in the near future, must read the said appendix for it proves to be of incredible and indelible insight into the awkward presence of Maggie's lover Stephen Guest.

George Eliot's most autobiographical novel is a literary masterpiece.......2006-06-23

George Eliot (1821-1880) is one of the great literary artists in the Victorian (or any!) era. In this novel she tells the tragic tale of Maggie and Tom Tulliver growing up on the Floss
River in the small village of St. Ogg's in Lincolnshire. Maggie and Tom have a complicated relationship which ends in tragedy.
Tom is non-intellectual, something of a bully and a braggart; he
is also loyal to his family assisting his father and looking out for what he thinks is best for his kid
sister Maggie.
Maggie is similar to George Eliot. She is plain, highly intellectual, a bookworm and a romantic who is courted by the
suave Stephen Guest and the physically frail Phillip Wakem. As in Romeo and Juliet the lovers are separated by a hatred between Maggie's father and the wealthy Mr. Waken who owns the Mill.
While I think Middlemarch is her greatest novel this one, in my opinion, is a close second! It is warmer in tone filled with
scenes of rural life in mid nineteenth century England. Some
readers will become irritated with her use of dialogue but I had
no trouble following the story.
Eliot is great in using the rich symbolism of the river as she weaves this classic story which will be perused as long as their are English readers to savor her poetical prose tale of provinical life. They don't write them like this anymore!
Don't miss this classic!

Average customer rating:

A union of man and woman is most likely to last if they cherish the same virtues and despise the same evil.
Fantastic Example of Fine Victorian Literature
WOW!
A Positive View of Judaism by one of the Victorian era's greatest authors
The last of one of the best- Courageous moral Literature

Daniel Deronda (Penguin Classics)
George Eliot , and Terence Cave
Manufacturer: Penguin Classics
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Classics | General | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books

British | Short Stories | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books

Look Inside Fiction Books | Trip | Specialty Stores | Books

All 4-for-3 Deals | 4-for-3 Books Store | Stores | Books
Similar Items:

ASIN: 0140434275

Book Description

George Eliot’s final novel and her most ambitious work, Daniel Deronda contrasts the moral laxity of the British aristocracy with the dedicated fervor of Jewish nationalists. Crushed by a loveless marriage to the cruel and arrogant Grandcourt, Gwendolen Harleth seeks salvation in the deeply spiritual and altruistic Daniel Deronda. But Deronda, profoundly affected by the discovery of his Jewish ancestry, is ultimately too committed to his own cultural awakening to save Gwendolen from despair.

This Modern Library Paperback Classic is set from the 1878 Cabinet Edition.

Customer Reviews:

A union of man and woman is most likely to last if they cherish the same virtues and despise the same evil........2007-08-05

Imagine a crowd of men and women of various age, stature, and alibi assemble in a place where you the spectator are going to infer an observation as to their true sentiment. This task is difficult in a train packed with commuters, but easy in a casino where gamblers share one and only desire; to extract gain from someone's loss. This is where the two main characters of George Eliot's final novel "Daniel Deronda" first catch a glimpse of each other.

Gwendolen Harleth, young and vivacious, full of beauty but low on luck in a game of roulette resorts to gambling in order to help her destitute mother. With the last whirl of the disk comes the hope of big win amongst the sybarites vying for bestowal from the mindless wheel. The sight of the ill-fated creature bewitches Daniel. For is it not true that attraction is at its superb when mixed with sympathy?

In this classic, George Eliot creates an exemplar in the character of Daniel Deronda, a fine English man with chiseled look. His magnanimity is put to the test with the introduction of Mirah Lapidoth, a poor Jewish woman whose striking beauty emanates from the person who wishes to see it. Her magnificent feature is like the underwater world visible only to the diver.

Oh, if only our heart came in two like most parts of our body; so that we continue to live if we lose one. While our brain chooses as many objects to fill its contentment, our heart chooses singularly when it comes to truest love. Moreover, why is it when we lose this true love our head which houses our big brain does not hurt yet our heart feels inexplicable pain, what a power this organ as small as our fist has on our being.

Like Daniel, we face ultimate decision, which puts our susceptibility in check. Nevertheless, most of us are not as steadfast as he is. We continue to err because our values change with whoever we are with now akin to chameleon in search of prey and acceptance.

Fantastic Example of Fine Victorian Literature.......2006-10-07

I read this book as part of a graduate class on the "study of the novel" and was absolutely blown away by it. This was my first attempt at George Eliot and though I had been wanting to read her for some time, the sheer girth of most of her works prevented me from adding them to my "leisure reading" list.
The character of Gwendolen Harleth is strong and commanding, Henleigh Grandcourt is perhaps one of the best villains ever written into literature, and Daniel Deronda is unequivocally the most inherently flawless character ever created who does not bore the reader with his goodness.
This is a big book to be sure, but it reads fast and there is much said about the appearances and prejudices of Victorian society. There are many recurring themes and parallels to be on the lookout for. This is an intensely "smart" read, and for that reason it is one of my favorite Victorian novels ever---next to Dickens' "Dombey and Son" and "David Copperfield," that is.
I look forward to reading more of Eliot's work in the future. She was a brilliant writer and observer.

WOW!.......2006-09-27

OHMYGOD- this book rocks! Quit work for a week and dive in- Every sentence will enrich your soul- She's THAT amazing.

A Positive View of Judaism by one of the Victorian era's greatest authors.......2006-07-05

Daniel Deronda was the final novel authored by George Eliot
(1819-1881) whose real name was Mary Ann Evans. In this novel
Eliot tells the story of two intriguing fictional characters:
Gwendolyn Harleth-egocentric, spoiled and rich husband hunting
young lady noted for her beauty, wit and charm. Her marriage to
the older aristocrat Grandcourt proves disastrous. Gwendolyn
emerges at the end of this 800 page three-decker as a more
mature person eager to live and grow.
Daniel Deronda is a young man raised as an English Protestant
who has a mysterious past. During the novel he learns of his
Jewish blood; becomes a good friend of Mordecai the prophetic
voice of the Jewish hope for a homeland in the Middle East.
Daniel falls in love with Mordecai's singing sister Mirah.
The novel is slow moving. Today it would have undergone editing
to reduce its numerous pages. It is a work which is sympathetic
to the beginnings of Zionism and has a postive view of the Jews.
All of this in a nineteenth century society which was very Anti-
Semitic.
George Eliot is more interested in the human mind and its many
labyrinthal peregrinations from youth to maturity. She is a forerunner of writers like Henry James who explores what underlies the surface behavior of fictional characters.
Eliot did not have the widescope of Dickens nor the practical relation of cold facts as did Trollope. She did have a massive intellect who told serious stories for thinking adults.
She is one of my favorite writers who is well worth knowing.

The last of one of the best- Courageous moral Literature .......2005-11-01

In her final novel George Elliot courageously tells the story of a young man , Daniel Deronda who raised in an assimilated family goes on to discover his Jewishness, and make it the center of his life. Eliot is a master portrayer and analyer of the moods of human character. As he is befriended by the hero Gwendollyn who is suffering in her unhappy marriage, he develops in exploring his Jewishness, and eventually comes to 'marry the girl ,'Mirah"and go on to make a life for himself.

Average customer rating:

Birds of Arizona
Allan Phillips , Joe Marshall , and Gale Monson
Manufacturer: Univ of Arizona Pr
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

Birds | Field Guides | Outdoors & Nature | Subjects | Books

General | Birdwatching | Outdoors & Nature | Subjects | Books
ASIN: 0816500126

Average customer rating:

A love story as sophisticated as the author
Unqualified
Wonderful Storytelling
Adam is Good: Hetty Is A Flirt: They Have No Choice
The Worst of the Best

Adam Bede (Penguin Classics)
George Eliot , and Stephen Gill
Manufacturer: Penguin Classics
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Classics | General | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books

Contemporary | General | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books

Look Inside Fiction Books | Trip | Specialty Stores | Books

All 4-for-3 Deals | 4-for-3 Books Store | Stores | Books
Similar Items:

ASIN: 0140431217

Book Description

A Phoenix Recording

In the novel that Alexandre Dumas called "the masterpiece of the century," three unworldly people find themselves trapped by unwise love in the English midlands of the early 1800s.

Adam Bede, a simple carpenter, loves too blindly; Hetty Sorrel, a coquettish beauty, too recklessly; Arthur Donnithorne, a dashing squire, too carelessly. Their innocence, vanity and imprudence lead them into a triangle of seduction, murder and retribution.

"Eliot's growing number of fans will feast on her first full-length novel, which probes the uncommon heroics of commonplace people." (B-O-T Editorial Review Board)

Download Description

George Eliot takes the well-worn tale of a lovely dairy-maid seduced by a careless squire, and out if it creates a portrait of the lives of ordinary Midlands working people -- their labors and loves, their beliefs, their speech.

Customer Reviews:

A love story as sophisticated as the author.......2007-01-10

Anybody who had fallen deeply in love would be touched by the character of Adam Bede. George Eliot's fecund words are reminiscence of a first kiss .... unforgettable.

Unqualified.......2007-01-07

As the title indicates, I feel quite unqualified to review the writings of George Eliot. But I did like the edition that Penguin classics puts out. It's sturdy, held up well being hauled around (never go anywhere without a book). I thought the explanatory notes at the end were quite thorough, and I enjoyed the editor's introduction.

Wonderful Storytelling.......2006-12-09

This is the first book that I have read by George Eliot. I have serveral others of hers but I alway seemed to have another book I wanted to read. In fact, I started Adam Bede once and was about 150 pages into and put it down. After 6 months or so, I decided to pick it back up and I am glad that I did.

This is a wonderful story about a person who is true to himself and to those around him. This is also a story about how the actions of a person affect more than that person and those immediately involved.

The only problem I had with the story (and thus the 4 stars) was the dialect of the language used in the book. It is difficult to get used to the dialect and it is difficult to know what the character is trying to say. However, after the first 200 pages, I did get the hang of it but it was difficult going at first. In fact, it was because of that difficulty that I put the book down before.

I was glad to have read this book. It does have a shocking part to it though it is subtle at first. What really helped me was to read several chapters and then go the the sparknotes and read them to make sure I had not missed anything which was a big help in fully understanding the story. I would recommend that if you read this book, read the sparknotes after every 4 or 5 chapters.

I would also recommend this book to anyone that likes Thomas Hardy and espcially his "Far from the Madding Crowd." I loved "Madding Crowd" and this book reminded me of it.

I truly recommend this book to anyone that likes English Classic Literature. Once you get the hang of the dialect you will like this story. If you read this one and have not read Thomas Hardy's "Madding Crowd" I would recommend that you read that one as well.

Adam is Good: Hetty Is A Flirt: They Have No Choice.......2006-08-22

When George Eliot published her first novel ADAM BEDE in 1859, unknown to her reading public, she had just ushered in a new era of the English novel. Beginning with this novel, Eliot infused her novels with an overwhelming sense of determinism, a then popular philosophy that suggested that man's voyage through life, that when set by nature, society, or even by himself, was etched in stone. If literary characters were to pursue a course of action that was taken willingly, then that character had to live with the consequences, however unpleasant. The primary characters of the book, Adam himself, Arthur Donnithorne, and Hetty Sorrel, are seen as limited in their ability to avoid the ramifications of their actions.

Adam Bede is portrayed as the quintessential man of good. Indeed one of the problems that modern readers have with him is that in his goodness, he is essentially a flat character, whose goodness towards others and anger towards Donnithorne, all stem from that same well of virtue. Adam falls in love with the flighty and flirty Hetty Sorrel, and is prepared to marry her, until he catches her passionately embracing his childhood friend, the aristocratic Donnithorne. The two men fight, the consequences of which set in motion a sequence of events that do not allow for mitigation of circumstance. In Hetty Sorrel, Eliot has created a woman whom she seems to judge overly harshly. Hetty truly is a flirt, and a passionate one at that, but to subject her to a non-stop series of painful retributions merely because of Hetty's willingness to sleep with the object of her youthful dreams, Donnithorne, suggests that Eliot began the book with a deck stacked partially against Adam but totally against her. And then there is Donnithorne, one who is supposed to be the villain, yet he is far less the villain as Eliot tries mightily to portray him just as Adam is far less the understanding hero as Eliot tries just as mightily to depict him. As Adam and Donnithorne battle each other for possession of the fickle Hetty, the lovely preacher Dinah Morris has been patiently waiting for Adam to come to his senses and forget his infatuation with Hetty and recognize the virtuous treasure that Eliot wants the reader to see.

Readers today show a marked lack of patience with Eliot's frequent narrative intrusions. Editors call such intrusions the use of omniscient narrator, a style of writing popular in Eliot's day but passé today. Yet, there are many readers who enjoy the panoramic vistas and linguistic idiosyncrasies that Eliot draws of a countryside that even in her day was fixed in the roots of an earlier 18th century cultural milieu. For those who do not mind Eliot's sometimes all too frequent helpful and sometimes unwanted comments, ADAM BEDE can be a welcome read in that it is a living reminder of how people may not escape the consequences of their actions, no matter how hard they try.

The Worst of the Best.......2005-12-19

I love Marion Evans and expect others would enjoy her very much too. I'm writing this review to make sure that, if Adam Bede is your first experience with her, you not judge her by it and, if there is anything you find you like in it, that you go on and read more by her... Silas Marner, Middlemarch, essays, etc.

Adam Bede is, if I recall correctly, one of her earliest (if not first) extended works... the rest only get better. It is the only one that I would give less than five stars. There's really only one thing that mars it.

But first, what's good about it? Well, there's her deeply probing, psychological characterizations that leave all of her characters fully understood by the reader. We may love, admire, sympathize with, hope for, dislike, or disapprove of them. But we always understand them. Even the most minor characters or bit parts get well-developed. She puts more into a characterization of dogs than some writers do of humans... and it's clear that she loves them both very much!

Then there's her beautifully dense english: within a single sentence she can present a thesis, antithesis, and synthesis. She has the most charitable way of using irony I've ever encountered. Also, she was very much to British vernacular what Mark Twain was to American vernacular. This is especially marked in Adam Bede and may lead some people to shy away from it.

Also, she takes on the big issues of her day... political and religious change, the position of women and the otherwise disenfranchised, etc... in a way and to an extent that no one else in her day was doing. It's somewhat stealthy at times, being cloaked in the lives of the individuals who are affected by the issues. Not infrequently her own views come, comically, from the mouths of those who must otherwise be taken to least likely represent them... very sly. An example from Middlemarch flows from the nontraditional Dorothea's very traditional sister: "Oh, women are better than men at most everything [Dorothea smiling in response and her sister catching herself]... excepting of course the things they're not I mean!". I think her writing definitely stands the test of time.

Now what's bad? One thing only... Adam Bede has one radical plot twist that's either physiologically impossible or relies on the unbelievable ignorance of most of the characters. I can only imagine that the twist was less perverse to the Victorian reader's sensibility but it left me cold near the end of an otherwise warm, engaging, moving work by a great writer.

The Mill on the Floss: Authoritative Text, Backgrounds, Criticism (Norton Critical Editions)

Average customer rating:

The Mill on the Floss: Authoritative Text, Backgrounds, Criticism (Norton Critical Editions)
George Eliot
Manufacturer: W. W. Norton & Company
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Classics | General | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books

Look Inside Fiction Books | Trip | Specialty Stores | Books

All Titles | Qualifying Textbooks - Fall 2007 | Stores | Books

Literature & Fiction | Qualifying Textbooks - Fall 2007 | Stores | Books
Similar Items:

ASIN: 0393963322

Middlemarch (Everyman's Library Classics)

Average customer rating:

Middlemarch (Everyman's Library Classics)
George Eliot
Manufacturer: Everyman's Library
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

ASIN: 1857150066

A Reader's Guide to T.S. Eliot: A Poem-By-Poem Analysis (Reader's Guides)

Average customer rating:

Nothing wrong with the way this book was written
Cull your highschool essays from here..

A Reader's Guide to T.S. Eliot: A Poem-By-Poem Analysis (Reader's Guides)
George Williamson
Manufacturer: Syracuse University Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Criticism | Poetry | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books

Look Inside Fiction Books | Trip | Specialty Stores | Books
Similar Items:

ASIN: 0815605005

Customer Reviews:

Nothing wrong with the way this book was written.......2005-12-26

"No one has examined the poems more sensitively or set down his results more lucidly. His analyses of 'The Waste Land' and of many other poems are the most complete, reliable, and forthright yet written; they are the product of a deep and long knowledge of Eliot's work."

--Richard Ellman

Cull your highschool essays from here.........2003-03-04

I've not been well pleased by this book. Though some of its insights are valuable, and though it is somewhat well researched and fairly comprehensive, it's a chore to read. The author has a style that borders on the incomprehensible -- one feels that he is one of these people who uses tortuous turns of phrase in the mistaken belief that they'll make him seem sophisticated. As a result, the text is disjointed and difficult, its arguments meandering and ill-defined. Williamson has some good ideas, and probably knows what he means, but doesn't get his points across clearly -- it's almost as though he's trying to emulate Eliot's style (or to merely restate the poetry as prose) and, frankly, one often feels as though Williamson has ideas above his station.

In short, this has all of the hallmarks of high school essay-writing -- perhaps the author has spent too long in the company of his students. Using 'difficult' language is neither big nor clever if it serves only to obfuscate meaning; here, the wealth of double-negatives, run-on sentences and unexplained, bewildering conjecture is simply not helpful to the reader of an already difficult poet. If the reader works at it, he or she will gleam some benefit from this book - but there are far better, and better written, works out there. If in doubt, take a look at the excerpts on this site -- it may be that the rather purple prose will appeal to some readers; but I regret that where I had hoped for intelligent discourse, I instead found awkwardly adolescent writing that thought itself more clever than it actually was.

Average customer rating:

Great book, great reading

Caution: This is only HALF of Middlemarch.

Middlemarch Audiobook CD

Middlemarch: Part 1 & Part 2
George Eliot
Manufacturer: Tantor Media
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Audio CD

Eliot, George | Classics | British | World Literature | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books
Classics | General | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books
Eliot, George | ( E ) | Authors, A-Z | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books
General | Classics | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books
General | Literature & Fiction | Books on CD | Audiobooks | Formats | Books
Classics | Literature & Fiction | Books on CD | Audiobooks | Formats | Books
Unabridged | Literature & Fiction | Books on CD | Audiobooks | Formats | Books
Look Inside Fiction Books | Trip | Specialty Stores | Books
Similar Items:

Nicholas Nickleby

Adam Bede (Unabridged Classics)

Middlemarch (Signet Classics)

Bleak House

Persuasion (Complete Classics)

ASIN: 1400102162

Book Description

Complex social interrelationships, and the struggles to hold fast to personal integrity in a materialistic and mean spirited age in England during the 1830s, are the focus of this novel.

Customer Reviews:

Great book, great reading.......2007-01-09

I really enjoyed this performance of my favorite book of all time. I'm mostly writing a review because I think the star rating is excessively low and would like to tip the balance a little higher to say that it is worth listening to this audiobook. Also, there is a great article in the new york times by Verlyn Klinkenborg about listening to Middlemarch while driving across the united states. I like that there are places that I associate with moments in this book, having melded two sensory experiences into one sensation. Give it a whirl!

Also, please consider that the verynegative reviews of this product are more personal disappointments than fair critiques. It is a long book, but a rewarding one (I first heard this when I borrowed it from my local library--look for volume three there if you like--it's worth the trouble to hear the sublime end), and there is more than one way to read a book. I was surprised when I looked for maureen obrian's performance that the entire first page of google's maureen obrian middlemarch was the same review from this reviewer on different book vending sites expressing disappointment that kate reading is not maureen obrian. This performance must have been quite a disappointment, but this response doesn't seem quite fair to me. I'll check out that recording, though, because it sure sounds like it might be terrific. In case you're looking for it alongside me, her name appears to be obrien, not obrian.

Caution: This is only HALF of Middlemarch........2006-07-15

I had this for a month, looking forward to listening to it in the car, when I discovered that this is only PART 1 of Middlemarch, that there are TWO boxes, not one. Do I want to listen to only half of the book? NO! Do I want to pay $90 to listen to the whole thing? No! So what do I do?

Middlemarch Audiobook CD.......2006-07-11

If you were nurtured on the original cassette recording read by Maureen O'Brian, do not expect the same quality of presentation on this recording. Maureen O'Brian was no doubt an actress par excellence and her presentation was lively and enthusiastic. She captured the different characters with such an artistry that this recent recording by Kate Reading falls flat beside it.

Books:

Books Index

Books Home

Recommended Books