“Middlemarch - A Study of Provincial Life” is an 1871 novel by English author George Eliot. Set in the fictitious Midlands town of Middlemarch, the story revolves around the lives of its inhabitants in the years leading up to the Reform Act in 1832, particularly those of Dorothea Brooke, Tertius Lydgate, Nicholas Bulstrode, and Mary Garth. The novel deals with a variety of themes and issues including marriage, religion, hypocrisy, education, political reform, and the status of women. Although published to mixed reviews, Eliot's “Middlemarch” is now widely considered to be one of the greatest novels ever written in the English language. A veritable classic of English literature without which no bookshelf is complete. Mary Ann Evans (1819–1880), more commonly known as George Eliot, was an English poet, journalist, novelist, and translator. Among the most prominent writers in Victorian England, she wrote seven novels in total, most of which are known for their realism and psychological analyses of provincial English life. Other notable works by this author include: “Adam Bede” (1859), “The Mill on the Floss” (1860), and “Daniel Deronda” (1876). Read & Co. Classics is republishing this classic novel now in a new edition complete with a specially-commissioned new biography of the author.

"Миддлмарч: Изучение жизни в провинции" – это роман английской писательницы Джордж Элиот (псевдоним Мэри Энн Эванс), впервые опубликованный в 1871-1872 годах. Это одно из самых значимых произведений викторианской литературы, отличающееся широтой охвата и глубиной психологического анализа.Действие романа разворачивается в вымышленном английском городе Миддлмарч в начале 1830-х годов, на фоне социальных и политических перемен, вызванных реформами и индустриализацией. В центре повествования – несколько сюжетных линий, переплетающихся вокруг жизни различных персонажей, среди которых выделяются Доротея Брук и Тертлиус Лидгейт.Доротея – молодая, идеалистически настроенная женщина, которая стремится к духовному и интеллектуальному развитию, но оказывается связана браком с педантичным и жестоким ученым Касобоном. Тертлиус Лидгейт – амбициозный врач, стремящийся внести вклад в медицину, но сталкивающийся с трудностями из-за своего неудачного брака и финансовых проблем. Через их истории, а также истории других жителей Миддлмарча, Элиот исследует темы брака, амбиций, общественных реформ, моральных дилемм и личных разочарований."Миддлмарч" выделяется глубоким проникновением в психологию своих героев и детальным описанием социального контекста. Роман рассматривает, как личные выборы и общественные нормы взаимодействуют и формируют судьбы людей, создавая сложную картину провинциальной жизни. Считается шедевром английской литературы и одной из самых проницательных социальных хроник своего времени.Текст романа представлен на языке оригинала без перевода и адаптации.

Many of the earliest books, particularly those dating back to the 1900s and before, are now extremely scarce and increasingly expensive. We are republishing these classic works in affordable, high quality, modern editions, using the original text and artwork.

Who that cares much to know the history of man, and how the mysterious mixture behaves under the varying experiments of Time, has not dwelt, at least briefly, on the life of Saint Theresa, has not smiled with some gentleness at the thought of the little girl walking forth one morning hand-in-hand with her still smaller brother, to go and seek martyrdom in the country of the Moors? Out they toddled from rugged Avila, wide-eyed and helpless-looking as two fawns, but with human hearts, already beating to a national idea; until domestic reality met them in the shape of uncles, and turned them back from their great resolve. That child-pilgrimage was a fit beginning. Theresa's passionate, ideal nature demanded an epic life: what were many-volumed romances of chivalry and the social conquests of a brilliant girl to her? Her flame quickly burned up that light fuel; and, fed from within, soared after some illimitable satisfaction, some object which would never justify weariness, which would reconcile self-despair with the rapturous consciousness of life beyond self. She found her epos in the reform of a religious order. That Spanish woman who lived three hundred years ago, was certainly not the last of her kind. Many Theresas have been born who found for themselves no epic life wherein there was a constant unfolding of far-resonant action; perhaps only a life of mistakes, the offspring of a certain spiritual grandeur ill-matched with the meanness of opportunity; perhaps a tragic failure which found no sacred poet and sank unwept into oblivion. With dim lights and tangled circumstance they tried to shape their thought and deed in noble agreement; but after all, to common eyes their struggles seemed mere inconsistency and formlessness; for these later-born Theresas were helped by no coherent social faith and order which could perform the function of knowledge for the ardently willing soul.