35 h 59 minAudiobook16 minSummaryRead it, hear it, the 15-minute summary, and print and large print at costPaperback · 6 × 9 in · printing soonHardcover · 6 × 9 in · printing soonAbout this book
What if your deepest wish to do good has nowhere to go?
Dorothea Brooke has wealth, serious ideas and a hunger for purpose. Yet her world gives her few ways to use her gifts. In George Eliot's Middlemarch, she places her hopes in the scholar Edward Casaubon, while a whole Midlands town watches, judges and pursues ambitions of its own.
Tertius Lydgate arrives with bold plans to improve medicine. Fred Vincy counts on money he has not earned. Around them, marriage, debt, rank and reputation bind households together. Each choice reaches beyond the person who makes it. Eliot's wise, funny narrator explores the distance between a grand hope and the daily work of living.
What you’ll discover
- A hunger for purpose Follow Dorothea's longing to turn her gifts into something useful beyond herself.
- Ambition under pressure See Lydgate's passion for medical discovery meet the demands of money and marriage.
- Marriage beyond the dream Explore what happens when people expect a shared life to fulfil different hopes.
- A town woven together Move among landowners, doctors, bankers and clerks, where private choices shape other lives.
- Wisdom with warmth Enjoy a narrator whose humour and fairness invite you to look beyond first judgments.
Who will love it
For readers who love novels about people's inner lives, marriage, vocation and moral choice, and anyone drawn to a community where money, ambition and sympathy shape intertwined lives.
What’s inside
The key ideas, in the 15-minute summary
- A young woman longs for a purpose
- Marriage is chosen on a dream
- A town of many small worlds
- A doctor arrives with a bold plan
- Dorothea meets the limits of her marriage
- Debt, hope and the cost of a promise
- Rosamond and Lydgate at home
- Reform, gossip and public life
- What the story is really about
- How Eliot tells her story
Who’s who
- Dorothea BrookeA rich, earnest young woman who longs to put her energy and faith to good use, and who trusts too quickly in a scholar's worth.
- Edward CasaubonA middle-aged clergyman and scholar, anxious about his unfinished life's work, who marries Dorothea and cannot bring himself to share it with her.
- Tertius LydgateA gifted young doctor with new medical ideas who comes to town hoping to make a discovery, and who is proud and blind to his own flaws.
- Rosamond VincyThe prettiest and most accomplished girl in Middlemarch, who expects a refined life and a rise in rank through marriage.
- Fred VincyRosamond's easygoing brother, charming and in debt, who counts on an inheritance and must learn to work for what he wants.
- Mary GarthA plain, quick-witted and honest young woman who loves Fred but will not marry a man who drifts without purpose.
- Will LadislawCasaubon's young cousin, lively, artistic and without direction, who becomes a friend to Dorothea and searches for a worthy path.
- Nicholas BulstrodeThe town's powerful banker, a stern and outwardly pious man who backs the new hospital and holds influence over many lives.
Formats and delivery
- eBook
- On your phone, tablet, computer or Kindle, with the type as large as you like.
- Large-print eBook
- The same book in bigger, clearer type, from the first page.
- Audiobook
- 35 h 59 min, complete, read by Lucas Linden.
- 15-minute summary
- The key ideas in about 16 minutes, to read or to hear.
- Paperback
- 6 × 9 in. Printing soon: leave your email under Paperback or Hardcover above.
- Hardcover
- 6 × 9 in. Printing soon: leave your email under Paperback or Hardcover above.
- Large print paperback
- 8.5 × 11 in. Printing soon: leave your email under Paperback or Hardcover above.
- Large print hardcover
- 8.5 × 11 in. Printing soon: leave your email under Paperback or Hardcover above.
eBooks and audiobooks open right away. Download EPUB or PDF, or send the book to your Kindle. Every printed copy is made when you order it and shipped worldwide; shipping is shown at checkout.
How it works
- Start free. Nothing to pay today; the eBook of this book is yours to keep.
- Read, listen and print. 200,000+ classics as eBook, large-print eBook, audiobook and 15-minute summary, and any book printed at cost as a paperback, hardcover or large print, 5 accounts for the price of one.
- We remind you first. Free for 3 months, and we email you 7 days before your first payment. Then 0,14 USD a day in your first year on the yearly plan and 0,27 USD a day after, or 0,66 USD a day on the monthly plan. Cancel online in two clicks.
Bought on its own? Every eBook, audiobook and printed book you buy without the plan carries our 30-day money-back guarantee.
25 languages, side by side
Read and hear Middlemarch in 25 languages and switch at any time. Or read two side by side, paragraph by paragraph: the way to learn a language with a book you love.
Middlemarch
by George Eliot · 1871
Dorothea Brooke seeks a worthy purpose in a town where marriage, money and ambition shape every choice.
ChallengingOver 20 hours to read25 languages
Excellent
- Read or listen
- 25 languages, side by side
- Print and large print at cost
- 5 accounts for the price of one
Free for 3 months · starts right away, on any device
Read free3 months free · cancel anytimeFree for 3 months, then 0,14 USD a dayCancel anytimeHow it works
From the 15-minute summary · Key idea 1
A young woman longs for a purpose
The novel opens with Dorothea Brooke, who lives with her younger sister Celia at Tipton Grange, the house of their uncle, Mr Brooke. Dorothea is beautiful in a plain, serious way, and she dresses simply because she cares more about ideas than about fashion. She is orphaned, well off and full of religious feeling. What she wants most is to do something useful with her life, but the world around her has no clear place for a woman with such wishes.
Celia is the opposite in temperament. She is sensible, light of heart and fond of jewels, and she sees her sister's enthusiasm with affectionate doubt. Their small quarrels over their mother's jewels show the difference at once. Dorothea wants to give up pleasures, while Celia sees no harm in them. Eliot lets both views stand, and she never mocks either sister.
Free for 3 months · Cancel anytime
Free gifts
580 USD in free gifts when you start
Every book in every format and in 25 languages, 5 accounts for the price of one. Nothing to pay today.
- 200,000+ classic eBooksIn 25 languages, side by side
170 USDFREE - Every audiobookIn 25 languages, any device
120 USDFREE - 15-minute summariesRead or listen, in 25 languages
60 USDFREE - Print at cost, no markupPaperback, hardcover, large print
60 USDFREE - 5 accounts for the price of oneA shelf for everyone at home
170 USDFREE - A part in rebuilding the libraryNew languages and books for all
FREE
Questions about Middlemarch
Can I read it free?
Yes. The first key idea of the 15-minute summary is free with no sign-up. Start free and the whole book is yours for 3 months, with the eBook to keep, plus 200,000+ more classics and any book printed at cost as a paperback, hardcover or large print. Nothing to pay today: we email you 7 days before your first payment, and you can cancel online in two clicks.
Can I buy the printed book?
Soon. The paperback, hardcover and large print editions are being prepared. Choose Paperback or Hardcover above, leave your email, and we tell you the day you can order it, printed at cost.
How many accounts do I get?
Five, for the price of one: you and 4 more people, each with their own login, shelf and their own place in every book.
Can I cancel anytime?
Yes. Cancel online in two clicks at any time and nothing more is charged. Nothing is charged in your first 3 months, and we email you 7 days before your first payment.
What is Middlemarch about?
It follows several households in a provincial English town around 1830. The main threads are Dorothea Brooke's wish to do good, Doctor Lydgate's scientific hopes, and the love and money troubles of the Vincy and Garth families.
Who is George Eliot?
George Eliot is the pen name of Mary Ann Evans, who died in 1880. She used a man's name partly so that her fiction would be judged seriously, and she is among the leading English novelists of the Victorian period.
When was Middlemarch written and is it a true story?
It was published in eight parts in 1871 and 1872. The story is fiction, though Eliot set it in a carefully drawn real period, the years just before the 1832 Reform Bill, and the town is invented.
The author
George Eliot
1819–1880 · English novelist
George Eliot was the pen name of Mary Ann Evans, an English novelist, essayist, poet and journalist. She was born in Warwickshire in 1819 and later lived in London, where she died in 1880. Her novels include Adam Bede (1859), The Mill on the Floss (1860) and Middlemarch (1871–1872).
More like this
Free
Our mission
The library burned once. We are building it back.
Every great book, in every language and every format, for every family. Every plan helps pay for new languages, new audiobooks and books for readers who have never had them. Join the movement.
Read our story- Every language25 languages today, side by side, and more every year
- No wastePrinted on demand: no warehouses, no unsold stock, no pulped copies
- For everyonePaperback, hardcover and large print at the cost of printing
Popular in classics
See all
Free
Free
Free
