With its enormous cast of characters and sprawling plot, George Eliot (the pen name for Mary Ann Evans) began to publish Middlemarch in 1871 as a serial and established her place among the great writers of all time. With three interwoven storylines addressing serious topics like education and political reform within the confines of the title English town, Eliot created a world that was at once specific and universal, describing the goings-on and important day-to-day details of provincial life in the Victorian period to which, thanks to her masterful characterizations, even modern readers in small towns can find an affinity.



This edition includes 10 illustrations.