George Eliot's Middlemarch Study Guide

All you need to know about George Eliot's Middlemarch is in this advanced guide to the text. Connell Guides are advanced guide books that offer sophisticated analysis and broad critical perspectives for higher-level GCSE and A Level English Literature students. Written by leading academics, Connell Guides are clear, concise and beautifully designed to help students understand, and enjoy, great works of literature. They are perfect for coursework, revision and exam preparation. Connell Guides are also great reads themselves scholarly, yet approachable and entertaining.

If we do not have a God, observed the 20th-century novelist Stanley Middleton, at least we have Middlemarch. From the moment of its first publication in 1872, George Eliot's vivid, compassionate tale of the struggles and failures of provincial life has been recognised as one of the greatest novels ever written. In this short, elegant and informative guide, Josie Billington - who has spent years studying and teaching George Eliot - shows why Middlemarch is such an extraordinary achievement and why it is so special even for those who feel saddened by it. Essential reading for students of the 19th-century novel, this concise, entertaining guide would alse be invaluable to anyone with an interest in English literature.