catherine ferguson
Swallows and Amazons Titty for my childhood role model, Angeligue for my hormonally driven teens and finally Dorothea Brooke,the heroine of one of the greatest novels ever written, an intelligent woman facing the dilemma of how to find true partnership, making mistakes and surviving.I used to read it once a year.It kept me sane, kept me going in difficult times.
helen taylor
a grown up psychological novel
Claire Riggall
I find myself agreeing with all the comments above. I always carry in my handbag this quotation; it comes near the end of the book and is a moment of revelation for Dorothea: "Far off in the bending sky was the pearly light; and she felt the largeness of the world and the manifold wakings of men to labour and endurance. She was part of that involuntary, palpitating life, and she could neither look out on it from her luxurious shelter as a mere spectator, not hide her eyes in selfish complaining".
Mary Tomlinson
The greatest novel in English literature. George Eliot has a profound understanding of and compassion for the imperfect lives of her characters. The conclusion is extraordinarily uplifting for all we ordinary women with ordinary lives who will eventually be lost in time.
Sue Murdoch
I read 'Middlemarch' in my early 20's and I hope my three daughters will do so too.
There is a moral integrity, humanity and courage that shines through George Elliot's books. She was not afraid to live her life the way she felt was right.To choose this path during the era in which she lived was truly admirable. She and other women of her time questioned the framework within which they lived and their actions led to our greater choice today.
Josie Saunders
I read Middlemarch at school when I was 17 and it was the first time I realised other women not only had but probably still were struggling to find their identity. A great and fulfilling read.
Judith Lee
This book made me search for the role which would satisfy my need to be true to my intelligence while being a stay-at-home Mum, a role which was very different to that of most of my friends.
Barbara Kinnes
I first read this when I was 18 and it was not just that i identified with Dorothea;it was also the enormous range and scope of the other characters and the complete society which was portrayed so fully and realistically and without sentimentality.
Margaret Clegg
All the self -help books in the world will never equip women better for life than reading Middlemarch. That a woman who suffered such censure for the life she led and who wrote using a man's name is the author is a reminder of how great she was and how far we have come.
Sally Haden
I read this first about forty years ago - I haven't read a book since which has inspired me more about women. I always remember the metaphor Eliot used for Dorothea Brooke which was the story of Teresa of Avila as a child grasping her little brother's hand and setting out boldly into the wide world, with perfect innocence, trust and courage! But the breadth and depth of Dorothea's growth into maturity through the novel is wonderful, how such a principled and subsequently tragic life can become a triumph through the opening of the heart and a profound understanding of what it is to be human.
Elizabeth Parry
I read Middlemarch in my early twenties, and it had a profound effect on me. I was deeply moved by George Elliot's compassion, wisdom and insight into human motivation. I was and am completely in awe of her intellectual ability to put together such a complex political novel, which weaves lives of individuals within their dense social context.
I think this is the best British novel I have ever read and it will stay with me forever. It bears many re-readings.
Robin Meares
I read Middlemarch for an Open University course in my early thirties. The course itself was changing my life and I was enthralled by the language of the book as well as the story. I have never forgotten the moment of realising (rather late in life!) that women across the centuries have had similar lives and feelings and how satisfying it is to find echoes of your own experiences in literature. I must read it again!
Philippa Worth
I read this book for the first time when aged 17, and recently returned from France - where I had fallen in love with the people, the culture and the Touraine. It brought me back home: down to earth, and ... gave me an insight into the quiet desperation of ordinary lives, such as the one I would be living. I've never forgotten George Eliot's comment "the quickest of us walk about well-wadded with stupidity": it's so true! As is this novel, which is as true today as it was when it was written. It's a guide to and for life - and, not least, how not to live - and I've re-read it frequently since then (1968).
Laura Beaumont
Studied this at A Level. Probably my favourite book of all time, it has everything.
When I next have time, I'm going to read it from cover to cover again -- maybe when I've finished teacher training (in English by the way!)
Jean Trewick
recommended by my mother makes it my chosen book.
she took no time to talk of feminism but thought the book of
literary value. only over the last twenty years have I realised the insights given to us when reading the book.I am now seventy.
When in my teens I chose the 'escapism' of being Nancy Blackett in Swallows and Amazons.
My vote is for George - Middlemarch.
Marie-Helene Baneth
I was deeply touched by Dorothea Brooke. I think most young women would identify with her ambitions to change the world. Even modern women will identify with the barriers which life progressively builds around our ambitions.
Bel Mooney
This changed my life at 18 because it demonstrated, amongst so many things, the beauty of the ordinary, and that huge and vital capacity for forgiveness which is at the heart of being human - the only thing that enables us to survive.
Carol Hill
I read it when I was about 17, and I used to write quotations from it in my diary. If you want an uplifting, deeply humane and deeply moral example on how to live your life, this is it.
