Reader: Mr. Savchuk

Readers who have taken the challenge . . . .

Mrs. Strombeck
Alexis B.

Available: I can be contacted in my classroom between 7:40 and 8:00; between 11:05 and 11:30 (4A); and between 3:10 and 3:30. (Note that during the third nine weeks that I have after school duty.)

Why I like this book:

I selected this novel because it is the penultimate Victorian novel. The cast of characters is huge and the reader sees all of Victorian Era life laid down down as a great pageant of the human condition. One sees the pomp and circumstance that marks this period of history and English life; one sees the folly and humbug as well. The Victorian age was one of reform and progress; a great time for the idealist to live. But corruption, poverty, and ignorance also prove to be the very sword that the idealist falls upon. Multiple plots provide an avenue for the reader to experience ambitions thwarted, love unrequited, and egos dashed. All the stuff of life and "a true study of provincial life". The author, George Eliot (Mary Ann Evans Cross), like Jane Austin are two of block-buster novelists of the Nineteenth Century whose works have become solid classics. Eliot's other titles include Adam Bede, The Mill on the Floss, and Silas Marner. This novel was originally adopted as selected reading for Honors English 12 curriculum.

Summary:

This panoramic work--considered the finest novel in English by many critics--offers a complex look at English provincial life at a crucial historical moment, and, at the same time, dramatizes and explores some of the most potent myths of Victorian literature. The text of this edition comes from the Clarendon Middlemarch, the first critical edition of the novel.
(retrieved from Amazon Fri, 24 Apr 2009 07:58:10 -0400)

Source: librarything.com