Writing at the very moment when the foundations of Western thought were being challenged and undermined, George Eliot fashions in Middlemarch (1871-2) the quintessential Victorian novel, a concept of life and society free from the dogma of the past yet able to confront the scepticism that was taking over the age. In a panoramic sweep of English life during thr years leading up to the First Reform Bill of 1832, Eliot explores nearly every subject of concern to modern life: art, religion, science, politics, self, society, human relationships. Among her characters are some of the most remarkable portraits in English literature: Dorothea Brooke, the heroine, idealistic but näive; Rosamond Vincy, beautiful and egoistic: Edward Casaubon, the dry-as-dust scholar: Tertius Lydgate, the brilliant but morally-flawed physician: the passionate artist Will Ladislaw: and Fred Vincey and Mary Garth, childhood sweethearts whose charming courtship is one of the many humorous elements in the novel's rich comic vein. Felicia Bonaparte has provided a new Introduction for this updated edition, the text of which is taken from David Carroll's Clarendon Middlemarch (1986), the first critical edition.
Writing at the very moment when the foundations of Western thought were being challenged and undermined, George Eliot fashions in Middlemarch a concept of life and society free of the past's dogma yet able to confront the scepticism that was taking over the age. Felicia Bonaparte has provided a new Introduction for this updated edition, the text of which is taken from David Carroll's Clarendon Middlemarch (1986), the first critical edition.
Writing at the very moment when the foundations of Western thought were being challenged and undermined, George Eliot fashions in Middlemarch a concept of life and society free of the past's dogma yet able to confront the scepticism that was taking over the age. Felicia Bonaparte has provided a new Introduction for this updated edition, the text of which is taken from David Carroll's Clarendon Middlemarch (1986), the first critical edition.
WARUM JETZT DAS?
Weil es dieser Tage 200 Jahre her ist, dass George Eliot zur Welt kam. Die Autorin, die eigentlich Mary Ann Evans hieß, war als junge Frau tief religiös, später Atheistin, lebte lange unverheiratet mit einem jüngeren Mann zusammen und genoss als Schriftstellerin und Denkerin trotzdem großes Ansehen in der viktorianischen Gesellschaft. Schon das ist interessant.
UND "MIDDLEMARCH" ERST RECHT?
So ist es. Eine Kleinstadt um 1830, kurz vor sozialen und voller privater Umbrüche. Satire, Realismus, Zartheit, Humor, alles drin, von Glück bis Unglück, halb Jane Austen, halb Tolstoi. Virginia Woolf nannte das Buch den einzigen englischen Roman für Erwachsene. Ein Muss. (balk.)
George Eliot, "Middlemarch", Rowohlt Verlag, Hamburg 2019, 1264 S., geb., 40 Euro.
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