19 July 1869: George Eliot commences work on Middlemarch

Early in 1869, George Eliot decided to write a novel about a provincial town called Middlemarch. This was an idea she had been considering for a long time. She knew that the plot would revolve around a doctor, Lydgate, and would include the residents of his town. She began work on 19 July 1869, but the narrative advanced slowly, and she had still only completed a few chapters by November of the following year.

But she then became inspired to begin a new novel, ‘Miss Brooke,’ a project that involved a pious young woman whom we now know as Dorothea. Noticing connections between the principal characters of each project, she merged these stories, although she worried that her book was getting too long.

Middlemarch was first published in 8 bi-monthly parts by William Blackwood & Sons, commencing with Book 1 on 1 December 1871 and completed with Book 8 in December 1872.

The novel pulls together four plot lines – that of Dorothea, Casaubon and Ladislaw, that of Lydgate and Rosamond, that of Fred Vincy and Mary Garth, and that of the Bulstrodes. In spite of the history of its composition, modern criticism praises the novel for its unity and tight organisation. It is considered her finest and most substantial book.

The action of the book takes place between 1829 and 1832, so it was an historical novel. Henry James felt that George Eliot was a fine “rural historian” and praised the book’s “vastness and variety of human life”. The book is stunning in its scale and complexity, portraying her characters’ inner lives from the aristocrat to the stable hand. Critic V.S. Pritchett has said of it: “No Victorian novel approaches Middlemarch in its width of reference, its intellectual power, or the imperturbable spaciousness of its narrative.”

Despite its composition, modern criticism praises Middlemarch for its unity and tight organisation. Middlemarch is considered Eliot’s finest and most substantial book, psychologically compelling, and superbly written.