Why do we still read and savor George Eliot’s most famous novel, "Middlemarch", published serially between 1871 and 1872? Presented by Professor Deborah Nord.
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Set in a provincial town in the English Midlands, a place abuzz with debates about extending the vote and the extension of the railroad, it follows the paths of a multitude of characters whose lives intersect in dramatic ways. Foremost among these are a young woman, Dorothea Brooke, who longs for a life of meaning and achievement, and a young doctor, Tertius Lydgate, who aspires to make a contribution to scientific knowledge and modernize medical care. Both are thwarted in their ambitions, both because of the narrow visions of those around them and because of the choices they make in love. Virginia Woolf called "Middlemarch" one of the few English novels written for grown up people." In this lecture on the novel, we will explore the ways in which Eliot reinvented English narrative, gave us a history of England’s “middle” years, and made us love a novel about disappointment.
Presenter: Professor Deborah Nord graduated from Barnard College, spent two years in an M.A. program at the Victorian Studies Center of the University of Leicester, and earned a PhD from Columbia University. She joined the Princeton faculty in 1989, after teaching at the University of Connecticut and Harvard University.
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https://www.projectoutcome.org/responses/61971
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