April 24, 2020, by Ross Wilson

Middlemarch and the Things That Made Us

The fourth episode of The Things That Made Us discusses the novel, Middlemarch. Published across 1871 and 1872 and written by George Elliot (the pen name of Mary Ann Evans), Middlemarch has the capacity to move and engage readers in an unusual way. I think it does this in a way that speaks to the novels importance beyond literature studies but as a way of seeing how we act and interact as humans.

It’s a work of psychology, sociology and anthropology as Elliot describes in detail the complexity of the human experience in a world that is so detailed. Middlemarch, a fictional Midlands town, appears like a laboratory where you can see how people react. Importantly, you can see yourself, your decisions and your own responses in these characters. It is a book of tremendous importance beyond it literary qualities as it explains ideas about what it means to be human and to exist with others.

The Things That Made Us – Episode 4

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