Anonymous wrote:I think Daniel Deronda is better, if you want to read Eliot. Dorothea can be a bit frustrating.

I hated Deronda but really enjoy Middlemarch.

Anonymous wrote:I think Daniel Deronda is better, if you want to read Eliot. Dorothea can be a bit frustrating.

Yes, I really loved Middlemarch when I read it in college, and recently reread it again. This time around, I found Dorothea insufferable. She's so sanctimonious and condescending. I hated her killjoy dismissal of harmless things like wearing jewelry (when her sister was so excited to try on their dead mother's things), and puppies, etc. It was so performative. Dorothea is the world's most boring Pick Me.

Now, Becky Sharp of Vanity Fair is my kind of heroine these days.

Anonymous wrote:No. Sorry. I'm a hater.

I read it in a college literature class with a professor I liked so much I took 3 classes from the professor. I disliked Middlemarch a lot. The characters and their arcs are tedious.

As calibration, I liked Walden, Moby Dick, all Jane Austen, and Vanity Fair. I do not like Dickens much.

There are Middlemarch fans here. They should be along shortly.

I was also underwhelmed, and I totally expected to love it. I love all the Brontë sisters, Jane Austen, Dickens, Moby Dick, Bram Stoker, etc. That is my vibe. I think tedious is the perfect description.

Do you enjoy about reading about bad marriages?