On "Middlemarch"

There's a very thoughtful essay by Rebecca Mead on George Eliot and "Middlemarch" in the Feb. 14 & 21, 2011 issue of The New Yorker. Titled "Middlemarch and Me," it speaks of Mead's lifelong relationship with the novel. From studying and passionately admiring it at 17 to her current analysis in her mid-forties, her view of the book has evolved as she has gotten older and experienced more of life. She reminds us that Virginia Woolf famously called it "one of the few English novels written for grown-up people." Mead believes that "Middlemarch" "is also a book about how to BE a grownup person -- about how to bear one's share of sorrow, failure, and loss, as well as to enjoy moments of hard-won happiness." Continuing with this idea, she believes that Eliot's work shows "that individuals must make their best efforts towards a worthy end, but it is the effort toward a goal, rather than the achievement of it, that makes us who we are." It is a sober, and sobering, attitude, one that comes with maturity. Yet it is in a way also hopeful, giving validation for effort, and for both the trials and small triumphs of everyday life. I have always believed that "Middlemarch" contains much wisdom, the wisdom of Eliot's maturity and deep intelligence, and this essay by Mead explores that idea in a most engaging and thought-provoking way.