WeRead Powered by ReaderPub
Middlemarch cover

Middlemarch

Chapter 2: George Eliot
By George Eliot
Open in WeRead

Explore more books like this:

British LiteratureClassics of LiteratureNovels

About This Book

The novel traces interlaced lives in a provincial English town, following an idealistic young woman who seeks moral and intellectual fulfillment and an infertile scholarly marriage that reveals personal and social limitations. Through parallel plots—including a reform-minded young man, a passionate but imprudent suitor, and shifting fortunes among families—the narrative examines marriage, ambition, conscience, and the constraints of local expectation. It balances psychological realism with panoramic social observation, showing how personal choices and small civic institutions shape destiny and how compassion and practical intelligence can produce quiet but significant human transformations.

The Project Gutenberg eBook of Middlemarch

This ebook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and most other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this ebook or online at www.gutenberg.org. If you are not located in the United States, you will have to check the laws of the country where you are located before using this eBook.

Title: Middlemarch

Author: George Eliot

Release date: July 1, 1994 [eBook #145]
Most recently updated: September 7, 2025

Language: English

*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK MIDDLEMARCH ***

Middlemarch

George Eliot

New York and Boston
H. M. Caldwell Company Publishers

To my dear Husband, George Henry Lewes,
in this nineteenth year of our blessed union.

Contents

PRELUDE.
BOOK I. MISS BROOKE.
CHAPTER I.
CHAPTER II.
CHAPTER III.
CHAPTER IV.
CHAPTER V.
CHAPTER VI.
CHAPTER VII.
CHAPTER VIII.
CHAPTER IX.
CHAPTER X.
CHAPTER XI.
CHAPTER XII.
BOOK II. OLD AND YOUNG.
CHAPTER XIII.
CHAPTER XIV.
CHAPTER XV.
CHAPTER XVI.
CHAPTER XVII.
CHAPTER XVIII.
CHAPTER XIX.
CHAPTER XX.
CHAPTER XXI.
CHAPTER XXII.
BOOK III. WAITING FOR DEATH.
CHAPTER XXIII.
CHAPTER XXIV.
CHAPTER XXV.
CHAPTER XXVI.
CHAPTER XXVII.
CHAPTER XXVIII.
CHAPTER XXIX.
CHAPTER XXX.
CHAPTER XXXI.
CHAPTER XXXII.
CHAPTER XXXIII.
BOOK IV. THREE LOVE PROBLEMS.
CHAPTER XXXIV.
CHAPTER XXXV.
CHAPTER XXXVI.
CHAPTER XXXVII.
CHAPTER XXXVIII.
CHAPTER XXXIX.
CHAPTER XL.
CHAPTER XLI.
CHAPTER XLII.
BOOK V. THE DEAD HAND.
CHAPTER XLIII.
CHAPTER XLIV.
CHAPTER XLV.
CHAPTER XLVI.
CHAPTER XLVII.
CHAPTER XLVIII.
CHAPTER XLIX.
CHAPTER L.
CHAPTER LI.
CHAPTER LII.
BOOK VI. THE WIDOW AND THE WIFE.
CHAPTER LIII.
CHAPTER LIV.
CHAPTER LV.
CHAPTER LVI.
CHAPTER LVII.
CHAPTER LVIII.
CHAPTER LIX.
CHAPTER LX.
CHAPTER LXI.
CHAPTER LXII.
BOOK VII. TWO TEMPTATIONS.
CHAPTER LXIII.
CHAPTER LXIV.
CHAPTER LXV.
CHAPTER LXVI.
CHAPTER LXVII.
CHAPTER LXVIII.
CHAPTER LXIX.
CHAPTER LXX.
CHAPTER LXXI.
BOOK VIII. SUNSET AND SUNRISE.
CHAPTER LXXII.
CHAPTER LXXIII.
CHAPTER LXXIV.
CHAPTER LXXV.
CHAPTER LXXVI.
CHAPTER LXXVII.
CHAPTER LXXVIII.
CHAPTER LXXIX.
CHAPTER LXXX.
CHAPTER LXXXI.
CHAPTER LXXXII.
CHAPTER LXXXIII.
CHAPTER LXXXIV.
CHAPTER LXXXV.
CHAPTER LXXXVI.
FINALE.