Middlemarch: Difference between revisions

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{{quote|''Who shall tell what may be the effect of writing? If it happens to be cut in stone, though it lie face downmost for ages on a forsaken beach, or 'rest quietly under the drums and tramplings of many conquests', it may end by letting us into the secret of usurpations and other scandals gossiped about long centuries ago: -- this world being apparently a huge whispering-gallery.''}}

 

 

The novel centres around several groups of characters in the provincial town of Middlemarch and its surrounding villages, between the years 1829 and 1832. This was a time of political change in England, during which Parliamentary reform was proposed to increase the number of eligible voters and to remove "rotten boroughs" - constituencies in which a Member of Parliament could be returned by only one or two voters. The differing political and religious views of some characters form part of the background of the novel. Mr. Brooke, for example, stands for reforms that are unpopular with other members of the town's gentry.

 

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* [[The Alcoholic]]: Raffles. It ultimately leads to {{spoiler|his not-exactly accidental death.}}

* [[All Girls Want Bad Boys]]: Spectacularly subverted in Dorothea's case. Casaubon's age and demeanor make him more attractive to her, not less.

 

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[[Category:Literature]]