Listen free for 30 days
-
Middlemarch
- Narrated by: Maureen O'Brien
- Length: 32 hrs and 23 mins
- Categories: Literature & Fiction, Classics
People who bought this also bought...
-
Vanity Fair
- By: William Makepeace Thackeray
- Narrated by: John Castle
- Length: 31 hrs and 1 min
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Set during the time of the Napoleonic Wars, this classic gives a satirical picture of a worldly society. The novel revolves around the exploits of the impoverished but beautiful and devious Becky Sharp who craves wealth and a position in society. Calculating and determined to succeed, she charms, deceives and manipulates everyone she meets. A novel of early 19th-century English society, it takes its title from the place designated as the centre of human corruption in John Bunyan's 17th-century allegory.
-
-
A glorious romp of a novel!
- By Clare on 24-08-09
-
Wives and Daughters
- By: Elizabeth Gaskell
- Narrated by: Prunella Scales
- Length: 25 hrs and 21 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Molly Gibson, the only daughter of a widowed doctor in the small provincial town of Hollingford, lost her mother when she was a child. Her father remarries wanting to give Molly the woman's presence he feels she lacks. To Molly, any stepmother would have been a shock, but the new Mrs. Gibson is a self-absorbed, petty widow, and Molly's unhappiness is compounded by the realisation that her father has come to regret his second marriage.
-
-
Very enjoyable.
- By M on 28-09-13
-
The Mill on the Floss
- By: George Eliot
- Narrated by: Eileen Atkins
- Length: 19 hrs and 2 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
'If life had no love in it, what else was there for Maggie?' The Mill on the Floss, first published in 1860, is considered one of George Eliot's most autobiographical works. Having formed a complex bond with her own family, George Eliot, now known to the public as Mary Ann Evans, depicts the loving yet volatile relationship between the Tulliver siblings and their doting father. Spanning over a period of 10 years, The Mill on the Floss follows the coming of age of the beautiful and idealistic Maggie.
-
-
Just Beautiful
- By Anonymous User on 04-11-18
-
Hard Times
- The Audible Dickens Collection
- By: Charles Dickens, Jeremy Paxman
- Narrated by: Bertie Carvel, Jeremy Paxman
- Length: 10 hrs and 58 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
'Teach these boys and girls nothing but Facts. Facts alone are wanted in life.' So says Thomas Gradgrind, a wealthy, utilitarian school board superintendent. Father to Tom and Louisa, he shapes the minds of all the young children, including his own, with the exception of only one: the circus-born Sissy Jupe.
-
-
Bertie Carvel brilliant narration
- By Geoff Elston on 02-10-18
-
Silas Marner
- By: George Eliot
- Narrated by: Andrew Sachs
- Length: 6 hrs and 42 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
For 15 years the weaver Silas Marner has plied his loom near the village of Raveloe, alone and unjustly in exile, cut off from faith and human love, he cares only for his hoard of golden guineas. But two events occur that will change his life forever; his gold disappears and a golden-haired baby girl appears. But where did she come from and who really stole the gold? This moving tale sees Silas eventually redeemed and restored to life by the unlikely means of his love for the orphan child Eppie.
-
-
Utterly Charming!!
- By Philip on 28-11-16
-
David Copperfield
- By: Charles Dickens
- Narrated by: Martin Jarvis
- Length: 34 hrs and 33 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
When David Copperfield escapes from the cruelty of his childhood home, he embarks on a journey to adulthood which leads him through comedy and tragedy, love and heartbreak, and friendship and betrayal.
-
-
The Joy of Audible
- By Mr David Newton on 15-09-09
-
Vanity Fair
- By: William Makepeace Thackeray
- Narrated by: John Castle
- Length: 31 hrs and 1 min
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Set during the time of the Napoleonic Wars, this classic gives a satirical picture of a worldly society. The novel revolves around the exploits of the impoverished but beautiful and devious Becky Sharp who craves wealth and a position in society. Calculating and determined to succeed, she charms, deceives and manipulates everyone she meets. A novel of early 19th-century English society, it takes its title from the place designated as the centre of human corruption in John Bunyan's 17th-century allegory.
-
-
A glorious romp of a novel!
- By Clare on 24-08-09
-
Wives and Daughters
- By: Elizabeth Gaskell
- Narrated by: Prunella Scales
- Length: 25 hrs and 21 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Molly Gibson, the only daughter of a widowed doctor in the small provincial town of Hollingford, lost her mother when she was a child. Her father remarries wanting to give Molly the woman's presence he feels she lacks. To Molly, any stepmother would have been a shock, but the new Mrs. Gibson is a self-absorbed, petty widow, and Molly's unhappiness is compounded by the realisation that her father has come to regret his second marriage.
-
-
Very enjoyable.
- By M on 28-09-13
-
The Mill on the Floss
- By: George Eliot
- Narrated by: Eileen Atkins
- Length: 19 hrs and 2 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
'If life had no love in it, what else was there for Maggie?' The Mill on the Floss, first published in 1860, is considered one of George Eliot's most autobiographical works. Having formed a complex bond with her own family, George Eliot, now known to the public as Mary Ann Evans, depicts the loving yet volatile relationship between the Tulliver siblings and their doting father. Spanning over a period of 10 years, The Mill on the Floss follows the coming of age of the beautiful and idealistic Maggie.
-
-
Just Beautiful
- By Anonymous User on 04-11-18
-
Hard Times
- The Audible Dickens Collection
- By: Charles Dickens, Jeremy Paxman
- Narrated by: Bertie Carvel, Jeremy Paxman
- Length: 10 hrs and 58 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
'Teach these boys and girls nothing but Facts. Facts alone are wanted in life.' So says Thomas Gradgrind, a wealthy, utilitarian school board superintendent. Father to Tom and Louisa, he shapes the minds of all the young children, including his own, with the exception of only one: the circus-born Sissy Jupe.
-
-
Bertie Carvel brilliant narration
- By Geoff Elston on 02-10-18
-
Silas Marner
- By: George Eliot
- Narrated by: Andrew Sachs
- Length: 6 hrs and 42 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
For 15 years the weaver Silas Marner has plied his loom near the village of Raveloe, alone and unjustly in exile, cut off from faith and human love, he cares only for his hoard of golden guineas. But two events occur that will change his life forever; his gold disappears and a golden-haired baby girl appears. But where did she come from and who really stole the gold? This moving tale sees Silas eventually redeemed and restored to life by the unlikely means of his love for the orphan child Eppie.
-
-
Utterly Charming!!
- By Philip on 28-11-16
-
David Copperfield
- By: Charles Dickens
- Narrated by: Martin Jarvis
- Length: 34 hrs and 33 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
When David Copperfield escapes from the cruelty of his childhood home, he embarks on a journey to adulthood which leads him through comedy and tragedy, love and heartbreak, and friendship and betrayal.
-
-
The Joy of Audible
- By Mr David Newton on 15-09-09
-
Jane Eyre
- By: Charlotte Bronte
- Narrated by: Thandie Newton
- Length: 19 hrs and 10 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Following Jane from her childhood as an orphan in Northern England through her experience as a governess at Thornfield Hall, Charlotte Brontë's Gothic classic is an early exploration of women's independence in the mid-19th century and the pervasive societal challenges women had to endure. At Thornfield, Jane meets the complex and mysterious Mr. Rochester, with whom she shares a complicated relationship that ultimately forces her to reconcile the conflicting passions of romantic love and religious piety.
-
-
A beautiful audiobook!!
- By Philip on 13-02-17
-
Tess of the D'Urbervilles
- By: Thomas Hardy
- Narrated by: Peter Firth
- Length: 14 hrs and 27 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
When John Durbeyfield discovers a family connection to the ancient Norman family, the D'Urbervilles, the fate of daughter Tess is transformed. Sent by her ambitious parents to visit her wealthy D'Urberville cousins, Tess attracts the attention of the unscrupulous Alec. Seduced and discarded by him and alone in the world, she finds work as a milkmaid and the love of Angel Clare. Yet his love cannot accept the truth about Tess's past.
-
-
Amazing, loved now and no longer hated ☺
- By Dawn on 13-03-15
-
Great Expectations
- By: Charles Dickens
- Narrated by: Martin Jarvis
- Length: 17 hrs and 32 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Pip is an orphan, brought up in a village on the Essex marshes by his disagreeable sister and her husband Joe Gargery, the kind-hearted village blacksmith. Life is harsh and Pip has few prospects until he receives from an anonymous benefactor the chance of escaping the forge for a more promising life in London. But his expectations are fraught with difficulties as he is haunted by figures from his past such as the escaped convict Magwitch, the eccentric Miss Havisham, and her proud, beautiful ward, Estella.
-
-
surpassed my expectations
- By Anonymous User on 21-12-09
-
Wuthering Heights
- By: Emily Brontë
- Narrated by: Patricia Routledge
- Length: 14 hrs and 15 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The passionate and tragic story of Catherine Earnshaw and Heathcliff is one of the high points of 19th-century Romantic literature. In the relationship of Cathy and Heathcliff, and in the wild, bleak Yorkshire Moors of its setting, Wuthering Heights creates a world of its own, conceived with a disregard for convention and an instinct for poetry and the darkest depths of the human soul in torment.
-
-
The best performance
- By chloe67 on 11-11-15
-
The Way We Live Now
- By: Anthony Trollope
- Narrated by: Timothy West
- Length: 32 hrs and 25 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In this world of bribes, vendettas, and swindling, in which heiresses are gambled and won, Trollope's characters embody all the vices: Lady Carbury is 'false from head to foot'; her son Felix has 'the instincts of a horse, not approaching the higher sympathies of a dog'; and Melmotte - the colossal figure who dominates the book - is a 'horrid, big, rich scoundrel...a bloated swindler...a vile city ruffian'. But as vile as he is, he is considered one of Trollope's greatest creations.
-
-
Fantastic! Fantastic!
- By Sharon on 15-11-09
-
Lady Chatterley's Lover
- An Audible Exclusive Performance
- By: D. H. Lawrence, Fern Riddell - introduction
- Narrated by: Holliday Grainger, Fern Riddell - introduction
- Length: 12 hrs and 45 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In an Audible Exclusive performance, Holliday Grainger lends her voice to a new unabridged recording of Lady Chatterley's Lover, a novel that was banned until 1960 and is now considered to be one of the most renowned love stories of all time. This production features an exclusive introduction written and narrated by Fern Riddell, a cultural historian who specialises in sex in the Victorian and Edwardian eras.
-
-
Captures a time
- By Miss J. Stafford on 17-09-18
-
Howards End
- By: E M Forster
- Narrated by: Edward Petherbridge
- Length: 11 hrs and 38 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Howards End is the story of the liberal Schlegel sisters and their struggle to come to terms with social class and their German heritage in Edwardian England. Their lives are intertwined with those of the wealthy and pragmatic Wilcox family and their country house, Howards End, as well as the lower-middle-class Basts. When Helen Schlegel and Paul Wilcox's brief romance ends badly the Schlegels hope to never see the Wilcoxes again.
-
-
A very Edwardian reading!
- By sora on 23-06-14
-
Anna Karenina
- By: Leo Tolstoy
- Narrated by: David Horovitch
- Length: 38 hrs
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Anna Karenina seems to have everything - beauty, wealth, popularity and an adored son. But she feels that her life is empty until the moment she encounters the impetuous officer Count Vronsky.
-
-
A gem
- By Deborah on 12-06-09
-
Daniel Deronda
- By: George Eliot
- Narrated by: Juliet Stevenson
- Length: 36 hrs and 4 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Meeting by chance at a gambling hall in Europe, the separate lives of Daniel Deronda and Gwendolen Harleth are immediately intertwined. Daniel, an Englishman of uncertain parentage, becomes Gwendolyn's redeemer as she finds herself drawn to his spiritual and altruistic nature after a loveless marriage. But Daniel's path was already set when he rescued a young Jewess from suicide.
-
-
The perfect long audiobook
- By D. Cottam on 21-10-15
-
Birdsong
- By: Sebastian Faulks
- Narrated by: Peter Firth
- Length: 15 hrs and 19 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Set before and during the great war, Birdsong captures the drama of that era on both a national and a personal scale. It is the story of Stephen, a young Englishman, who arrives in Amiens in 1910. His life goes through a series of traumatic experiences, from the clandestine love affair that tears apart the family with whom he lives, to the unprecedented experiences of the war itself.
-
-
Modern classic, beautifully narrated
- By Declan on 08-05-11
-
Cranford
- By: Elizabeth Gaskell
- Narrated by: Prunella Scales
- Length: 6 hrs and 45 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
A vivid and affectionate portrait of the residents of an English country town in the mid-19th century, Cranford describes a community dominated by its independent and refined women, relating the adventures of Miss Matty and Miss Deborah, two middle-aged spinster sisters striving to live with dignity in reduced circumstances. Through a series of satirical vignettes, Gaskell sympathetically portrays changing small town customs and values in mid-Victorian England....
-
-
Best Cranford Reading!
- By Sharon on 26-05-09
-
Sense and Sensibility
- By: Jane Austen
- Narrated by: Juliet Stevenson
- Length: 12 hrs and 43 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
When Mrs. Dashwood is forced by an avaricious daughter-in-law to leave the family home in Sussex, she takes her three daughters to live in a modest cottage in Devon. For Elinor, the eldest daughter, the move means a painful separation from the man she loves, but her sister Marianne finds in Devon the romance and excitement which she longs for.
-
-
A perfect narrative
- By Rachel on 25-05-09
Summary
Exclusively from Audible
George Eliot's most ambitious novel is a masterly evocation of diverse lives and changing fortunes in a provincial community.
Peopling its landscape are Dorothea Brooke, a young idealist whose search for intellectual fulfillment leads her into a disastrous marriage to the pedantic scholar Casaubon; the charming but tactless Dr Lydgate, whose marriage to the spendthrift beauty Rosamund and pioneering medical methods threaten to undermine his career; and the religious hypocrite Bulstrode, hiding scandalous crimes from his past.
As their stories interweave, George Eliot creates a richly nuanced and moving drama, hailed by Virginia Woolf as 'one of the few English novels written for adult people'. Middlemarch explores nearly all matters of concern to modern life, portraying an entire community and every class within it. Full of irony and suspense and even richer in character it shows how individual lives are shaped by and shape the community. Within Middlemarch, we find Eliot's ability to expand the audience's compassion and imagination.
George Eliot was one of the leading writers of the Victorian era. Her novels, largely set in provincial England, are well known for their realism and psychological insight. When Middlemarch was released Eliot was considered England's finest living novelist with many critics still regarding this novel as the finest in English.
A BAFTA winning adaptation of Middlemarch aired as a television series in 1994.
Narrator Biography
Maureen is an English actress and author best known for playing the role of Vicki in Doctor Who where she starred alongside the original Doctor, William Hartnell. She then went on to appear in The Legend of King Arthur, Casualty, The Duchess of Duke Street, Taggart, Cracker, A Touch of Frost, Heartbeat and Jonathan Creek. In 1985 she made a rare film appearance in the comedy She'll Be Wearing Pink Pyjamas opposite Julie Walters.
Maureen has also appeared in a number of stage productions, for example, The Relapse (Old Vic), The Merchant of Venice (Old Vic), The Archbishop's Ceiling (Bristol Old Vic) and Othello (Bristol Old Vic).
More from the same
What listeners say about Middlemarch
Reviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Auguste Dupin
- 12-05-16
Beautiful reading
What made the experience of listening to Middlemarch the most enjoyable?
Middlemarch is a complex book with many characters and Maureen O'Brien does the impossible by giving each character a distinct and appropriate voice. I listened to it twice.
What did you like best about this story?
I love Victorian novels, but I had never before read Middlemarch which turns out to be the best of them all. Four stories about four (or five) marriages are intertwined around the background of political reform in early 18th century England. The characters are all people that grow more complex with each reading, so that we feel we could know what they would do when out of our sight.
What about Maureen O'Brien’s performance did you like?
She understands the characters very well, and narrates as if the story was coming from her heart and not being read.
If you made a film of this book, what would be the tag line be?
Five weddings and a funeral.
18 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Amazon Customer
- 21-09-15
Hard to get started but rewarding when you do.
I loved it. This is a long book, give it time and you'll be rewarded. 200 years on things are fundamentally the same!
13 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Timedout
- 31-07-15
loved it - social history
George Elliott paints an historic picture of the intricacies of social duty and conscience and you realise that for all our modern advances we haven't come that far socially.
12 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Anne
- 20-09-17
Delightful listening
What a delightful well written book. It does start slowly, but is well worth sticking with. You can't beat an old classic, and it was brought to life brilliantly by Maureen O'Brian. I would recommend it to anyone
8 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- M V Curr
- 06-08-16
good
Compelling story and characters, a wonderful novel. The narrator was annoying at times, some accents or tones of speech given to characters were irritating - esp poor Celia who was made to sound like a petulant five year old throughout. nonetheless, its such a great book one can't resist being. held captive..
7 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Bob
- 28-08-16
An Exquisite Novel Beautifully Read
Intricate, funny, passionate multi-layered narrative that illuminates human hypocrisy, frailty but also potential for goodness.
11 people found this helpful
-
Overall
- David Bisset
- 17-09-17
A superb rendition
Maureen O'Brien reads with outstanding clarity and nuances. She deals most convincingly with a wide range of male and female characters who utilised a while gamut of verbal characteristics. She also coped well with dialectical variations. Listening to her rendition was illuminating and pleasurable.
7 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- J. G.
- 13-02-19
"One of the best novels in English literature"
This is an excellent rendition by Maureen O'Brien of Middlemarch.
A long novel it may be, but worth reading completely to the end and indeed many times over for its uncanny psychological depth and moral realism.
George Eliot adeptly interweaves the life-stories of several characters with unique personalities and histories. No wonder it has been described by other writers in our time as "the best novel in English literature".
2 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Scribella
- 11-09-20
Outstanding narration
The narration of such a huge book, with such a varied cast of characters, was always going to be a challenge - and Maureen O'Brien rises to it magnificently. Her reading and characterisations increased my enjoyment of 'Middlemarch' and made it an absolute pleasure to listen to. As for the book itself... well, it's a classic for a reason - a deceptively ambitious work that uses the apparently modest canvas of a provincial town to paint an impressively sweeping and deep masterpiece about human nature. I particularly enjoyed George Eliot's satirical observations - when she sharpens her pen, she's almost as lacerating as Jane Austen. However, Eliot is far more verbose than Austen and more reminiscent of Dickens, in her tendency to ramble and moralise. This aspect of the work, I enjoyed less... but overall, I found it to be an engrossing, entertaining and satisfying novel - with utterly brilliant audiobook narration.
1 person found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Mr J M Edwards
- 04-01-21
The Best of the Best
Just one of the greatest novels ever written. Wisdom and insight on every page. In terms of style some might say that Elliot tells too much rather than letting the characters show, but why complain about being given instruction when the author is so so unerringly accurate and elegant in her expositions on all aspects of human motivation and action. Elliot is a brain surgeon beside whom almost all others are children wielding pen knives.
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story

- Naomi
- 17-06-14
One of the greatest novels in the English language
What did you love best about Middlemarch?
Dorothea Brooke is both an original character and as familiar as my own heart. She is a well-educated, upper-class young woman who wants to build a life that is meaningful on her own terms and not by the conventions of society, but she is held back by society's limited view of a woman's role in the world. What else did I love -- the many other complex characters who came alive and who worked out their lives in their own ways -- with or without success.
What other book might you compare Middlemarch to and why?
In bringing a whole society to life and creating characters as vibrant as real people -- Barchester Towers by Trollope, Vanity Fair by Thackeray, any number of novels by Dickens (Great Expectations, Little Dorrit,Our Mutual Friend,Bleak House).
What about Maureen O'Brien’s performance did you like?
She gave each character their own voice, without making anyone a caricature.
Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?
Too long! and too complex. It needed to be savored and enjoyed.
11 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story

- M. Leavell
- 23-01-16
Disappointed: this is not a never-ending story
It's hard to imagine a better reading of Middlemarch. If shopping, read no further.
My third time with Middlemarch and my first with audible. O"Brien's reading made a great book even better. Her vocal characterizations (of which I am, in general, not very fond) were quite good, but even when not "in character" her reading was brilliant.
10 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story

- Thamrin Quay
- 15-10-15
Beautifully, movingly narrated
I read the book as I listened to this narration and I cannot exaggerate how my experience has been enriched to hear every single character given a unique voice, one that was perfectly suited to the personality of the character. This is a masterful rendition of a great treasure of English literature. The artistry of the narration, the sheer number of voices, accents, patterns of speech and idiosyncrasies that the narrator has captured is, in itself, a true work of art. It's as if Ms. O'Brian went to live in Middlemarch to become acquainted with every character very well and then recreated them for us.
10 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story

- Andrew
- 31-10-13
A Town that Thinks Too Much
Middlemarch is an amazing book that portrays a list of characters that seem to get themselves into trouble by thinking too much instead of going with their instincts. Social hierarchy seems to be the factor in the back of every person's mind that decides which romantic or financial turns they will take, at the onset nearly ruining their lives.
Dorothea happens to be my favorite character due to her independence. I was very frustrated with her time and time again, however, whenever she and Will Ladislaw got together and never acted on the love that each knew was present. It seemed that every time both of them got together I was silently screaming to them both to profess their love and lead happy lives, not ones of servitude to others. When they finally did, I knew that all would turn out well for them.
The supposed superiority of men over women was a predominant issue that came back over and over again to nearly every character. Whether it was the disgust of a woman deciding for herself who she should marry, or a wife trying to help her husband financially, each woman was put in her place and their actions were restricted, threatened by the fear of a poor lifestyle. Strangely enough, it was the wives that survived their restrictive husbands, and went on to live happily in the end.
George Eliot (a.k.a. Mary Ann Evans) put together a wonderful conglomeration of social, political, spiritual, and ethical hardships as well as the solutions to such difficulties, and she did so with excellent eloquence. Maureen O'Brien, the narrator, brought forth a terrific performance, with each character clearly understood, even in the most emotional scenes. Very well done!
6 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story

- Julie W. Capell
- 28-08-13
Read for its humor & glimmers of female rebellion
I enjoyed the parts of this novel more than the whole of it. Taken altogether, this seemed like a story that could have been told in half the pages while still getting across the main points the author was making. The book principally documents the lives of several individuals, each of whom when young believes he or she is destined to do Great Things. Over the course of several hundred pages, the author shows how her protagonists, either through their own poor judgment or because of their place in the social web (dictated by the mores of Victorian society) end up living pretty unremarkable lives.
It is a testament to Eliot’s excellence as a writer that she manages to make these everyday lives interesting. She does this via a delightful cast of supporting characters and witty asides that skewer human nature generally. I found myself smiling frequently and underlining many wonderful passages throughout the book.
But what makes this book worth reading over a century after it was written is the way it shows the first glimmers of rebellion against the way women were brought up, particularly women of middle and upper-middle class status. None of the women in the book are allowed to fully utilize their abilities, particularly their minds, and are for the most part submissive to their fathers, brothers, and husbands. But this submission does not come easily, and each manages to slip out from under the oppression of her situation in her own way.
[I listened to this as an audio book performed by Maureen O'Brien. She did a very good job of giving the characters different voices, but I agree she made several of the women sound extremely childish, which was a bit annoying. Still, she was able to get a good deal of humor into the reading which I appreciated.]
18 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story

- Michele Tauber
- 19-02-17
Fabulous Sweeping Story
Middlemarch is perhaps the best of the George Eliot books. The stories of the families in this little city are so well told and intertwined in the writing you never feel as though one story doesn't get enough time. Eliot is a masterful storyteller and relies on history, mythology, the current events of the times and even other excerpts from literature to aid her writing. She mixes a good deal of the drama with comedy, pathos, tragedy and a remarkably acceptable ending. I really enjoyed this audio book.
The reader is excellent and is able to differentiate the many characters so well that you always know who each one is when she's reading. It was a very impressive interpretation.
4 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story

- Amazon Customer
- 14-03-15
A Masterpiece
Took a long time to get through but a long time of pleasure.
A very good performance as well. A plus
4 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story

- E. Pearson
- 23-02-15
A Truly Enjoyable Classic
The best thing about this book is the character development. I felt a compelling attraction and affinity to every somewhat important character. While some were easier to admire, or dislike, or simply laugh at, I felt that I possessed the same traits during some periods of my life. Eliot is possibly the most honest writer I've ever read. She makes no one fit any pre-established mold; each develops as we readers travel along. I thought several times: "Our worlds and surroundings have changed so immensely; our habits of daily life bear no resemblance," and yet, all that is insignificant. People and events are entirely recognizable in my modern world, as well as in Eliot's.
4 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story

- Edyta Niemyjska
- 11-06-14
Great book
What about Maureen O'Brien’s performance did you like?
Maureen O'Brien is a great reader. Each character spoke in a slightly different way. The changes were detectable but not annoying.
Any additional comments?
Although when I started I did not like the characters very much, throughout the book I got used to them and once the book was finished I missed the characters and the spirit of the novel.
8 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story

- Charles Schneider
- 01-02-15
Among the magnificent.
Middlemarch shines as an example of storytelling not often seen among today's best sellers. Character development with few modern equals.
3 people found this helpful