Middlemarch by George Eliot

Author: George Eliot

Published: 1872
Novel. 

Written as a third-person narrative, it centers on the lives of the residents of Middlemarch, a fictitious Midlands town from 1829. It emphasizes on the life of Dorothea Brooke; the career of Terius Lydgate; the courship of Mary Garth by Fred Vincy; and the disgrace of Blustrode. 

Dorothea Brooke appears set for a comfortable and idle life as the wife of Sir James Chettam, but to the dismay of her sister Celia and her uncle Mr. Brooke, she marries the Reverend Efward Casaubon. Expecting fulfillment by sharing in his intellectual life, Dorothea discovers his animosity towards her  ambitions during an unhappy honeymoon in Rome. Realizing his great project is doomed to failure, her feelings change to pity.

Dorothea forms a warm friendship with a young cousin of Casaubon's, Will Ladislaw, but her husband's antipathy towards him is clear and he is forbidden to visit. In poor health, Casaubon attempts to extract from Dorothea a promise that, should he die, she will avoid doing what I should deprecate and apply yourself to do what I desire. He dies before she is able to reply, and she later learns of a provision to his will that, if she marries Ladislaw, she will lose her inheritance. 

The young doctor Terius Lydgate arrives in Middlemarch. Through his voluntary hospital work he meets the town's financier, Mr. Blustrode, and through him Bulstrode's niece, the mayor's beautiful daughter, Rosamond Vincy. Rosamond is attracted to Lydgate, particularly by what she believes to be his aristocratic connections. Rosamond and Lydgate marry, and in Lydgate's efforts to please her, he is soon deeply in debt and force to seek help from Mr. Blustrode. He is partly sustained through this by his friendship with Camden Farebrother.

Rosamond's brother, Fred, is reluctantly destined for the Church. He is in love with Mary Garth, who will not accept him until he abandons the Church and settles on a more suitable career. At one time Fred has been bequeathed considerable fortune by Mr. Featherstone, but he later rescinded the will. However, Mr. Featherstone, on his deathbed, begs Mary to destroy his second will; to which Mary refuses and begs him to wait until the morning when a new legal will can be drawn up, but he dies before being able to do so. In debt, Fred is forced to take out a loan guaranteed by Mary's father, Caleb Garth. When Fred cannot pay the loan, Mr. Garth's finances become compromised. This humiliation shocks Fred into reassessing his life, and he resolved to train as a land agent under the forgiving Caleb.

John Raffles, who knows Bulstrode's shady past, appears in Middlemarch with the intent to blackmail him. In his youth, Bulstrode engaged in questionable financial dealings, and his fortune is founded on a marriage to a much older, wealthy widow. Mr. Bulstode's terror of public exposure as a hypocrite leads him to hasten de death of the mortally-sick Raffles; though word has already spread. Bulstrode's disgrace engulfs Lydgate, as knowledge of the financier's loan to the doctor becomes known, and he is assumed to be his accomplice. Only Dorothea and Farebrother maintain faith in him, but nonetheless Lydgate and Rasamond are encouraged by the general opprobrium to leave Middlemarch. 

Characters:
Dorothea Brooke
Tertius Lydgate
Reverend Edward Casaubon
Mary Garth
Arthur Brooke
Celia Brooke
Sir James Chettam
John Raffles
Rosamond Vincy
Fred Vincy
Lucy Vincy
Will Ladislaw
Humprey Caldwallader
Eleanor Cadwallader
Walter Vincy
Caleb Garth
Peter Featherstone
Rigg Featherstone
Camdem Farebrother
Nicholas Bulstrode
Jane Waule
Mr. Hawley