Middlemarch, George Eliot
Middlemarch, George Eliot
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Middlemarch
A BBC Radio 4 full-cast dramatisation

Author: George Eliot

Narrator: Charles Edwards, Full Cast, John Heffernan, Juliet Aubrey, Olivia Vinall

Unabridged: 4 hr 38 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 05/21/2020

Categories: Fiction, Classic


Synopsis

George Eliot's beloved story of life, love and politics in an English town

A jewel in the classic literature crown, Middlemarch was selected as one of the BBC’s ‘100 Novels That Shaped Our World’. Its epic arc takes in politics, tragedy, romance and comedy, interweaving multiple narratives to make up a thrilling ensemble tale.

Set in the 1830s, this ‘study of provincial life’ introduces us to young, idealistic Dorothea Brooke, who accepts a proposal from scholarly Edward Casaubon, hoping to forge a loving partnership of intellectual equals. But on honeymoon in Rome, she swiftly becomes disillusioned. Trapped in an unhappy marriage, she finds solace in her friendship with Casaubon’s cousin, Will Ladislaw – only for her controlling husband to suspect her of betrayal, and set out to test her loyalty.

Meanwhile, mayor’s son Fred Vincy embarks on a steep economic learning curve, risking his burgeoning relationship with Mary Garth. When he contracts typhoid, he is treated by the town’s new medical man, Tertius Lydgate, who becomes drawn to Fred’s sister, Rosamond. Eager to win her hand, the doctor seeks help from the wealthy Mr Bulstrode – a decision he will come to regret...

As their stories shift, viewpoints twist together and lives collide and realign in a compelling ‘convergence of human lots’ that shows us an entire world in microcosm. Juliet Aubrey stars as the Narrator, George Eliot, with Olivia Vinall as Dorothea, Charles Edwards as Casaubon and John Heffernan as Dr Lydgate.

Also featured is a bonus edition of In Our Time, in which Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss George Eliot’s classic novel, described by Virginia Woolf as ‘one of the few English novels written for grown-up people'.

Cast and credits
The Narrator, George Eliot – Juliet Aubrey
Dorothea – Olivia Vinall
Edward Casaubon – Charles Edwards
Dr Lydgate – John Heffernan
Will Ladislaw – Joseph Quinn
Arthur Brooke/Caleb Garth/Mr Trumball – Neil McCaul
Sir James Chettam – Hugh Skinner
Rev Farebrother – Miles Jupp
Nicholas Bulstrode – Adrian Scarborough
Celia – Lucy Reynolds
Peter Featherstone/Standish/John Raffles – Clive Hayward
Fred Vincy/Auction bidder – Will Kirk
Rosamond – Laura Christy
Mr Vincy/Mr Bambridge – Rick Warden
Mrs Cadwallader/Mrs Plymdale – Jessica Turner
Adolf Naumann/Barman – Adam Courting
Dr Hawley/Clerk – Greg Jones
Servant/Mrs Abel – Sinead MacInnes
Tantripp/Mary Garth – Scarlett Courtney
Mrs Garth – Alison Belbin
Letty Garth – Grace Doherty
Farmer/Mr Hopkins – Ikky Elyas
Tertius Lydgate – John Heffernan
Harriet Bulstrode – Rosie Cavaliero
Mrs Vincy/Farebrother’s aunt – Heather Craney

Written by George Eliot
Adapted by Katie Hims
Directed by Jessica Dromgoole and Tracey Neale

First broadcast BBC Radio 4, 23 November-7 December 2019

About George Eliot

George Eliot is the masculine pen name of Mary Ann Evans (1819–1880), one of Victorian England's leading novelists. Her first stories appeared in Blackwood's magazine, followed by such novels as The Mill on the Floss, Silas Marner, and Middlemarch. Her work was popular with critics and the public alike, and in later years her novels were especially valued for their detailed portrayals of rural English life.


Reviews

Goodreads review by emma on March 29, 2022

welcome to...MIDDLEMARCH MARCH. this book is a calm cool and collected 880 pages long, so elle and i will be tackling three chapters a day...every day for this whole month. join us as we melt our minds. i love a project! DAY 1: CHAPTERS 1-3 immediately i am having fun. approx 30 pages per day for 31 da......more

Goodreads review by Siobhan on December 04, 2013

Best. Goddamned. Book. Ever. Seriously, this shit's bananas. B-A-N-A-N-A-S. 750 pages in, and you're still being surprised. It's 800 pages long and EVERY SINGLE PAGE ADVANCES THE PLOT. You cannot believe it until you read it. This is a writer's book. By which I mean, and I say this with love, that if......more

Goodreads review by Ilse on May 01, 2026

Some discouragement, some faintness of heart at the new real future which replaces the imaginary, is not unusual, and we do not expect people to be deeply moved by what is not unusual. That element of tragedy which lies in the very fact of frequency, has not yet wrought itself into the coarse emotio......more

Goodreads review by Sasha on January 31, 2022

This is the best book ever written, and why would you even think that? Who cares? It seems like a particularly male thing to do, this categorizing, this ranking. When George Eliot introduces Casaubon, a compulsive categorizer who has accomplished nothing of value, it feels like more than a character......more

Goodreads review by Paul on January 16, 2021

I put off reading this for actual decades : 900 crammed pages about the well-to-do folk of an ordinary small English country town called Middlemarch. I thought it might be tweedy. Jane Austen for those who wouldn't be caught dead reading P&P. . But also I suspected it would be a masterpiece. But a v......more