British · 1819–1880
George Eliot was the pen name of Mary Ann Evans (1819–1880), who used a male pseudonym because she wanted her work taken seriously. It was. Middlemarch, published in serial form in 1871–72, is often called the greatest English novel — a title it has held for over a hundred and fifty years. Available in warpread.app at 316,000 words, it is long but not difficult: Eliot's prose is dense with wisdom but never obscure, and the characters feel as real as anyone in fiction.
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A young idealist marries the wrong man; a reforming doctor marries the wrong woman. George Eliot weaves multiple storylines across a provincial English town in the 1830s, examining how circumstance and character conspire to frustrate intelligent people. Often called the greatest English novel — and not without justification.
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