{"product_id":"middlemarch","title":"Middlemarch","description":"\u003cp class=\"MsoNormal\"\u003e\u003cb\u003eGeorge Eliot's Victorian masterpiece: a\nmagnificent portrait of a provincial town and its inhabitants\u003cbr\u003e\n\u003cbr\u003e\n\u003c\/b\u003eGeorge Eliot’s novel, \u003ci\u003eMiddlemarch: A Study of Provincial Life\u003c\/i\u003e,\nexplores a fictional nineteenth-century Midlands town in the midst of modern\nchanges. The proposed Reform Bill promises political change; the building of\nrailroads alters both the physical and cultural landscape; new scientific\napproaches to medicine incite public division; and scandal lurks behind\nrespectability. The quiet drama of ordinary lives and flawed choices are played\nout in the complexly portrayed central characters of the novel―the idealistic\nDorothea Brooke; the ambitious Dr. Lydgate; the spendthrift Fred Vincy; and the\nsteadfast Mary Garth. The appearance of two outsiders further disrupts the\ntown’s equilibrium―Will Ladislaw, the spirited nephew of Dorothea’s husband,\nthe Rev. Edward Casaubon, and the sinister John Raffles, who threatens to expose\nthe hidden past of one of the town’s elite. \u003ci\u003eMiddlemarch\u003c\/i\u003e displays\nGeorge Eliot’s clear-eyed yet humane understanding of characters caught up in\nthe mysterious unfolding of self-knowledge. This Penguin Classics edition\nuses the second edition of 1874 and features an introduction and notes by\nEliot-biographer Rosemary Ashton. In her introduction, Ashton discusses themes\nof social change in \u003ci\u003eMiddlemarch\u003c\/i\u003e, and examines the novel as an\nimaginative embodiment of Eliot's humanist beliefs.\u003cbr\u003e\n\u003cbr\u003e\nFor more than sixty-five years, Penguin has been the leading publisher of\nclassic literature in the English-speaking world. With more than\n1,500 titles, Penguin Classics represents a global bookshelf of the best\nworks throughout history and across genres and disciplines. Readers trust\nthe series to provide authoritative texts enhanced by introductions and\nnotes by distinguished scholars and contemporary authors, as well as up-to-date translations\nby award-winning translators.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp class=\"MsoNormal\"\u003e\u003cb\u003eAbout the Author\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp class=\"MsoNormal\"\u003e\u003cb\u003eGeorge Eliot\u003c\/b\u003e (Mary Ann Evans Cross) was born on\nNovember 22, 1819 at Arbury Farm, Warwickshire, England. She received an\nordinary education and, upon leaving school at the age of sixteen, embarked on\na program of independent study to further her intellectual growth. In 1841 she\nmoved with her father to Coventry, where the influences of “skeptics and\nrationalists” swayed her from an intense religious devoutness to an eventual\nbreak with the church. The death of her father in 1849 left her with a small\nlegacy and the freedom to pursue her literary inclinations. In 1851 she became\nthe assistant editor of the \u003ci\u003eWestminster Review\u003c\/i\u003e, a position she held\nfor three years. In 1854 came the fated meeting with George Henry Lewes, the\ngifted editor of \u003ci\u003eThe Leader\u003c\/i\u003e, who was to become her adviser and\ncompanion for the next twenty-four years. Her first book, \u003ci\u003eScenes of a\nClerical Life\u003c\/i\u003e (1858), was followed by \u003ci\u003eAdam Bede\u003c\/i\u003e (1859), \u003ci\u003eThe\nMill on the Floss\u003c\/i\u003e (1860),\u003ci\u003eSilas Marner \u003c\/i\u003e(1861), and \u003ci\u003eMiddlemarch\u003c\/i\u003e (1872).\nThe death of Lewes, in 1878, left her stricken and lonely. On May 6, 1880, she\nmarried John Cross, a friend of long standing, and after a brief illness she\ndied on December 22 of that year, in London.\u003cbr\u003e\n\u003cbr\u003e\n\u003cb\u003eRosemary Ashton\u003c\/b\u003e, Professor of English Literature at University College,\nLondon, is the editor of the Penguin Classics edition of \u003ci\u003eMiddlemarch\u003c\/i\u003e.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"TIMES DISTRIBUTION PTE LTD","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":44636105212111,"sku":"9780141439549","price":21.8,"currency_code":"SGD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0574\/5662\/3823\/files\/download_b4b0dbc4-b994-4c93-9b07-5700a2a66253.jpg?v=1774948150","url":"https:\/\/popular.baby\/products\/middlemarch","provider":"Popular Book Company Pte Ltd","version":"1.0","type":"link"}