ENGL 278 - Reading Middlemarch

Semester Offered: Spring
0.5 unit(s)

(Same as GNCS 278) Written in 1871-2, Middlemarch is widely considered to be George Eliot’s masterpiece and a landmark of Victorian realism. Eliot’s epic narrative explores the profound changes wrought on a provincial English town by the industrial revolution, the coming of the railroad, scientific discoveries, and democratic reforms. Middlemarch is also, as Virginia Woolf noted, “one of the few English novels written for grownup people.” At its core are three love stories, two disastrous marriages, and Eliot’s guiding principle that “there is no private life which is not determined by a wider public life.” The novel’s length makes it a difficult text to accommodate on a crowded course syllabus. But the intensive format allows students to engage with Middlemarch singly and slowly. The novel is divided into eight books, and students read a book a week over the course of the semester, with time left over for student projects, critical or creative. Susan Zlotnick.

One 2-hour period.

Course Format: INT