Middlemarch

By: George Eliot

Narrated by: Andrea Giordani

In George Eliot's Middlemarch, the idea of marriage and vocation are explored through a small town's community of ordinary people. One of the main characters, Dorothea Brooke, is a kind and good-hearted woman who gives to the poor and helps to rebuild cottages of poor farmers. However, she is also stubborn and very strong-willed.

Despite objections from nearly everyone around her, Brooke still chooses to marry the much older Casaubon. Although she enjoys learning from him, she is ultimately heartbroken when he dies and an unknown stipulation in the will that states that she can't marry Will Ladislaw, Casaubon's cousin, makes Brooke feel betrayed by Casaubon's previously unknown mistrust. Reverting back to her strong-willed personality, Brooke decides to marry Ladislaw and give up the inheritance from Casaubon's will.

One of the other main characters, Tertius Lydgate, also starts the story as a kind-hearted person whose main calling is to help the town by practicing as a medical doctor to the locals. However, when he falls in love with Rosamond Vincy, his marriage to her ends up ruining his finances, and he becomes caught between caring for Rosamond and blaming her for his downfall. The novel includes the intertwined lives of several other townspeople, which includes a murder plot and social politics that make for a very interesting listen.

©2016 A.R.N. Publications (P)2016 A.R.N. Publications

Great performance. Story lacking.

I enjoyed this book for its performance but couldn’t follow the story. The characters were not compelling. Nevertheless, I finished Middlemarch because many said it was one of the great English novels. I don’t see how. I prefer Dickens. This is purely a bucket list book one reads because others say it’s great, but I did not enjoy it overall.

Terrible reading

Andrea Giordani should stick to narrating in her native language. There are several other recordings of this wonderful novel. I don't know how I chose this one by mistake. And Audible will not let me return or exchange it. Very sad.

So frustrating

What could have made this a 4 or 5-star listening experience for you?

Being able to understand the narrator

What was one of the most memorable moments of Middlemarch?

I only got through 3 or 4 chapters

Who would you have cast as narrator instead of Andrea Giordani?

Almost anyone

Any additional comments?

I listened to this version for several hours, but it was so difficult to understand that I had to switch to another edition. I guess I'm too much of an ugly American...but I could not understand this narrator without devoting all my attention to it.