George Elliot

This novel is set in the fictitious Midlands town of Middlemarch during the period 1830-32. It has a multiple plot with a large cast of characters, and in addition to its distinct though interlocking narratives it pursues a number of underlying themes, including the status of women, the nature of marriage, idealism and self-interest, religion and hypocrisy, political reform, and education. The pace is leisurely, the tone is mildly didactic (with an authorial voice that occasionally bursts through the narrative), and the canvas is very broad.

Middlemarch

Beatrix

‘Souls have complexions too: what will suit one will not suit another’

 "… All choice of words is slang. It marks a class.”                                              “There is correct English: that is not slang.”                                                        “I beg your pardon: correct English is the slang of prigs who write history and essays. And the strongest slang of all is the slang of poets.”

Liv Gliese Johnsen

She was not in the least teaching Mr Casaubon to ask if he were good enough for her, but merely asking herself anxiously how she could be good enough for Mr Casaubon

 '(…) All choice of words is slang. It marks a class." 

‘There is correct English: that is not slang’

‘I beg you pardon: correct English is the slang of prigs who write history and essays (…)’

And before they had ridden a mile she was far on in the costume and introduction of her wedded life, having determined on her house in Middlemarch, and foreseen the visits she would pay to her husband’s high-bred relatives

Zeke Taylor

It is true that [Casaubon] knew all the classical passages implying the contrary [namely, that a genuine affection for the romantic partner leads to some kind of delight or at least more enchantment than “normal life”]; but knowing classical passages, we find, is a mode of motion, which explains why they leave so little extra force for their personal application.

That's the long and the short of it, Mary. Young folks may get fond of each other before they know what life is, and they may think it all holiday if they can only get together; but it soon turns into working day, my dear. However, you have more sense than most, and you haven't been kept in cotton-wool: there may be no occasion for me to say this, but a father trembles for his daughter, and you are all by yourself here.

(Need to clean up the wording/spelling after photo scanned text)

It swonderful how much uglier things will look when we only suspect tat we are blamed for them, Even our own persons in the glass are pt to change their aspect for us after we have heard some frank remark 0n their less admirable points; and on the other hand it is astonishing toW pleasantly conscience takes our encroachments on those who never Omplain or have nobody to complain for them. Dagley's hómestead DRVer heforo Joe it did today, with his

“When one sees a perfect woman, one never thinks of her attributes — one is conscious of her presence.”

Idea of utilitarian beliefs overruling actual concrete relationships

There is no general doctrine which is not capable of eating out our morality if unchecked by the deep-seated habit of direct fellow-feeling with individual fellow-men.

Middlemarch quotes

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