Middlemarch

Discussion questions for Middlemarch

Bring these to your book club — or discuss them with readers on Readfeed.

1. 1

   How does the provincial setting of Middlemarch shape the ambitions, limitations, and daily lives of its residents, and how might a similar story unfold in a modern small town?

2. 2

   Dorothea Brooke and Tertius Lydgate both start with grand, idealistic visions of contributing to society; how do their initial ideals clash with the reality of their choices, and in what ways do we sometimes compromise our own youthful ambitions?

3. 3

   George Eliot famously explores the concept of unhistoric acts and the quiet, unremembered impacts people have on the world; who in the novel do you think leaves the most enduring legacy, and how does this theme apply to your own life?