Middlemarch: George Eliot

Since its first appearance in 1871-2, Middlemarch has been hailed by successive generations of writers and readers for its authentic view of life in a small English town in the run-up to the Reform Bill of 1832. Addressing such themes as marriage, religion, hypocrisy and political reform, Middlemarch follows the relationships of various couples and their success or failure, placing the position of women in society at the centre of the work. In 2007, an author poll conducted by Time Magazine placed the novel as one of the 10 greatest ever written.