Middlemarch

The 150th Anniversary Edition introduced by Zadie Smith

Perhaps the greatest novel of them all... An enormous canvas and a vast and poignant range of character...a marvellous portrait of nineteenth-century provincial life

In Middlemarch George Eliot's serious intelligence produced a novel that no one else could have been capable of - a picture of society as an organic, living, breathing synthesis - order and disorder, hope and hopelessness, pride and humility, charity and greed

Middlemarch, the magnificent book which with all its imperfections, is one of the few English novels written for grown-up people

Another great romantic story, in which the adorable intellectually pretentious heroine makes a disastrous marriage to a desiccated fossil before finding true love with a penniless somebody

She had such power, and she knew she had. And such courage 

George Eliot (Author) George Eliot was born in Nuneaton on 22nd November 1819. Baptized Mary Anne Evans, Eliot chose to write using a male pen name. She was sent away to school but returned when her mother died in 1836.She later moved to Coventry with her father.After her father's death she became the Assistant Editor of the Westminster Review in 1851. She also met George Henry Lewes this year and they became partners for the rest of his life. Lewes was already married, although he and his wife both considered their relationship to be an open one, but he and Eliot set up home together, much to the dismay of polite London society. 
 
In 1857 Eliot published Amos Barton in Blackwood's Magazine and in 1859 her novel Adam Bede was published to great acclaim.Her first attempt to write Middlemarch, her most famous novel, ended in failure. Abandoning it, she began a short novella entitled Miss Brooke which was eventually integrated into the final version of Middlemarch. The novel was published serially in eight parts in 1871. Lewes died in 1878 and Eliot married again in 1880. Her husband, John Walter Cross was an American who was twenty years her junior. George Eliot died on 22nd December 1880 at 4 Cheyne Walk, Chelsea and is buried in Highgate Cemetery next to Lewes. Zadie Smith (Introducer) Zadie Smith is the author of the novels White Teeth, The Autograph Man, On Beauty, NW and Swing Time; as well as a novella, The Embassy of Cambodia; three collections of essays, Changing My Mind, Feel Free and Intimations; a collection of short stories, Grand Union; and the play, The Wife of Willesden, adapted from Chaucer. She is also the editor of The Book of Other People. Zadie Smith was born in north-west London, where she still lives. The Fraud is her first historical novel.

150th ANNIVERSARY GIFT EDITION WITH AN INTRODUCTION BY ZADIE SMITH 
 
Discover one of the most admired, best loved and influential novels in the history of English literature. 
 
'If we had a keen vision and feeling of all ordinary human life...' 
 
Dorothea is bright, beautiful and rebellious. Lydgate is the ambitious new doctor in town. Both of them long to make a positive difference in the world. But their stories do not proceed as expected and both they, and the other inhabitants of Middlemarch, must struggle to reconcile themselves to their fates and find their places in the world. 
 
Middlemarch contains all of life: the rich and the poor, the conventional and the radical, literature and science, politics and romance, but above all it gives us a vision of what lies within the human heart. 
 
VINTAGE CLASSICS 150th ANNIVERSARY GIFT EDITION 
George Eliot's novel was first published in eight instalments, in an innovative new style of serialisation. The earliest part, entitled MIDDLEMARCH, Book 1 - Miss Brooke, was published on 1st December 1871. It was an instant commercial and critical success, and continues to captivate readers 150 years later. 
 
**One of the BBC's 100 Novels That Shaped Our World**

Wuthering Heights, Silas Marner, Ethan Frome & Orlando

More BBC Classics

Unabridged readings of four fictional masterpieces 
 
Contained in this collection are four more enduring classics, read in full by some of the very best audiobook narrators. With over 32 hours of irresistible storytelling, tracked by chapter for ease of navigation, this is the perfect way to immerse yourself in these iconic works. 
 
Wuthering Heights 
Emily Brontë's tempestuous tale of passions, betrayal and retribution on the wild Yorkshire moors. Read by Susan Jameson. 
 
Silas Marner 
George Eliot's heart-warming tour de force about a lonely weaver's search for redemption and hope. Read by Sean Baker. 
 
Ethan Frome 
Edith Wharton's powerful, affecting novella about a poverty-stricken young man attempting to escape a loveless marriage. Read by Joseph Ayre. 
 
Orlando 
Virginia Woolf's comic biography of a time-travelling hero whose adventures through the centuries include transforming into a heroine... Read by Clare Corbett. 
 
 
Credits: 
 
Wuthering Heights 
Read by Susan Jameson 
Produced by Ross Burman 
First broadcast on BBC Sounds, 24 August 2019 
 
Silas Marner 
Read by Sean Baker 
Produced by Martha Littlehailes 
First broadcast on BBC Sounds, 22 August 2019 
 
Ethan Frome 
Read by Joseph Ayre 
Produced by Julian Wilkinson 
First broadcast on BBC Sounds, 1 November 2019 
 
Orlando 
Read by Clare Corbett 
Produced by Simon Richardson 
First broadcast on BBC Sounds, 1 November 2019 
 
(p) 2021 BBC Studios Distribution Ltd 
© 2021 BBC Studios Distribution Ltdribution Ltd © 2021 BBC Studios Distribution Ltd

Unabridged readings of four fictional masterpieces 
 
Contained in this collection are four more enduring classics, read in full by some of the very best audiobook narrators. With over 32 hours of irresistible storytelling, tracked by chapter for ease of navigation, this is the perfect way to immerse yourself in these iconic works. 
 
Wuthering Heights 
Emily Brontë's tempestuous tale of passions, betrayal and retribution on the wild Yorkshire moors. Read by Susan Jameson. 
 
Silas Marner 
George Eliot's heart-warming tour de force about a lonely weaver's search for redemption and hope. Read by Sean Baker. 
 
Ethan Frome 
Edith Wharton's powerful, affecting novella about a poverty-stricken young man attempting to escape a loveless marriage. Read by Joseph Ayre. 
 
Orlando 
Virginia Woolf's comic biography of a time-travelling hero whose adventures through the centuries include transforming into a heroine... Read by Clare Corbett. 
 
 
Credits: 
 
Wuthering Heights 
Read by Susan Jameson 
Produced by Ross Burman 
First broadcast on BBC Sounds, 24 August 2019 
 
Silas Marner 
Read by Sean Baker 
Produced by Martha Littlehailes 
First broadcast on BBC Sounds, 22 August 2019 
 
Ethan Frome 
Read by Joseph Ayre 
Produced by Julian Wilkinson 
First broadcast on BBC Sounds, 1 November 2019 
 
Orlando 
Read by Clare Corbett 
Produced by Simon Richardson 
First broadcast on BBC Sounds, 1 November 2019 
 
(p) 2021 BBC Studios Distribution Ltd 
© 2021 BBC Studios Distribution Ltd

Five full-cast dramatisations including Middlemarch, The Mill on the Floss & Silas Marner

The George Eliot BBC Radio Drama Collection

The collected BBC radio adaptations of George Eliot’s pioneering Victorian novels, known for their realism and psychological insight.

One of the greatest English authors of the 19th Century, George Eliot is renowned for her realistic storytelling and insight into the human psyche. This BBC Radio collection presents dramatisations of her five most famous novels, as well as an exploration of her life through her fictional characters. 
 
Adam Bede 
Summer, 1799, and in the Staffordshire village of Hayslope, one of Lisbeth Bede's sons has marriage on his mind... Eliot's haunting story of love betrayed and rewarded stars Thomas Arnold and Victoria Liddelle. 
 
The Mill on the Floss 
Free-spirited country girl Maggie Tulliver must look outside the love of her own family to find the fulfilment she craves. This classic tale of rejection and reconciliation stars Deborah Findlay, Jasmine Hyde, Tom Goodman-Hill and David Tennant. 
 
Silas Marner 
Reclusive, embittered miser Silas Marner finds salvation when he fosters a little foundling girl - but his life with Eppie is threatened when her biological father makes a claim on her... Starring George Costigan and Rebecca Callard. 
 
Middlemarch 
In 1830s England, passionate idealist Dorothea Brooke yearns to right society's wrongs. Starring Caroline Martin, Robert Glenister and Roger Allam. 
 
Daniel Deronda 
From the moment their eyes meet across a packed gaming room, Gwendolen Harleth and Daniel Deronda are irresistibly drawn to one another - and their fates become eternally and tragically entwined. Starring Anna Chancellor and Michael Perceval-Maxwell. 
 
In George Eliot: A Life in Five Characters, presenter Kathryn Hughes paints a portrait of the author through her key characters, as she talks to Eliot's biographer Philip Davis and authors Tessa Hadley, Sarah Moss, Sathnam Sangera, David Constantine and Kathy O'Shaughnessy. 
 
 
First published 1859 (Adam Bede), 1860 (The Mill on the Floss), 1861 (Silas Marner), 1871-72 (Middlemarch), 1876 (Daniel Deronda) 
 
©2020 BBC Studios Distribution Ltd (P)2020 BBC Studios Distribution Ltd

One of the greatest English authors of the 19th Century, George Eliot is renowned for her realistic storytelling and insight into the human psyche. This BBC Radio collection presents dramatisations of her five most famous novels, as well as an exploration of her life through her fictional characters. 
 
Adam Bede 
Summer, 1799, and in the Staffordshire village of Hayslope, one of Lisbeth Bede's sons has marriage on his mind... Eliot's haunting story of love betrayed and rewarded stars Thomas Arnold and Victoria Liddelle. 
 
The Mill on the Floss 
Free-spirited country girl Maggie Tulliver must look outside the love of her own family to find the fulfilment she craves. This classic tale of rejection and reconciliation stars Deborah Findlay, Jasmine Hyde, Tom Goodman-Hill and David Tennant. 
 
Silas Marner 
Reclusive, embittered miser Silas Marner finds salvation when he fosters a little foundling girl - but his life with Eppie is threatened when her biological father makes a claim on her... Starring George Costigan and Rebecca Callard. 
 
Middlemarch 
In 1830s England, passionate idealist Dorothea Brooke yearns to right society's wrongs. Starring Caroline Martin, Robert Glenister and Roger Allam. 
 
Daniel Deronda 
From the moment their eyes meet across a packed gaming room, Gwendolen Harleth and Daniel Deronda are irresistibly drawn to one another - and their fates become eternally and tragically entwined. Starring Anna Chancellor and Michael Perceval-Maxwell. 
 
In George Eliot: A Life in Five Characters, presenter Kathryn Hughes paints a portrait of the author through her key characters, as she talks to Eliot's biographer Philip Davis and authors Tessa Hadley, Sarah Moss, Sathnam Sangera, David Constantine and Kathy O'Shaughnessy. 
 
 
First published 1859 (Adam Bede), 1860 (The Mill on the Floss), 1861 (Silas Marner), 1871-72 (Middlemarch), 1876 (Daniel Deronda) 
 
©2020 BBC Studios Distribution Ltd (P)2020 BBC Studios Distribution Ltd

A BBC Radio 4 full-cast dramatisation

George Eliot's beloved story of life, love and politics in an English town, as heard on BBC Radio 4 – plus bonus documentary In Our Time: Middlemarch

George Eliot's beloved story of life, love and politics in an English town 
 
A jewel in the classic literature crown, Middlemarch was selected as one of the BBC’s ‘100 Novels That Shaped Our World’. Its epic arc takes in politics, tragedy, romance and comedy, interweaving multiple narratives to make up a thrilling ensemble tale. 
 
Set in the 1830s, this ‘study of provincial life’ introduces us to young, idealistic Dorothea Brooke, who accepts a proposal from scholarly Edward Casaubon, hoping to forge a loving partnership of intellectual equals. But on honeymoon in Rome, she swiftly becomes disillusioned. Trapped in an unhappy marriage, she finds solace in her friendship with Casaubon’s cousin, Will Ladislaw – only for her controlling husband to suspect her of betrayal, and set out to test her loyalty. 
 
Meanwhile, mayor’s son Fred Vincy embarks on a steep economic learning curve, risking his burgeoning relationship with Mary Garth. When he contracts typhoid, he is treated by the town’s new medical man, Tertius Lydgate, who becomes drawn to Fred’s sister, Rosamond. Eager to win her hand, the doctor seeks help from the wealthy Mr Bulstrode – a decision he will come to regret... 
 
As their stories shift, viewpoints twist together and lives collide and realign in a compelling ‘convergence of human lots’ that shows us an entire world in microcosm. Juliet Aubrey stars as the Narrator, George Eliot, with Olivia Vinall as Dorothea, Charles Edwards as Casaubon and John Heffernan as Dr Lydgate. 
 
Also featured is a bonus edition of In Our Time, in which Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss George Eliot’s classic novel, described by Virginia Woolf as ‘one of the few English novels written for grown-up people'. 
 
Cast and credits 
 The Narrator, George Eliot – Juliet Aubrey 
Dorothea – Olivia Vinall 
Edward Casaubon – Charles Edwards 
Dr Lydgate – John Heffernan 
Will Ladislaw – Joseph Quinn 
Arthur Brooke/Caleb Garth/Mr Trumball – Neil McCaul 
Sir James Chettam – Hugh Skinner 
Rev Farebrother – Miles Jupp 
Nicholas Bulstrode – Adrian Scarborough 
Celia – Lucy Reynolds 
Peter Featherstone/Standish/John Raffles – Clive Hayward 
Fred Vincy/Auction bidder – Will Kirk 
Rosamond – Laura Christy 
Mr Vincy/Mr Bambridge – Rick Warden 
Mrs Cadwallader/Mrs Plymdale – Jessica Turner 
Adolf Naumann/Barman – Adam Courting 
Dr Hawley/Clerk – Greg Jones 
Servant/Mrs Abel – Sinead MacInnes 
Tantripp/Mary Garth – Scarlett Courtney 
Mrs Garth – Alison Belbin 
Letty Garth – Grace Doherty 
Farmer/Mr Hopkins – Ikky Elyas 
Tertius Lydgate – John Heffernan 
Harriet Bulstrode – Rosie Cavaliero 
Mrs Vincy/Farebrother’s aunt – Heather Craney 
 
Written by George Eliot 
Adapted by Katie Hims 
Directed by Jessica Dromgoole and Tracey Neale 
 
First broadcast BBC Radio 4, 23 November-7 December 2019

The Mill on the Floss

George Eliot’s classic Victorian epic about a brother and sister pitted against one another in love and life – plus bonus programme Free Thinking: George Eliot's Mill on the Floss

George Eliot’s classic Victorian epic about a brother and sister pitted against one another in love and life, starring Anna Maxwell Martin 
 
Based on George Eliot’s own rural upbringing and relationship with her estranged brother, The Mill on the Floss is a powerful, dynamic tale of familial rejection, sibling rivalry and what happens when the head confronts the heart. 
 
Growing up at Dorlcote Mill in the beautiful English countryside, young Maggie yearns for approval and affection. With her dark, striking looks and quick intelligence she is the misfit of the Tulliver family, and while her father dotes on her, her mother despairs of her rebelliousness. But it is the love of her stolid, dutiful brother Tom that Maggie craves most, and despite their opposing natures, the two forge a close bond. 
 
But as adults, their paths diverge. Following their father’s bankruptcy, Tom leaves school and enters the world of business, determined to repay the family’s debts and regain their home.Maggie, meanwhile, is drawn to two very different men: kindred spirit Philip Wakem, the son of her father's enemy, and the charming, seductive Stephen Guest, already promised to her cousin, Lucy. 
 
As she struggles to reconcile passion and loyalty, the choices Maggie makes will set her against her beloved brother – with tragic consequences... 
 
This stunning adaption is full of humour and high drama, and features a rich, filmic soundscape. 
 
Also included is bonus programme Free Thinking: George Eliot’s Mill on the Floss, hosted by Shahidha Bari, in which writer Rebecca Mead, actor Fiona Shaw and academics Dafydd Mills Daniel, Philip Davis and Peggy Reynolds discuss the background to Eliot’s much-loved 1860 novel and read selected extracts. 
 
Cast 
George Eliot, the Narrator ….. Anna Maxwell Martin 
 Young Maggie ….. Amy-Jayne Leigh 
 Young Tom ….. Oliver Zetterstrom 
 Young Lucy ….. Grace Doherty 
 Mr Tulliver ….. Roger Ringrose 
 Mrs Tulliver ….. Alison Belbin 
 Maggie ….. Joanna Vanderham 
 Tom ….. Will Kirk 
 Lucy ….. Ell Potter 
 Philip ….. Chris Lew Kum Hoi 
 Stephen ….. Jack Farthing 
 Mrs Moss ….. Heather Craney 
 Mr Wakem ….. John Dougall 
 Mrs Glegg ….. Elizabeth Counsell 
 Mr Stelling ….. John Lightbody 
 Dr Kenn ….. Hasan Dixon 
 Luke/Bob ….. Kurtis Lowe 
 Keiza/Sally ….. Bettrys Jones 
 
Written by George Eliot 
Adapted by Rhiannon Tise 
Produced and directed by Tracey Neale 
Studio Managers: Keith Graham, Mike Etherden, Jenni Burnett &amp; Alison Craig 
Production Co-Ordinator: Anne Isger 
First broadcast BBC Radio 4, 6-17 April 2020 
 
Free Thinking: George Eliot’s Mill on the Floss 
Presented by Shahidha Bari 
With Rebecca Mead, Fiona Shaw, Dafydd Mills Daniel, Philip Davis and Peggy Reynolds 
Produced by Fiona McLean

Silas Marner

A heartwarming and poignant tale of a lonely man brought back to life and faith

A great novel of unquenchable optimism and boundless humanity

It is a book that lifts your heart, makes you feel spiritually enriched and persuades you of the potential goodness of human nature

Eliot's finest pastoral tale... notable for the sharpness of its rural detail, its tactful symbolism and its variation between high melodrama and broad comedy

George Eliot was born in Nuneaton on 22nd November 1819. Baptized Mary Anne Evans, Eliot chose to write using a male pen name. She was sent away to school but returned when her mother died in 1836.She later moved to Coventry with her father.After her father's death she became the Assistant Editor of the Westminster Review in 1851. She also met George Henry Lewes this year and they became partners for the rest of his life. Lewes was already married, although he and his wife both considered their relationship to be an open one, but he and Eliot set up home together, much to the dismay of polite London society. 
 
In 1857 Eliot published Amos Barton in Blackwood's Magazine and in 1859 her novel Adam Bede was published to great acclaim.Her first attempt to write Middlemarch, her most famous novel, ended in failure. Abandoning it, she began a short novella entitled Miss Brooke which was eventually integrated into the final version of Middlemarch. The novel was published serially in eight parts in 1871. Lewes died in 1878 and Eliot married again in 1880. Her husband, John Walter Cross was an American who was twenty years her junior. George Eliot died on 22nd December 1880 at 4 Cheyne Walk, Chelsea and is buried in Highgate Cemetery next to Lewes.

A heartwarming and poignant tale of a lonely man brought back to life and faith. 
 
 Silas Marner lives a friendless and isolated existence near the country village of Raveloe, hoarding his gold. One night his fortune is stolen and Silas loses everything he holds dear. But then the golden-haired child Eppie appears in his home, and Silas begins to reform bonds of faith and human connectedness that he once renounced forever. 
 
 'A great novel of unquenchable optimism and boundless humanity' Guardian

George Eliot

Abridged Edition

With carefully adapted text, new illustrations, language practise activities and additional online resources, the Penguin Readers series introduces language learners to bestselling authors and compelling content. Titles include popular classics, exciting contemporary fiction, and thought-provoking non-fiction. 
 
The Mill on the Floss, a Level 4 Reader, is A2+ in the CEFR framework. The text is made up of sentences with up to three clauses, introducing more complex uses of present perfect simple, passives, phrasal verbs and simple relative clauses. It is well supported by illustrations, which appear regularly. 
 
Maggie lives with her brother Tom in a mill by the river Floss. Maggie loves Tom and Tom loves Maggie, but they are very different. When Tom's father loses all his money, Maggie and Tom must try and help their parents to keep the mill.

Penguin Readers Level 4: The Mill on the Floss (ELT Graded Reader)

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