Middlemarch is an absolute feat of character writing. For any other book, to have even one character so thoroughly realized as these ones would be an impressive accomplishment, and Eliot manages to construct complete psychological worlds, motivations, and conflicts for a whole extensive cast of characters. She treats each of her characters with the utmost care and attention, and makes observations about people and relationships that feel extremely poignant even to the contemporary reader. Even the minor characters absolutely shine, and moving through their lives over the course of 3 years was more than sufficient to sustain my interest for the book's entire 700-page duration.

This book is full of charming and delightful turns of phrase and I was surprised by how funny and enjoyable I found Eliot's clever use of language. In both the writing and storytelling, Eliot shows herself a master of her craft. I found that I began to flag just a bit around the 65% mark or so, at which point we had spent considerable time setting up for impending conflict, but reading this book with patience and pleasure in equal measure made the pay-off of the book's resolutions that much more rewarding. It has a beautiful theme of what it means to be truly good without ever feeling preachy or didactic.