Reviews
"Rebecca Mead has written a singular and inventive tale about her favorite book, and how it has changed - and changed her - over many years of reading and re-reading. Anyone who has ever loved the characters in a novel as dearly as we love our own families will recognize the passion, the devotion, the intimacy and the joy of returning again and again to a revered classic. Both a memoir and a biography, both an homage and a homecoming, My Life in Middlemarch is a perfectly composed offering of literary love and self-observation. I adored it, and it will forever live on my bookshelf next to my own precious paperbacks of George Eliot." Elizabeth Gilbert, author of The Signature of All Things "Rebecca Mead's My Life in Middlemarch is a wise, humane, and delightful study of what some regard as the best novel in English. Mead has discovered an original and highly personal way to make herself an inhabitant both of the book and of George Eliot's imaginary city. Though I have read and taught the book these many years I find myself desiring to go back to it after reading Rebecca Mead's work." Harold Bloom "Not quite biography, not quite memoir, not quite literary criticism, My Life in Middlemarch is a wonderfully intelligent exploration of a great novel and its great author. I loved Mead's empathy, her insight and her restraint and I devoured her deliciously readable pages." Margot Livesey, author of The Flight of Gemma Hardy, "Rebecca Mead has written a singular and inventive tale about her favorite book, and how it has changed -- and changed her -- over many years of reading and re-reading. Anyone who has ever loved the characters in a novel as dearly as we love our own families will recognize the passion, the devotion, the intimacy and the joy of returning again and again to a revered classic. Both a memoir and a biography, both an homage and a homecoming, My Life in Middlemarch is a perfectly composed offering of literary love and self-observation. I adored it, and it will forever live on my bookshelf next to my own precious paperbacks of George Eliot." -Elizabeth Gilbert, author of Eat, Pray, Love and The Signature of All Things "Rebecca Mead's My Life in Middlemarch is a wise, humane, and delightful study of what some regard as the best novel in English. Mead has discovered an original and highly personal way to make herself an inhabitant both of the book and of George Eliot's imaginary city. Though I have read and taught the book these many years I find myself desiring to go back to it after reading Rebecca Mead's work." -Harold Bloom "Not quite biography, not quite memoir, not quite literary criticism, My Life in Middlemarch is a wonderfully intelligent exploration of a great novel and its great author. I loved Mead's empathy, her insight and her restraint and I devoured her deliciously readable pages." -Margot Livesey, author of The Flight of Gemma Hardy "Rebecca Mead's marvelous book tells us everything we need to know about the greatest of all English novels. She gives us Middlemarch's characters-their marriages, their world-and she gives us George Eliot herself, a woman whose self-doubt led her into wisdom. But that's just the start. Mead reads with passion and care, and she allows the novel to irradiate her own life-to tell her, with each successive rereading, just who she is and how she's changed. Indeed she suggests that Middlemarch is the book that made her grow up, and in showing us the difference it's made to her she shows how it can make a difference in your own life too." -Michael Gorra, author of Portrait of a Novel, "Mead beautifully conveys the excitement of living in a novel, of knowing its characters as if they breathed, of revisiting them over time and seeing them differently. She conveys, too, not at all heavy-handedly, the particular relationship one develops with an author whose work one loves....There is a meticulous underlying order to the book, structured to mirror Middlemarch itself, but as in a letter, the effect is of spontaneous movement, the particular thrill of following a mind untrammeled." - Claire Messud, Bookforum "In this deeply satisfying hybrid work of literary criticism, biography, and memoir, New Yorker staff writer Mead brings to vivid life the profound engagement that she and all devoted readers experience with a favorite novel over a lifetime....Passionate readers, even those new to Middlemarch , will relish this book." - Publishers Weekly (starred) "Rebecca Mead has written a singular and inventive tale about her favorite book, and how it has changed -- and changed her -- over many years of reading and re-reading. Anyone who has ever loved the characters in a novel as dearly as we love our own families will recognize the passion, the devotion, the intimacy and the joy of returning again and again to a revered classic. Both a memoir and a biography, both an homage and a homecoming, My Life in Middlemarch is a perfectly composed offering of literary love and self-observation. I adored it, and it will forever live on my bookshelf next to my own precious paperbacks of George Eliot." -Elizabeth Gilbert, author of Eat, Pray, Love and The Signature of All Things "Rebecca Mead's My Life in Middlemarch is a wise, humane, and delightful study of what some regard as the best novel in English. Mead has discovered an original and highly personal way to make herself an inhabitant both of the book and of George Eliot's imaginary city. Though I have read and taught the book these many years I find myself desiring to go back to it after reading Rebecca Mead's work." -Harold Bloom "Not quite biography, not quite memoir, not quite literary criticism, My Life in Middlemarch is a wonderfully intelligent exploration of a great novel and its great author. I loved Mead's empathy, her insight and her restraint and I devoured her deliciously readable pages." -Margot Livesey, author of The Flight of Gemma Hardy "Rebecca Mead's marvelous book tells us everything we need to know about the greatest of all English novels. She gives us Middlemarch's characters-their marriages, their world-and she gives us George Eliot herself, a woman whose self-doubt led her into wisdom. But that's just the start. Mead reads with passion and care, and she allows the novel to irradiate her own life-to tell her, with each successive rereading, just who she is and how she's changed. Indeed she suggests that Middlemarch is the book that made her grow up, and in showing us the difference it's made to her she shows how it can make a difference in your own life too." -Michael Gorra, author of Portrait of a Novel My Life in Middlemarch is both unclassifiable and irresistible: a smart, absorbing glimpse into two lives--George Eliot's and Rebecca Mead's--as well as a lively meditation on Middlemarch . Intelligent, insightful, and generous in her judgments, Mead is a delightful guide--winsome and engaging." -- Adelle Waldman, author of The Love Affairs of Nathaniel P., "In this deeply satisfying hybrid work of literary criticism, biography, and memoir, New Yorker staff writer Mead brings to vivid life the profound engagement that she and all devoted readers experience with a favorite novel over a lifetime....Passionate readers, even those new to Middlemarch , will relish this book." - Publishers Weekly (starred) "Rebecca Mead has written a singular and inventive tale about her favorite book, and how it has changed -- and changed her -- over many years of reading and re-reading. Anyone who has ever loved the characters in a novel as dearly as we love our own families will recognize the passion, the devotion, the intimacy and the joy of returning again and again to a revered classic. Both a memoir and a biography, both an homage and a homecoming, My Life in Middlemarch is a perfectly composed offering of literary love and self-observation. I adored it, and it will forever live on my bookshelf next to my own precious paperbacks of George Eliot." -Elizabeth Gilbert, author of Eat, Pray, Love and The Signature of All Things "Rebecca Mead's My Life in Middlemarch is a wise, humane, and delightful study of what some regard as the best novel in English. Mead has discovered an original and highly personal way to make herself an inhabitant both of the book and of George Eliot's imaginary city. Though I have read and taught the book these many years I find myself desiring to go back to it after reading Rebecca Mead's work." -Harold Bloom "Not quite biography, not quite memoir, not quite literary criticism, My Life in Middlemarch is a wonderfully intelligent exploration of a great novel and its great author. I loved Mead's empathy, her insight and her restraint and I devoured her deliciously readable pages." -Margot Livesey, author of The Flight of Gemma Hardy "Rebecca Mead's marvelous book tells us everything we need to know about the greatest of all English novels. She gives us Middlemarch's characters-their marriages, their world-and she gives us George Eliot herself, a woman whose self-doubt led her into wisdom. But that's just the start. Mead reads with passion and care, and she allows the novel to irradiate her own life-to tell her, with each successive rereading, just who she is and how she's changed. Indeed she suggests that Middlemarch is the book that made her grow up, and in showing us the difference it's made to her she shows how it can make a difference in your own life too." -Michael Gorra, author of Portrait of a Novel, "In this deeply satisfying hybrid work of literary criticism, biography, and memoir, New Yorker staff writer Mead brings to vivid life the profound engagement that she and all devoted readers experience with a favorite novel over a lifetime....Passionate readers, even those new to Middlemarch , will relish this book." - Publishers Weekly (starred) "Rebecca Mead has written a singular and inventive tale about her favorite book, and how it has changed -- and changed her -- over many years of reading and re-reading. Anyone who has ever loved the characters in a novel as dearly as we love our own families will recognize the passion, the devotion, the intimacy and the joy of returning again and again to a revered classic. Both a memoir and a biography, both an homage and a homecoming, My Life in Middlemarch is a perfectly composed offering of literary love and self-observation. I adored it, and it will forever live on my bookshelf next to my own precious paperbacks of George Eliot." -Elizabeth Gilbert, author of Eat, Pray, Love and The Signature of All Things "Rebecca Mead's My Life in Middlemarch is a wise, humane, and delightful study of what some regard as the best novel in English. Mead has discovered an original and highly personal way to make herself an inhabitant both of the book and of George Eliot's imaginary city. Though I have read and taught the book these many years I find myself desiring to go back to it after reading Rebecca Mead's work." -Harold Bloom "Not quite biography, not quite memoir, not quite literary criticism, My Life in Middlemarch is a wonderfully intelligent exploration of a great novel and its great author. I loved Mead's empathy, her insight and her restraint and I devoured her deliciously readable pages." -Margot Livesey, author of The Flight of Gemma Hardy "Rebecca Mead's marvelous book tells us everything we need to know about the greatest of all English novels. She gives us Middlemarch's characters-their marriages, their world-and she gives us George Eliot herself, a woman whose self-doubt led her into wisdom. But that's just the start. Mead reads with passion and care, and she allows the novel to irradiate her own life-to tell her, with each successive rereading, just who she is and how she's changed. Indeed she suggests that Middlemarch is the book that made her grow up, and in showing us the difference it's made to her she shows how it can make a difference in your own life too." -Michael Gorra, author of Portrait of a Novel My Life in Middlemarch is both unclassifiable and irresistible: a smart, absorbing glimpse into two lives--George Eliot's and Rebecca Mead's--as well as a lively meditation on Middlemarch . Intelligent, insightful, and generous in her judgments, Mead is a delightful guide--winsome and engaging." -- Adelle Waldman, author of The Love Affairs of Nathaniel P., "Mead beautifully conveys the excitement of living in a novel, of knowing its characters as if they breathed, of revisiting them over time and seeing them differently. She conveys, too, not at all heavy-handedly, the particular relationship one develops with an author whose work one loves....There is a meticulous underlying order to the book, structured to mirror Middlemarch itself, but as in a letter, the effect is of spontaneous movement, the particular thrill of following a mind untrammeled." - Claire Messud, Bookforum "In this deeply satisfying hybrid work of literary criticism, biography, and memoir, New Yorker staff writer Mead brings to vivid life the profound engagement that she and all devoted readers experience with a favorite novel over a lifetime....Passionate readers, even those new to Middlemarch , will relish this book." - Publishers Weekly (starred) "A rare and remarkable fusion of techniques that draws two women together across time and space." - Kirkus Reviews (starred) "Rebecca Mead has written a singular and inventive tale about her favorite book, and how it has changed -- and changed her -- over many years of reading and re-reading. Anyone who has ever loved the characters in a novel as dearly as we love our own families will recognize the passion, the devotion, the intimacy and the joy of returning again and again to a revered classic. Both a memoir and a biography, both an homage and a homecoming, My Life in Middlemarch is a perfectly composed offering of literary love and self-observation. I adored it, and it will forever live on my bookshelf next to my own precious paperbacks of George Eliot." -Elizabeth Gilbert, author of Eat, Pray, Love and The Signature of All Things "Rebecca Mead's My Life in Middlemarch is a wise, humane, and delightful study of what some regard as the best novel in English. Mead has discovered an original and highly personal way to make herself an inhabitant both of the book and of George Eliot's imaginary city. Though I have read and taught the book these many years I find myself desiring to go back to it after reading Rebecca Mead's work." -Harold Bloom "Not quite biography, not quite memoir, not quite literary criticism, My Life in Middlemarch is a wonderfully intelligent exploration of a great novel and its great author. I loved Mead's empathy, her insight and her restraint and I devoured her deliciously readable pages." -Margot Livesey, author of The Flight of Gemma Hardy "Rebecca Mead's marvelous book tells us everything we need to know about the greatest of all English novels. She gives us Middlemarch's characters-their marriages, their world-and she gives us George Eliot herself, a woman whose self-doubt led her into wisdom. But that's just the start. Mead reads with passion and care, and she allows the novel to irradiate her own life-to tell her, with each successive rereading, just who she is and how she's changed. Indeed she suggests that Middlemarch is the book that made her grow up, and in showing us the difference it's made to her she shows how it can make a difference in your own life too." -Michael Gorra, author of Portrait of a Novel My Life in Middlemarch is both unclassifiable and irresistible: a smart, absorbing glimpse into two lives--George Eliot's and Rebecca Mead's--as well as a lively meditation on Middlemarch . Intelligent, insightful, and generous in her judgments, Mead is a delightful guide--winsome and engaging." -- Adelle Waldman, author of The Love Affairs of Nathaniel P., "Rebecca Mead's My Life in Middlemarch is a wise, humane, and delightful study of what some regard as the best novel in English. Mead has discovered an original and highly personal way to make herself an inhabitant both of the book and of George Eliot's imaginary city. Though I have read and taught the book these many years I find myself desiring to go back to it after reading Rebecca Mead's work." Harold Bloom
