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About
Rebecca Mead was a young woman in a coastal town of England when she first read George Eliot's Middlemarch. After gaining admission to Oxford, and moving to the United States to become a journalist, through several love affairs and then marriage and family, Rebecca Mead reread Middlemarch. The novel, which Virginia Woolf famously described as "one of the few English novels written for grown-up people," offered Mead something that modern life and literature did not.
In this wise and revealing work of biography, reporting, and memoir, Rebecca Mead leads the reader into the life that her favorite book made for her, as well as the many lives the novel has led since it was written. Employing a structure that perfectly mirrors that of the novel, My Life in Middlemarch takes the themes of Eliot's novel and brings them into the world. Offering both a fascinating reading of Eliot's biography and an uncanny portrait of the ways in which Mead's life echoes that of the author herself, My Life in Middlemarch is a book for who wonders about the power of literature to shape our lives. Named USA Today's February 2015 Critic's Pick
A Globe and Mail Best Book of 2014
A Kirkus Reviews Best Nonfiction Book of 2014
"Very charming." —Flavorwire
"[S]mart, delightful blend of biography, memoir, reportage, and a celebration of George Eliot's most famous novel." —USA Today
"My Life in Middlemarch is a poignant testimony to the abiding power of fiction."
-The New York Times Book Review
"Clearly, this book was a pleasure for Mead to write-it's personal, intimate yet rigorously researched-and it seems to have deepened her relationship with the novel she loves so much. Her passion proves infectious for the reader as well, and My Life in Middlemarch will surely encourage readers to discover Eliot's masterpiece for the first time-what an enviable experience-or, like Mead, to regard it as a lifelong and steadfast companion."
-USA Today
"Fans of this Victorian mainstay-or, really, any book lover in a passionate long-term relationship with a novel-will find Mead's research and analysis deeply gratifying. And if you haven't ever read Middlemarch, Mead's lucid writing will send you straight to the bookstore ... A-."
-Entertainment Weekly
"Anyone who believes that books have the power to shape lives and that 'our own lives can teach us how to read a book' will respond with fascination and delight to Mead's evolving appreciation of the richness and relevance of Eliot's masterwork."
-O Magazine
"Part memoir, part biography, part literary appreciation, My Life in Middlemarch is pure pleasure."
-NPR
"Mead's writing will make you want to read Middlemarch if you haven't, and re-read it if you have. Mead's is a wonderful close reading of not just a book, but also a life, and a life in reading."
-Slate
"[Mead] invites empathy, an exercise of which George Eliot would be unmistakably proud."
-Boston Globe
"My Life in Middlemarch, which I loved, follows not just the different things Mead got out of Middlemarch at different times in her life, but her personal, even tactile attempts to better know Eliot."
-Washington Post
"In this nuanced look at Middlemarch, Mead offers a fresh and vibrant portrait of Eliot, an entrancing memoir and a passionate homage to the riches of rereading."
-Newsday
"Mead's journey is in the service of an intellectual pilgrimage, her attempt to 'discern the ways in which George Eliot's life shaped her fiction, and how her fiction shaped her.' There are pleasures to be gleaned from this quest. For one thing, My Life in Middlemarch serves as an astute primer on the novel."
-Chicago Tribune
"Though Mead's regard for Eliot is obvious, you don't need to be a Middlemarch fan to appreciate My Life in Middlemarc
In this wise and revealing work of biography, reporting, and memoir, Rebecca Mead leads the reader into the life that her favorite book made for her, as well as the many lives the novel has led since it was written. Employing a structure that perfectly mirrors that of the novel, My Life in Middlemarch takes the themes of Eliot's novel and brings them into the world. Offering both a fascinating reading of Eliot's biography and an uncanny portrait of the ways in which Mead's life echoes that of the author herself, My Life in Middlemarch is a book for who wonders about the power of literature to shape our lives. Named USA Today's February 2015 Critic's Pick
A Globe and Mail Best Book of 2014
A Kirkus Reviews Best Nonfiction Book of 2014
"Very charming." —Flavorwire
"[S]mart, delightful blend of biography, memoir, reportage, and a celebration of George Eliot's most famous novel." —USA Today
"My Life in Middlemarch is a poignant testimony to the abiding power of fiction."
-The New York Times Book Review
"Clearly, this book was a pleasure for Mead to write-it's personal, intimate yet rigorously researched-and it seems to have deepened her relationship with the novel she loves so much. Her passion proves infectious for the reader as well, and My Life in Middlemarch will surely encourage readers to discover Eliot's masterpiece for the first time-what an enviable experience-or, like Mead, to regard it as a lifelong and steadfast companion."
-USA Today
"Fans of this Victorian mainstay-or, really, any book lover in a passionate long-term relationship with a novel-will find Mead's research and analysis deeply gratifying. And if you haven't ever read Middlemarch, Mead's lucid writing will send you straight to the bookstore ... A-."
-Entertainment Weekly
"Anyone who believes that books have the power to shape lives and that 'our own lives can teach us how to read a book' will respond with fascination and delight to Mead's evolving appreciation of the richness and relevance of Eliot's masterwork."
-O Magazine
"Part memoir, part biography, part literary appreciation, My Life in Middlemarch is pure pleasure."
-NPR
"Mead's writing will make you want to read Middlemarch if you haven't, and re-read it if you have. Mead's is a wonderful close reading of not just a book, but also a life, and a life in reading."
-Slate
"[Mead] invites empathy, an exercise of which George Eliot would be unmistakably proud."
-Boston Globe
"My Life in Middlemarch, which I loved, follows not just the different things Mead got out of Middlemarch at different times in her life, but her personal, even tactile attempts to better know Eliot."
-Washington Post
"In this nuanced look at Middlemarch, Mead offers a fresh and vibrant portrait of Eliot, an entrancing memoir and a passionate homage to the riches of rereading."
-Newsday
"Mead's journey is in the service of an intellectual pilgrimage, her attempt to 'discern the ways in which George Eliot's life shaped her fiction, and how her fiction shaped her.' There are pleasures to be gleaned from this quest. For one thing, My Life in Middlemarch serves as an astute primer on the novel."
-Chicago Tribune
"Though Mead's regard for Eliot is obvious, you don't need to be a Middlemarch fan to appreciate My Life in Middlemarc