My Life in Middlemarch

Starred review from October 7, 2013
In this deeply satisfying hybrid work of literary criticism, biography, and memoir, New Yorker staff writer Mead (One Perfect Day: The Selling of the American Wedding) brings to vivid life the profound engagement that she and all devoted readers experience with a favorite novel over a lifetime. Her love affair with Middlemarch and its author, George Eliot, began when 17-year-old Mead was growing up in southwest England. Here, she wants to “go back to being a reader,” and sets out to rediscover Eliot, visiting the places Eliot lived, studying her letters, and even holding a journal in Eliot’s own handwriting. In Mead’s rendering, Eliot proves a deeply loving partner and devoted stepmother. Mead’s considerable scholarship is accessible and revelatory to anyone who cares about what Eliot calls “the common yearning of womanhood.” Mead, who identifies strongly with aspects of Eliot’s life and that of the characters in Middlemarch, returns to the novel during various stages of her life: as a young Englishwoman finding her way in New York; in relationships with difficult men; as a stepmother and wife; and eventually as the mother of a son. As Mead writes: “There are books that seem to comprehend us just as much as we understand them… books that grow with the reader as the reader grows.” Passionate readers, even those new to Middlemarch, will relish this book. Agent: Kathy Robbins, the Robbins Office.

Starred review from May 15, 2014

In her charming bibliomemoir, Mead (One Perfect Day) illustrates the power of great literature, revealing how a lifetime of reading George Eliot's Middlemarch: A Study of Provincial Life has influenced, and even transformed, her life. First released in serial format in 1871, Mary Ann Evans's--Eliot was a pen name--classic tale of 19th-century English country life features a diverse cast of characters and themes. When British-born Mead first read Middlemarch as a teenager, she immediately identified with those characters, who longed to escape provincial life. As Mead read and reread Middlemarch throughout her life, she found it always had something new and relevant to say to her. VERDICT Rich with information about Eliot's life and work and beautifully read by Kate Reading, this title will delight Eliot enthusiasts, contemporary memoir fans, and those who enjoy "books about reading books." ["Even the reader who has never heard of George Eliot will find Mead's crisp, exacting prose absorbing and thought-provoking," read the starred review of the Crown hc, LJ 12/13.]--Beth Farrell, Cleveland State Univ. Law Lib.

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