Widely regarded as one of the greatest novels in the English language, Middlemarch is the masterpiece of George Eliot. Set in a provincial English town during the 1830s, the novel follows several interconnected lives, most notably Dorothea Brooke, an intelligent and idealistic young woman whose aspirations clash with the realities of marriage and society. Through its richly drawn characters and intricate relationships, the novel explores love, ambition, politics, religion, social change, and the consequences of individual choices.