In our Guide to the Classics series, experts explain key works of literature. Middlemarch (1872) is a slow read and a deeply immersive one. George Eliot – the pen name of Mary Ann Evans (1819-1880) – ...

The most scathing piece of literary criticism I’ve ever read is an essay, published in 1856, called “Silly Novels by Lady Novelists.” It begins like this: The author then describes the many literary ...

This week in the magazine, Rebecca Mead writes about George Eliot’s “Middlemarch.” (Subscribers can read the full text; others can buy access to the issue via the digital edition.) On the Book Bench, ...