Middlemarch

Making masterful use of a counterpointed plot, Eliot presents the stories of a number of denizens of a small English town on the eve of the Reform Bill of 1832. The main characters, Dorothea Brooke and Tertius Lydgate, each long for exceptional lives but are powerfully constrained by their own unrealistic expectations as well as conservative society. The novel is notable for its deep psychological insight and sophisticated character portraits.th five brilliants in it. Dorothea immediately took up the necklace and fastened it round her sister's neck, where it fitted almost as closely as a bracelet; but the circle suited the Henrietta-Maria style of Celia's head and neck, and she could see that it did, in the pier-glass opposite. "There, Celia! you can wear that with your Indian muslin. But this cross you must wear with your dark dresses." Celia was trying not to smile with pleasure. "O Dodo, you must keep the cross yourself." "No, no, dear, no," said Dorothea, putting up her hand with careless deprecation. "Yes, indeed you must; it would suit you--in your black dress, now," said Celia, insistingly. "You might wear that." "Not for the world, not for the world. A cross is the last thing I would wear as a trinket." Dorothea shuddered slightly. "Then you will think it wicked in me to wear it," said Celia, uneasily. "No, dear, no," said Dorothea, stroking her sister's cheek. "Souls have complexio