Facts about Middlemarch by George Eliot
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Published in 1871–72, Middlemarch is frequently cited by literary critics as one of the greatest novels ever written in the English language.
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Eliot's depiction of provincial medical practice through Dr. Lydgate's character reflects the actual professionalization of medicine in 1830s England, when doctors were still establishing their social status and scientific credentials.
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Casaubon's Key to All Mythologies, the fictional work that drives much of the novel's plot, was inspired by real nineteenth-century attempts to find universal explanations for religious mythology.
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Will Ladislaw's character was modeled partly on George Eliot's husband John Cross, though their relationship developed years after she conceived the novel's plot.
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Middlemarch contains approximately 900 pages and over 300,000 words, making it one of the longest novels in English literature despite its serialized publication format.
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Dorothea Brooke's character was partly inspired by George Eliot's own intellectual ambitions and her relationship with philosopher John Stuart Mill's writings on women's education.
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The novel's four interconnected plots span approximately eleven years, from 1829 to 1840, during England's pre-Reform Bill period.
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George Eliot serialized Middlemarch in eight installments between December 1871 and December 1872 before publishing it as a complete novel.