The Road to Middlemarch

Fascinating... Anyone who has ever fallen in love with a novel will find this book engrossing... This is heaven in book form -- Lucy Atkins * Sunday Times *
Mead knits her material together with great skill and in prose that is always lucid and sometimes soaringly beautiful... Her reading of Middlemarch is close, generous and intelligent -- Rachel Cooke * Observer *
A stylish meditation... it is elegant, thoughtful and readable, written with clarity and a gentle sympathy -- Sarah Churchwell * Guardian *
A captivating and lucid book [that] mixes biography, memoir and close reading to symphonic effect... Enchanting -- Talitha Stevenson * Financial Times *
Heartfelt, eloquent and as calmly passionate as Eliot's own prose, [Mead's] study weaves memoir, criticism, biography and quest into a seamless whole -- Boyd Tonkin * Independent *
Intriguing... A thoughtful and perceptive account of Eliot's masterpiece... Mead is so deft she lightly covers an abundance of fact without the reader noticing... This is a valuable and most readable homage -- Rosemary Goring * Herald *
Moving and insightful... a brilliant evocation of the role books can play in growing up -- Anna Carey * Irish Times *
A wise, humane and delightful study. Mead has discovered an original and highly personal way to make herself an inhabitant both of the book and of George Eliot's imaginary city -- Harold Bloom
Rebecca Mead has written a singular and inventive tale... Both a memoir and a biography, both an homage and a homecoming, The Road to Middlemarch is a perfectly composed offering of literary love and self-observation. I adored it -- Elizabeth Gilbert, bestselling author * Eat, Pray, Love *
A stylist meditation... elegant, thoughtful and readable, written with clarity and a gentle sympathy that seems a reflection of Eliot's own generous wisdom -- Sarah Churchwell * Guardian *
I wish more critical books were this literary and this readable... It's the perfect companion volume to [Eliot's] masterpiece -- Claire Harman * Evening Standard *
A beguilingly straightforward and unshowy account of the writer's lifelong admiration for George Eliot and Middlemarch... Admirable, endearing [and] evocative... A poignant testimony to the power of fiction -- Joyce Carol Oates * International New York Times *
[A] deeply satisfying hybrid work of literary criticism, biography, and memoir... Passionate readers, even those new to Middlemarch, will relish this book * Publishers Weekly starred review *
Exhilarating, often surprising... [Mead] takes a fresh look at Eliot's daringly unconventional life... Her rekindling of appreciation for Eliot and her books blossoms into a celebration of the entire enterprise of writing and reading, of how literature transforms our lives * Booklist, starred review *
A rare and remarkable fusion of techniques that draws two women together across time and space -- Kirkus starred review
Delicious... [Mead's] lucid prose and intellect are a constant pleasure... There is a meticulous underlying order to the book, structured to mirror Middlemarch itself, but as in a letter, the effect is of spontaneous movement, the particular thrill of following a mind untrammeled * BookForum *
A fresh and vibrant portrait of Eliot, an entrancing memoir and a passionate homage to the riches of rereading * Newsday *
Part memoir, part biography, part literary appreciation, [this book] is pure pleasure * NPR.com *
Pays tribute not only to Eliot, but also to all book lovers who see novels as good friends worthy of frequent revisits -- ‘Must Reads’ * New York Post *
A smart, delightful blend of biography, memoir [and] reportage... Throughout, Mead weaves in stories from her own life, which prove compelling, especially as they connect with the illuminating wisdom of Middlemarch... Personal [and] intimate * USA Today *
It would be difficult to find a novel more likely to reward multiple rereadings than Eliot's - or a richer, more complete or more moving demonstration of its lasting power than [this book] * Salon *
Mead winningly melds personal memoir and literary biography... [This book is] so good it sent me scampering eagerly back to Eliot's novel * Bookseller *
A beautifully written and charming book * Book Oxygen *
Ambitious, elegant, intense and absorbing -- Samantha Ellis * Literary Review *
A beguiling mix of memoir, literary criticism and biography * Sunday Times *
A lively literary memoir -- Iain Finlayson * The Times *
Companionable * Spectator *
Mead knits her material together with great skill and in prose that is always lucid and sometimes soaringly beautiful... Her reading of Middlemarch is close, generous and intelligent -- Rachel Cooke * Observer *
I wish more critical books were this literary and this readable -- Claire Harman * Scotland on Sunday *
A complex and sensitive work of art in its own right. Mead skilfully balances the various strands of literary biography, textual analysis and personal memoir. A powerful evocation of how books are read -- Kylie Grant * List **** *
Wise and delightful -- Curtis Sittenfeld * Observer *
A wonderful blend of memoir, lit crit and biography - reminds you of the powerful place books can take in our lives -- Readers’ 10 Best Books of the Year * Guardian *
Thoughtful and sensitive -- Tessa Hadley * TLS *
Fascinating... Quite simply, heaven in book form -- Lucy Atkins * Sunday Times *
An excellent work of criticism that I would recommend to any student of literature... Fascinating -- William Leith * Evening Standard *
An insightful, smart and fond account both of Eliot and her characters -- Lesley McDowell * Sunday Herald *
Fascinating... An excellent work of criticism and one that I would heartily recommend to any student of literature -- William Leith * Scotsman **** *
Biography and criticism are deftly interwoven in an elegant, intelligent book that will delight Middlemarch nuts and new readers alike -- Claire Lowdon * ‘Books of the Year’ Sunday Times *
A beguiling mixture of literary criticism, biography and personal memoir, Mead writes intelligently and movingly about her "profound" and lifelong experience with George Eliot's classic text -- Lucy Scholes ‘Literary memoir of the year’ * Independent *