Editing Middlemarch (section)

===Later responses===
In the first half of the 20th century, ''Middlemarch'' continued to provoke contrasting responses; while Leslie Stephen dismissed the novel in 1902, his daughter [[Virginia Woolf]] described it in 1919 as "the magnificent book that, which with all its imperfections, is one of the few English novels written for grown-up people."{{sfnp |Woolf|1925|p=237}} However, Woolf was "virtually unique" among the [[Literary modernism|modernists]] in her unstinting praise for ''Middlemarch'',{{sfnp |Chase |1991 |p=92}} and the novel also remained overlooked by the reading public of the time.{{sfnp |Swinden |1972 |p=22}}

[[F. R. Leavis]]'s ''[[The Great Tradition]]'' (1948) is credited with having "rediscovered" the novel:{{sfnp |Swinden |1972 |p=22}}
<blockquote>The necessary part of great intellectual powers in such a success as ''Middlemarch'' is obvious&nbsp;... the sheer informedness about society, its mechanisms, the ways in which people of different classes live&nbsp;... a novelist whose genius manifests itself in a profound analysis of the individual.{{sfnp |Leavis|1950|p=61}}</blockquote>
Leavis' appraisal of it has been hailed as the beginning of a critical consensus that still exists towards the novel, in which it is recognised not only as Eliot's finest work, but as one of the greatest novels in English. [[V. S. Pritchett]], in ''The Living Novel'', two years earlier, in 1946 had written that "No Victorian novel approaches ''Middlemarch'' in its width of reference, its intellectual power, or the imperturbable spaciousness of its narrative&nbsp;... I doubt if any Victorian novelist has as much to teach the modern novelists as George Eliot&nbsp;... No writer has ever represented the ambiguities of moral choice so fully".<ref>Quoted in Karen Chase, ''George Eliot, Middlemarch'', p. 94.</ref>

In the 21st century, the novel is still held in high regard. The novelists [[Martin Amis]] and [[Julian Barnes]] have both called it probably the greatest novel in the English language,{{efn |{{Cite news |last1=Long |first1=Camilla |title=Martin Amis and the sex war |newspaper=[[The Times]] |date=24 January 2010 |url=http://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/tol/arts_and_entertainment/books/article6996980.ece?token=null&offset=0&page=1 |quote=They've produced the greatest writer in the English language ever, George Eliot, and arguably the third greatest, Jane Austen, and certainly the greatest novel, Middlemarch&nbsp;...}}{{dead link|date=January 2025|bot=medic}}{{cbignore|bot=medic}} {{subscription required}}}}<ref>"Julian Barnes, The Art of Fiction" Interviewed by Shusha Guppy'' The Paris Review'', No. 165: [http://www.theparisreview.org/interviews/562/the-art-of-fiction-no-165-julian-barnes |accessdate=12 April 2015|] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151126043542/http://www.theparisreview.org/interviews/562/the-art-of-fiction-no-165-julian-barnes |date=26 November 2015 }}</ref> and today ''Middlemarch'' is frequently included in university courses. In 2013, the then British Education Secretary [[Michael Gove]] referred to ''Middlemarch'' in a speech, suggesting its superiority to [[Stephenie Meyer]]'s vampire novel ''[[Twilight (Meyer novel)|Twilight]]''.<ref name=gove>{{Cite web |title=What does it mean to be an educated person? |url=https://www.gov.uk/government/speeches/what-does-it-mean-to-be-an-educated-person |website=gov.uk |date=9 May 2013 |publisher=Department for Education and The Rt Hon Michael Gove |access-date=1 April 2015 |format=Speech |archive-date=2 April 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150402154719/https://www.gov.uk/government/speeches/what-does-it-mean-to-be-an-educated-person |url-status=live }}</ref> Gove's comments led to debate on teaching ''Middlemarch'' in Britain,{{efn |{{Cite web |last1=Jones |first1=Nelson |title=In a political arena largely devoid of obvious talent Michael Gove is a star turn |url=http://www.newstatesman.com/politics/2013/05/political-arena-largely-devoid-obvious-talent-michael-gove-star-turn |website=newstatesman.com |date=10 May 2013 |publisher=[[New Statesman]] |access-date=1 April 2015 |quote=Middlemarch, by contrast [to ''Twilight''], though 150 years older, features a free-thinking, active and educated heroine. If we want our daughters to aspire, which provides the better role model?}}}} including the question of when novels like ''Middlemarch'' should be read,{{efn |{{Cite news |last1=Berry |first1=Jill |title=Michael Gove is wrong: why shouldn't students read Twilight?|url=https://www.theguardian.com/teacher-network/teacher-blog/2013/may/15/twilight-middlemarch-michael-gove |access-date=1 April 2015 |work=[[The Guardian]] |date=15 May 2013 |quote=I think she would be better starting with ''Silas Marner'' or ''The Mill on the Floss'' and leaving ''Middlemarch'' until she had greater life experience and emotional maturity.}}}} and the role of [[Literary canon|canonical]] texts in teaching.<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Singh |first1=Sandhya P. |title='Twilight or Middlemarch?' A Teacher's Refusal to Choose| journal=Changing English |date=2015 |volume=22 |issue=1 |pages=3–13 |doi=10.1080/1358684X.2014.992211|s2cid=143445215 }} {{subscription required}}</ref> The novel has remained a favourite with readers and scores high in reader rankings: in 2003 it was No. 27 in the BBC's [[The Big Read]],<ref>[https://www.bbc.co.uk/arts/bigread/top100.shtml "BBC – The Big Read"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121031065136/http://www.bbc.co.uk/arts/bigread/top100.shtml |date=31 October 2012 }}. BBC. April 2003, Retrieved 28 October 2012</ref> and in 2007 it was No. 10 in "The 10 Greatest Books of All Time", based on a ballot of 125 selected writers.<ref>{{Cite magazine |url=http://www.time.com/time/arts/article/0,8599,1578073,00.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070117063318/http://www.time.com/time/arts/article/0,8599,1578073,00.html |url-status=dead |archive-date=17 January 2007 |magazine=Time |title=The 10 Greatest Books of All Time |date=15 January 2007 |access-date=12 May 2010 |first=Lev |last=Grossman}}</ref> In 2015, in a [[BBC]] Culture poll of book critics outside the UK, the novel was ranked at number one in "The 100 greatest British novels".<ref>{{Cite magazine |url=http://www.bbc.com/culture/story/20151204-the-100-greatest-british-novels |magazine=Time |title=The 100 greatest British novels |date=7 December 2015 |access-date=8 December 2015 |first=Jane |last=Ciabattari |archive-date=8 December 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151208170427/http://www.bbc.com/culture/story/20151204-the-100-greatest-british-novels |url-status=live }}</ref>

On 5 November 2019, the ''[[BBC News]]'' reported that ''Middlemarch'' is on the [[BBC list of 100 'most inspiring' novels|BBC list of 100 "most inspiring" novels]].<ref name=Bbc2019-11-05/>