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Middlemarch
Middlemarch
Oct 18, 2024 6:17 PM

Author:George Eliot,Juliet Aubrey,Olivia Vinall,Charles Edwards,John Heffernan,Full Cast

Middlemarch

George Eliot's beloved story of life, love and politics in an English town

A jewel in the classic literature crown, Middlemarch was selected as one of the BBC’s ‘100 Novels That Shaped Our World’. Its epic arc takes in politics, tragedy, romance and comedy, interweaving multiple narratives to make up a thrilling ensemble tale.

Set in the 1830s, this ‘study of provincial life’ introduces us to young, idealistic Dorothea Brooke, who accepts a proposal from scholarly Edward Casaubon, hoping to forge a loving partnership of intellectual equals. But on honeymoon in Rome, she swiftly becomes disillusioned. Trapped in an unhappy marriage, she finds solace in her friendship with Casaubon’s cousin, Will Ladislaw – only for her controlling husband to suspect her of betrayal, and set out to test her loyalty.

Meanwhile, mayor’s son Fred Vincy embarks on a steep economic learning curve, risking his burgeoning relationship with Mary Garth. When he contracts typhoid, he is treated by the town’s new medical man, Tertius Lydgate, who becomes drawn to Fred’s sister, Rosamond. Eager to win her hand, the doctor seeks help from the wealthy Mr Bulstrode – a decision he will come to regret...

As their stories shift, viewpoints twist together and lives collide and realign in a compelling ‘convergence of human lots’ that shows us an entire world in microcosm. Juliet Aubrey stars as the Narrator, George Eliot, with Olivia Vinall as Dorothea, Charles Edwards as Casaubon and John Heffernan as Dr Lydgate.

Also featured is a bonus edition of In Our Time, in which Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss George Eliot’s classic novel, described by Virginia Woolf as ‘one of the few English novels written for grown-up people'.

Cast and credits

The Narrator, George Eliot – Juliet Aubrey

Dorothea – Olivia Vinall

Edward Casaubon – Charles Edwards

Dr Lydgate – John Heffernan

Will Ladislaw – Joseph Quinn

Arthur Brooke/Caleb Garth/Mr Trumball – Neil McCaul

Sir James Chettam – Hugh Skinner

Rev Farebrother – Miles Jupp

Nicholas Bulstrode – Adrian Scarborough

Celia – Lucy Reynolds

Peter Featherstone/Standish/John Raffles – Clive Hayward

Fred Vincy/Auction bidder – Will Kirk

Rosamond – Laura Christy

Mr Vincy/Mr Bambridge – Rick Warden

Mrs Cadwallader/Mrs Plymdale – Jessica Turner

Adolf Naumann/Barman – Adam Courting

Dr Hawley/Clerk – Greg Jones

Servant/Mrs Abel – Sinead MacInnes

Tantripp/Mary Garth – Scarlett Courtney

Mrs Garth – Alison Belbin

Letty Garth – Grace Doherty

Farmer/Mr Hopkins – Ikky Elyas

Tertius Lydgate – John Heffernan

Harriet Bulstrode – Rosie Cavaliero

Mrs Vincy/Farebrother’s aunt – Heather Craney

Written by George Eliot

Adapted by Katie Hims

Directed by Jessica Dromgoole and Tracey Neale

First broadcast BBC Radio 4, 23 November-7 December 2019

Reviews

Absolutely stunning . . . Assured, bold, and electrifying, If I Had Your Face marks the entrance of a bright new voice in fiction

—— Taylor Jenkins Reid, bestselling author of DAISY JONES & THE SIX

Culturally fascinating, emotionally layered, gripping and smart

—— Curtis Sittenfeld, bestselling author of PREP and AMERICAN WIFE

If you loved Crazy Rich Asians or Daisy Jones And The Six then this is going to be right up your street

—— Grazia

Fascinating, eye-opening, compelling - like the film Parasite, If I Had Your Face is also an exposé of the class system in South Korea

—— Independent

I stayed up til 4am two nights in a row, absolutely riveted and astonished. Remarkable, brilliantly crafted and devastatingly exquisite

—— Kevin Kwan, bestselling author of CRAZY RICH ASIANS

A brilliant debut

—— Pandora Sykes , The High Low Podcast

Each voice in this quartet cuts through the pages so cleanly and clearly that the overall effect is one of dangerously glittering harmony. The tale told here is as engrossing as a war chant, or a mosaic formed with blades, every piece a memento sharpened on those unyielding barriers between us and our ideal lives.

—— Helen Oyeyemi, award-winning author of GINGERBREAD

If I Had Your Face is hilarious, cuttingly observant, feminist, and all-around delightful. It is hard to write a book about four protagonists and make you care for all of them-yet somehow Cha succeeds.

—— Rowan Hisayo Buchanan, Costa-shortlisted author of 'Starling Days'

One of the buzziest debuts of the year, If I Had Your Face transports readers to glittering, futuristic Seoul. Essential reading in what Jia Tolentino memorably called the age of Instagram face.

—— Vogue

Compelling, understated, casually brutal, and very cynical. I love it.

—— Hanna Jameson, bestselling author of 'The Last'

Troubling, kaleidoscopic, and hugely enjoyable

—— Nell Zink, author of THE WALLCREEPER, NICOTINE and MISLAID

It's difficult to believe this is Frances Cha's first novel-she's a masterful storyteller. I couldn't put IF I HAD YOUR FACE down; I was riveted by the stories of four young women navigating life in the extreme, competitive environment of modern Seoul. I loved reading about a world I knew nothing about, and from the first page, it was clear Cha was the best possible guide. I highly recommend this novel.

—— Ann Napolitano, author of DEAR EDWARD

Wonderful... unsettling and deeply affecting - the writing is beautifully spare, and captures with such clarity what it means for these four young women to be taught to hope for everything and yet continuously to receive nothing

—— Rosie Price, author of WHAT RED WAS

If I Had Your Face is a vivid, eviscerating depiction of social realism in contemporary Seoul. Frances Cha renders gender and class struggles with forensic detail, in a luminous voice both knowledgeable and compelling.

—— Sharlene Teo, author of 'Ponti'

I love the way Frances Cha rotates between mindsets to look at how beauty and privilege influence the way women live, whilst maintaining a sly lightness

—— Rebecca Watson, author of 'little scratch'

Make way for Frances Cha, an entrancing new voice who guides us into the complexities and contradictions of modern-day Seoul... I devoured it in a single sitting, and so will you.

—— Janice Lee, NYT Bestselling Author of THE PIANO TEACHER

I loved this book. It offers a fascinating window on a place and culture I knew little about, and yet from the first page it was intensely relatable - I recognised these women like friends, colleagues or sisters. Invigorating in its honesty and near-filmic in its descriptive power, If I Had Your Face is brilliantly-drawn tableau of the universalities of womanhood, the pressures we grapple with, and the way female bonds can carry us through.

—— Lauren Bravo, author of WHAT WOULD THE SPICE GIRLS DO?

Cha's striking first novel follows four young women in Seoul, South Korea trapped in a sphere of impossible beauty standards

—— Oprah Magazine, Most Anticipated Books of 2020

A story of four women in Seoul and the way that economic and social realities determine the paths available to them

—— The Millions, Most Anticipated

An intimate, panoramic debut... An enthralling read from the very first page.

—— Ed Park, Author of PERSONAL DAYS and Hemingway Foundation / PEN Award Finalist

A provoking, ultimately inspiring tale of women pushing back against oppressive customs both traditional and new . . . Frances Cha, like her quartet of narrators, has a rebel's heart

—— Jonathan Dee, author of THE LOCALS

An endearing story of female friendship staged against a backdrop of elitism, sexism and the relentless quest for cosmetic perfection... Enthralling

—— Vanity Fair

An insightful, powerful story from a promising new voice

—— Publishers Weekly

Cha's timely debut deftly explores the impact of impossible beauty standards and male-dominated family money on South Korean women

—— Kirkus

An eye-opening story of female friendship set against the brutal beauty standards of south Korea

—— Glamour

Mesmerizing... weaves together the complexities and contradictions of modern-day Seoul, in an ultimately uplifting story of women living in defiance of oppressive customs

—— Dazed

A gripping tale at once unfamiliar and unmistakably universal

—— BookRiot

A gripping portrait of four young women in South Korea... its focus on the tangled and complicated nature of female friendship is universally familiar and fascinating

—— Refinery 29

Hypnotising... you won't want to put it down until the very last page

—— Harper's Bazaar

You'll find sisterhood at the heart of this ambitious book

—— New York Times Book Review

Haddon writes with wrenching beauty about how the world inflicts itself on the disadvantaged... It's a testament to Haddon's prodigious gifts as a storyteller that this strange, epic adventure is so compulsively readable

—— Nicholas Mancusi , Time Magazine

A strange, tangled web of a story, drawing on ancient mythology and expanding into time travel… this innovative novel offers escapes into multiple worlds

—— Culture Whisper

Irresistible storytelling that slides between the present day and a mythic realm… A heady delight

—— Guardian, *Summer Reads of 2019*

The novel draws on Shakespeare and Greek legend, and is the sort of mile-a-minute adventure you can get lost in for hours without realising

—— ShortList, *Summer Reads of 2019*

[The Porpoise] confirms the sense of a gifted writer letting his talent off the leash at last… Mind-bending yet marvellously readable, it stakes Haddon’s claim to be one of the best writers in Britain right now

—— Daily Mail, *Summer reads of 2019*

Haddon conveys all this with startling granularity: the stinking, seething Jacobean London traversed by the ghosts of Wilkins and Shakespeare… Haddon's novel creates, throughout, a looming sense that something very bad but not quite perceptible is in the process of unfolding: a terrible half-glimpsed fate that the characters are powerless to resist

—— Adam Smyth , London Review of Books

The Porpoise begins as a page-turning thriller and soon shifts into something slippery and strange – but remains propulsive throughout

—— New Statesman

Mark Haddon’s best novel yet. The Porpoise begins as a propulsive thriller…and segues into a classical-world adventure that reinvents the story of Pericles in prose of a hallucinatory vividness

—— Justine Jordan , Guardian, *Books of the Year*

The Porpoise reworks legend with the compelling force of a thriller

—— Lindsey Hilsum , Observer, *Books of the Year*

[An] exquisite retelling of Shakespeare’s Pericles

—— Claire Allfree , Daily Mail, *Books of the Year*

Thrilling, dramatic and exquisitely written, The Porpoise combines myth and reality to enthralling effect

—— Jane Shilling , Daily Mail
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