O xford World’s Classics: This is the edition I usually assign in my classes. One of the most interesting of these in Middlemarch is a tweak to the Finale that might spark some debate among the members of your book club, especially if you’ve talked along the way about how far Dorothea is responsible for her own bad choices. Scholarly editions not only include thoughtful introductions and explanatory footnotes (helpful for everything from literary allusions to historical contexts) but also point out changes made to the novel over its publishing history. With a novel like Middlemarch, I think it’s a good idea to have a reliable, well-edited text with thorough annotations–not because you must consult them, but because you may want to. The next question is whether you want to use a ‘popular’ or a scholarly edition. It can also help a lot if people use some system of navigational aids, like post-it notes. However, because Middlemarch is divided into Books and then into chapters, it’s not that hard to find common reference points. My own book club experience (as well as my classroom experience) has taught me that it can be frustrating trying to talk about a long book when people quite literally can’t get on the same page. Even if you think that this would be a good thing, it may prove impractical, as people may already own copies, or may prefer one version over another for their own reasons. The first thing to consider is whether you want everyone in your group to use the same edition of Middlemarch.

Middlemarch folio society