The Man Behind the Curtain: ‘Middlemarch’ by George Eliot

From Close Readings by London Review of Books

August 2, 2026 · 36 min · Season 16 · Episode 3

About this episode

Tom McCarthy discusses George Eliot's 'Middlemarch' and its philosophical implications with Thomas Jones.

In ‘Middlemarch’, Tom McCarthy argues, George Eliot uses her ‘study of provincial life’ as a Trojan Horse to smuggle the continental philosophy of Spinoza and Hegel into the vicarages of middle England. In this episode, McCarthy joins Thomas Jones to discuss Eliot’s radical masterpiece, which marks a revolution in English fiction as significant in its way as the political, scientific and industrial revolutions that it's set against. They look at the novel’s philosophical underpinnings, its treatment of knowledge and desire, money and debt, sex and marriage, and whether or not Casaubon was onto something with his ‘Key to All Mythologies’. This is an extract from the episode. To listen in full, and to all our other Close Readings series, sign up: Directly in Apple Podcasts: https://lrb.me/closereadingsmbtc For Spotify and other apps: https://lrb.me/applecrmbtc Read more on Eliot in the LRB: Rosemary Ashton: https://www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v08/n14/rosemary-ashton/homage-to-mrs-brater Terry Eagleton: https://www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v17/n18/terry-eagleton/biogspeak Rachel Bowlby https://www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v35/n07/rachel-bowlby/waiting-for-the-dawn-to-come Learn…

People in this episode

Host: Thomas Jones

Guest: Tom McCarthy

Topics covered

provincial life
continental philosophy
English fiction
knowledge and desire
money and debt
sex and marriage

Keywords

Middlemarch
George Eliot
Tom McCarthy
philosophy
English fiction
Spinoza
Hegel
Casaubon

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: London Review of Books

Books & works: Middlemarch