Middlemarch vs The Portrait of a Lady: Which Should You Read?

Both live on shelves: Married women, Triangles, Married people, Social life and customs, Romance, Fiction

Cover of Middlemarch

Middlemarch George Eliot · 1800 ★★★★☆ 4.1 795 pages · ≈ 14 h 43 m · Demanding Find on Amazon

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Cover of The Portrait of a Lady

The Portrait of a Lady Henry James · 1881 ★★★★☆ 3.8 634 pages · ≈ 11 h 44 m · Demanding Find on Amazon

The verdict

Readers rate Middlemarch higher: 4.1 vs 3.8 from 186364 votes.
The Portrait of a Lady is the quicker read — about 11 hours vs 14 for Middlemarch.

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