George Eliot produced literary works of great value and universal recognition. Middlemarch is her greatest novel and masterpiece. It is decidedly George Eliot’s most outstanding novel. It received wide acclaim when it first appeared. Much work has been done on this novel. Critics and students of literature have tried to explore the elements of Victorianism in the novel; they have discussed and analysed it as an intellectual, psychological and philosophical novel, showing the competence and extraordinary intelligence of the author in communicating and addressing different intellectual, psychological and philosophical ideas. Bernard Paris focuses on George Eliot’s philosophy and religion of humanity and how she grew skeptical after freeing from church and developed her own religion of humanity and her doctrine of “extension of our sympathies.” He also discusses how Eliot was influenced by the philosophy of Comte, Feuerbach and others, pointing out how this religion of human relationship shaped her views of art, making her sympathetic with all her characters. Bernard Paris (1970: 34) says, “Eliot is sympathetic towards almost her characters.” On his part, Darrel Mansell, Jr. studies the conception of form in Geroge Eliot’s fiction and how she considers form of art a higher element that art should exhibit. He argues that her art shows complexity as she believes that the more complex the art, the higher it is. Mansell (1970: 68) says, “She [Eliot] strives to make the relations in her fiction as complex as possible.” Similarily, Barbara Hardy highlights some of the artistic values and features of Eliot; her images, her characters, character and form and character and plot, exploring the power of form in her novels. David Cecil has another approach to the art of George Eliot. He compares and contrasts her with other novelists like Thackeray, Dickens and Hardy and how she is different from them. Cecil (1934: 328) says, “She stands at the gateway between the old novel and the new, a massive caryatid, heavy of countenance, uneasy of attitude; but noble, monumental, profoundly impressive.”
There has also been much work done on Middlemarch, studying various aspects of the novel. Joan Bennet presents in her book, George Eliot: Her Mind and Her Art a chapter on the novel, pointing out in general terms the main theme and plot and characters and how the book is well-designed. She argues that the weaving of a massive plot and a heap of characters show her artistic power. According to Bennet (1966: 162) “in the finished novel there is nothing irrelevant to the design.” She adds (174), “Middlemarch is George Eliot’s supreme achievement. While its characters are at least as various and as deeply studied as any she has created; they are more perfectly combined into a single whole than those in any other of her novels.” Bennet does not give a detailed study of the society of Middlemarch. Bert G. Hornback, however, finds the power of the novel in its realism. He (1977: 676) argues “one of the most remarkable aspects of Middlemarch has been, for many critics, its realism: the way in which the real world is woven together with the fictional. The history of England from 1828-1881 is an impressive part of the texture of the novel–so much so that English history and Middlemarch seem to be complementary.” On his part Edith Simcox focuses on the psychological aspect of the novel which gives a vivid analysis of the inner life of mankind. He (1965: 74) declares that Middlemarch “marks an epoch in the history of fiction in so far as its incidents are taken from the inner life,” and “as giving a background of a perfect realistic truth to a profoundly imaginative psychological study.” There is also much work on regional novelists and writers like Mrs. Gaskell, Hardy and others. In his book The Literature of Change: Studies in the Nineteenth-Century Provincial Novel, John Lucas (1977) gives a full account of Mrs. Gaskell and nature of social change and that of Manchester. The book also makes a good study of Hardy’s women. But it does not deal with George Eliot and her regionalism. There are some studies on the regionalism of George Eliot’s novels. For example, we find in Henry Auster’s Local Habitation: Regionalism in the Early Novels of George Eliot (1970) a good study of Adam Bede, Scenes of Clerical Life and Mill on the Floss. However, there is nothing on Middlemarch. In his study of Middlemarch, David Daiches (1963) makes a chapter-wise analysis of the events with a special focus on the characters and how they are depicted. None of these works give a full length study on Middlemarch as a regional novel, giving a detailed approach to the various aspects of the provincial life of the society of Middlemarch.
This study aims to investigaate Middlemarch as a regional novel depicting the provincial life of rural England and analyse the elements that make it so. It will show how George Eliot gives a portrait of the English society in the countryside and how her experience in the Midlands affects her portraiture of Middlemarch society. In fact, our purpose in this work is to analyse and study the book as a regional novel and show the provincial aspects of the book and how the book portrays the changes in the English society taking place at that time as depicted in the novel. We aim to scrutinize and explore the provincial life of the society of the country town of Middlemarch from different political, social and economic angles in a vivid and comprehensive manner that brings about the greatness of Middlemarch. We shall place greater emphasis on the regionality of the novel. This work, in passing, also deals with the plot and art of characterization of the novel but only in so far as they are related to the main topic of the dissertation, which is the provincial life in the novel and how the regional represents the universal. This study is based on the researcher’s own interpretation and analysis of the primary and secondary sources. The primary source is the novel. The secondary sources include books on George Eliot, her biography, and critical works. They also include books and articles on social, political, cultural and economic life in rural England during the Victorian Age and the concept of regionalism.
Middlemarch, the action of which lasts from 1829 to 1832, is an important social document presenting the life of the Midlands where Eliot spent most of her life during the time period of the 1830s. It investigates the social, political and economic aspects of life of the society during that time with reference to some historical facts like that of the First Reform Act. We try here to study the politics of the society represented by some characters like Mr. Brooke and Will Ladislaw, the social classes and their impact on the life of these people, the use of power by people like Bulstrode to influence people. We also give an account of the relationship between these people of Middlemarch and how they deal with each other in such a provincial society. We shall demonstrate how this narrow-minded conventional society operates to cripple and crack down all possibilities of change and modernity. It defeats ambitious people capable of bringing about change and breathe a new life into this traditional society sticking to traditional and conventional way of life and resisting any kind of change. This theme of defeated ambitions, which is a universal theme, is worked out better in this regional society which is a symbol of the whole universe. Middlemarch thus is not merely a regional novel about a particular society or locality; it is rather a represenation of life at large.
The thesis is divided into seven chapters with a conclusion. The first chapter deals with the life, philosophy and art of the author as it is important to study George Eliot’s life because it is her life in the countryside of Warwickshire which has shaped her vision of life and art. This countryside is the setting of her works. It also deals with the factors and experiences that influenced George Eliot during her life. These influences made her mind the moral battle-field, struggling between extremes–religion and agnosticism, free-thinking and conventionalism. In chapter two, an idea about the Victorian age and countryside has been given so as to highlight the situation in which the novel was written. As our focus is on studying the book as a regional novel, the third chapter provides the background of the genre of the regional novel and its development. The fourth chapter is the focus of the thesis, studying Middlemarch as a provincial society. The fifth chapter focuses on the plot of the novel and how it represents a single whole despite the vastness and variousness of its characters and events. Symbolically, the regional society of Middlemarch is well-connected and remains a single whole despite the various number of people with different interests. The sixth chapter studies the major themes of the novel with emphasis on the theme of the ambition frustrated by the meanness of society. This theme brings out the universality of the novel in presenting human life. The last chapter discusses the people of Middlemarch and how they are inter-related in a small society of Middlemarch.

كلمة" يترجم رائعة "مدل مارش" لجورج إليوت

صدر مؤخراً عن مشروع "كلمة" للترجمة التابع لهيئة أبوظبي للثقافة والتراث، الترجمة الكاملة لرواية "مِدِل مارش" للشاعرة والروائية الإنجليزية الشهيرة جورج إليوت، وترجمها للعربية الدكتور حيان جمعة الساعي.

وبحسب وكالة أنباء الشعر تعد الرواية هي إحدى أهم

Middlemarch: A Study of Provincial Life is a novel by George Eliot, the pen name of Mary Anne Evans, later Marian Evans. It is her seventh novel, begun in 1869 and then put aside during the final illness of Thornton Lewes, the son of her companion George Henry Lewes. During the following year Eliot resumed work, fusing together several stories into a coherent whole, and during 1871–72 the novel appeared in serial form. The first one-volume edition was published in 1874, and attracted large sales.
Subtitled "A Study of Provincial Life," the novel is set in the fictitious Midlands town of Middlemarch during the period 1830–32. It has multiple plots with a large cast of characters, and in addition to its distinct though interlocking narratives it pursues a number of underlying themes, including the status of women, the nature of marriage, idealism and self-interest, religion and hypocrisy, political reform, and education. The pace is leisurely, the tone is mildly didactic (with an authorial voice that occasionally bursts through the narrative),[1] and the canvas is very broad.
Although it has some comical characters (Mr. Brooke, the "tiny aunt" Miss Noble) and comically named characters (Mrs. Dollop), Middlemarch is a work of realism. Through the voices and opinions of different characters we become aware of various broad issues of the day: the Great Reform Bill, the beginnings of the railways, the death of King George IV and the succession of his brother, the Duke of Clarence (who became King William IV). We learn something of the state of contemporary medical science. We also encounter the deeply reactionary mindset within a settled community facing the prospect of what to many is unwelcome change.
The eight "books" which compose the novel are not autonomous entities, but merely reflect the form of the original serialisation. A short prelude introduces the idea of the latter-day St. Theresa, presaging the character Dorothea; a postscript or "finale" after the eighth book gives the post-novel fates of the main characters.
In general Middlemarch has retained its popularity and status as one of the masterpieces of English fiction,[2] although some reviewers have expressed dissatisfaction at the destiny recorded for Dorothea. In separate centuries, Florence Nightingale and Kate Millet both remarked on the eventual subordination of Dorothea's own dreams to those of her admirer, Ladislaw;[3] however, Virginia Woolf gave the book unstinting praise, describing Middlemarch as "the magnificent book that, with all its imperfections, is one of the few English novels written for grown-up people."[4] Martin Amis and Julian Barnes have cited it as probably the greatest novel in the English language.[5][6]
Background

On 1 January 1869, George Eliot listed her tasks for the coming year in her journal. The list included "A Novel called Middlemarch," along with a number of poetry and other projects.[7] Her most recent novel, Felix Holt, had been published more than two years earlier and had not sold well.[8] Despite this, the projected new novel was to be set in the same pre–Reform Bill England as Felix Holt, and would again deal with the reform issue, although less centrally.
In its first conception, Middlemarch was a story involving an ambitious doctor, Lydgate, the Vincy family, and Mr. Featherstone. Progress on the novel was slow; by September, only three chapters of the story had been completed. The main reason for this lack of development was the distraction caused by the illness of Lewes’s son Thornie, who was dying slowly of tuberculosis.[9] Following his death on 19 October 1869, all work on the novel stopped. At this point, it is uncertain whether Eliot intended to revive the original project; in November, 1870, more than a year later, she began work on an entirely new story, "Miss Brooke," introducing Dorothea. Exactly when she started to combine this narrative with the earlier Lydgate-Vincy-Featherstone plot is unrecorded, but the process was certainly under way by March 1871.[10]
As the scope of the novel grew, a decision was taken as to the form of its publication. In May, 1871, Lewes asked publisher John Blackwood to bring the novel out in eight parts, at two-monthly intervals from December 1871. Blackwood agreed, and the eight books duly appeared throughout 1872, the last instalments appearing in successive months, November and December 1872.[11]

Plot outline

Dorothea Brooke is an idealistic, well-to-do young woman, engaged in schemes to help the lot of the local poor. She is seemingly set for a comfortable, idle life as the wife of neighbouring landowner Sir James Chettam, but to the dismay of her sister, Celia (who later marries Chettam), and of her loquacious uncle Mr. Brooke, she marries instead Edward Casaubon, a middle-aged pedantic scholar who, she believes, is engaged on a great work, The Key to All Mythologies. She wishes to find fulfilment through sharing her husband’s intellectual life, but during an unhappy honeymoon in Rome she experiences his coldness towards her ambitions. Slowly she realises that his great project is doomed to failure and her feelings for him descend to pity. She forms a warm friendship with a young cousin of Casaubon’s, Will Ladislaw, but her husband’s antipathy towards him is clear (partly based on his belief that Ladislaw is trying to seduce Dorothea in order to gain access to Casaubon's fortune) and Ladislaw is forbidden to visit. In poor health, Casaubon attempts to extract from Dorothea a promise that, should he die, she will "avoid doing what I should deprecate and apply yourself to do what I desire" — meaning either that she should shun Ladislaw, or, as Dorothea believes, that she will complete The Key to All Mythologies in his place. Before Dorothea can give her reply, Casaubon dies. She then learns that he has added the extraordinary provision to his will that, if she should marry Ladislaw, Dorothea will lose her inheritance from Casaubon.
Meanwhile, an idealistic young doctor, Tertius Lydgate, has arrived in Middlemarch, with advanced ideas for medical reform. His voluntary hospital work brings him into contact with the town’s financier, Mr. Bulstrode, who has philanthropic leanings, but who is also a religious zealot with a secret past. Bulstrode's niece is Rosamond Vincy, the mayor's daughter and the town's recognised beauty, who sets her sights on Lydgate, attracted by what she believes to be his aristocratic connections and his novelty. She wins him, but the disjunction between her self-centredness and his idealism ensures that their marriage is unhappy. Lydgate manages his financial affairs badly and he is soon deep in debt and has to seek help from Bulstrode. He is partly sustained emotionally in his marital and financial woes by his friendship with Camden Farebrother, the generous-spirited and engaging parson from a local parish.
At the same time we have become acquainted with Rosamond's university-educated, restless, and somewhat irresponsible brother, Fred, reluctantly destined for the Church. He is in love with his childhood sweetheart, Mary Garth, a sensible and forthright young woman, who will not accept him until he abandons the Church (which she knows he has no interest in) and settles in a more suitable career. Mary has been the unwitting cause of Fred’s loss of a considerable fortune, bequeathed to him by the aged and irascible Mr. Featherstone, then rescinded by a later will which Featherstone, on his death-bed, begs Mary to destroy. Mary, unaware of what is at stake, refuses to do so. Fred, in trouble over some injudicious horse-dealing, is forced to borrow from Mary’s father, Caleb Garth, to meet his commitments. This humiliation shocks Fred into a reassessment of his life and he resolves to train as a land agent under the forgiving Caleb.
These three interwoven narratives, with side-plots such as the disastrous though comedic attempt by Mr. Brooke to enter Parliament as a sponsor of Reform, are the basis of the story until it is well into its final third. Then a new thread emerges, with the appearance of John Raffles, who knows about Bulstrode’s past and is determined to exploit this knowledge. Bulstrode’s terror of public exposure as a hypocrite leads him to hasten the death of the mortally sick Raffles by giving him access to forbidden alcohol and excess amounts of opium. But he is too late; Raffles had already spread the word. Bulstrode’s disgrace engulfs the luckless Lydgate, as knowledge of the financier’s loan to the doctor becomes public, and he is assumed to be complicit with Bulstrode. Only Dorothea and Farebrother maintain faith in Lydgate, but Lydgate and Rosamond are threatened by the general opprobrium with the necessity of leaving Middlemarch. The disgraced and reviled Bulstrode’s only consolation is that his wife stands by him as he, too, faces exile.
The final thread in the complex weave concerns Ladislaw, who, since their initial meeting, has kept his love for Dorothea to himself. He has remained in Middlemarch, working for Mr. Brooke, and has also become a focus for Rosamond’s treacherous attentions. After Brooke’s election campaign collapses, there is nothing to keep Ladislaw and he visits Dorothea to make his farewell. But Dorothea, released from life with Casaubon, but still the prisoner of his will, now sees Ladislaw as the means of her escape to a new life. Renouncing her independence, and Casaubon's fortune, she shocks her family again, by announcing she will marry Ladislaw. At the same time Fred, who has proved an apt pupil in Caleb’s profession, finally wins the approval and hand of Mary.
Beyond the principal stories we are given constant glimpses into other scenes. We observe Featherstone’s avaricious relatives gathering for the spoils, visit Farebrother’s strange ménage, and become aware of enormous social and economic divides. But these are the backdrops for the main stories which, true to life, are left largely suspended, leaving a short finale to summarise the fortunes of our protagonists over the next thirty years or so. The book ends as it began, with Dorothea: "Her full nature [ . . . ] spent itself in channels which had no great name on the Earth. But the effect of her being on those around her was incalculably diffusive: for the growing good of the world is partly dependent on unhistoric acts."

Themes

[education
The book examines the role of education in the lives of the characters and how such education and study has affected the characters. Rosamond Vincy's finishing school education is a foil to Dorothea Brooke's thirst for purposeful education, which was generally denied women of the era. Rosamond initially admires Lydgate for his exotic education and his intellect. A similar dynamic is present in Dorothea and Casaubon's relationship, with Dorothea revering her new husband's intellect and eloquence. Dorothea comes to question Casaubon's depth and penetration, while Rosamond is too self-obsessed to sympathize with Lydgate's focus and ambition.
Despite extreme erudition,[citation needed] Mr. Casaubon is afraid to publish because he believes that he must write a work that is utterly above criticism. In contrast, Lydgate at times arrogantly drives ahead, alienating his more conservative fellow physicians. He regards the residents of Middlemarch with some disdain, his sympathy tempered by the belief that they are intellectually backward. Despite his education he lacks tact and the politicking skills necessary for advancement in a small town.
[ Self-delusion

Most of the central characters of this novel have a habit of building castles in the air and then attempting to live in them. Because they are idealistic, self-absorbed, or otherwise out of touch with reality, they make serious mistakes. These mistakes cause them great unhappiness and eventually their illusions are shattered. Some characters learn from this process and others do not. Those who learn not to build castles in the air generally end up happy, while those who persist in ignoring pragmatism are miserable.

Mary Anne (alternatively Mary Ann or Marian) Evans (22 November 1819 – 22 December 1880), better known by her pen name George Eliot, was an English novelist, journalist and translator, and one of the leading writers of the Victorian era. She is the author of seven novels, including Adam Bede (1859), The Mill on the Floss (1860), Silas Marner (1861), Middlemarch (1871–72), and Daniel Deronda (1876), most of them set in provincial England and known for their realism and psychological insight.
She used a male pen name, she said, to ensure her works would be taken seriously. Female authors were published under their own names during Eliot's life, but she wanted to escape the stereotype of women only writing lighthearted romances. An additional factor in her use of a pen name may have been a desire to shield her private life from public scrutiny and to prevent scandals attending her relationship with the married George Henry Lewes, with whom she lived for over 20 years.[1]
Her 1872 work, Middlemarch, has been described as the greatest novel in the English language by Martin Amis[2] and by Julian Barnes.[3]

Mary Anne Evans was the third child of Robert Evans (1773–1849) and Christiana Evans (née Pearson) (1788–1836), the daughter of a local farmer. Mary Anne's name was sometimes shortened to Marian.[4] Her full siblings were Christiana, known as Chrissey (1814–59), Isaac (1816–1890), and twin brothers who survived a few days in March 1821. She also had a half-brother, Robert (1802–64), and half-sister, Fanny (1805–82), from her father's previous marriage to Harriet Poynton (?1780–1809). Robert Evans, of Welsh ancestry, was the manager of the Arbury Hall Estate for the Newdigate family in Warwickshire, and Mary Anne was born on the estate at South Farm. In early 1820 the family moved to a house named Griff, between Nuneaton and Bedworth.
The young Evans was obviously intelligent and a voracious reader. Because she was not considered physically beautiful, and thus not thought to have much chance of marriage, and because of her intelligence, her father invested in an education not often afforded women.[5] From ages five to nine, she boarded with her sister Chrissey at Miss Latham's school in Attleborough, from ages nine to thirteen at Mrs. Wallington's school in Nuneaton, and from ages thirteen to sixteen at Miss Franklin's school in Coventry. At Mrs. Wallington's school, she was taught by the evangelical Maria Lewis—to whom her earliest surviving letters are addressed. In the religious atmosphere of the Miss Franklin's school, Evans was exposed to a quiet, disciplined belief opposed to evangelicalism.[6]
After age sixteen, Eliot had little formal education.[7] Thanks to her father's important role on the estate, she was allowed access to the library of Arbury Hall, which greatly aided her self-education and breadth of learning. Her classical education left its mark; Christopher Stray has observed that "George Eliot's novels draw heavily on Greek literature (only one of her books can be printed correctly without the use of a Greek typeface), and her themes are often influenced by Greek tragedy".[8] Her frequent visits to the estate also allowed her to contrast the wealth in which the local landowner lived with the lives of the often much poorer people on the estate, and different lives lived in parallel would reappear in many of her works. The other important early influence in her life was religion. She was brought up within a narrow low churchAnglican family, but at that time the Midlands was an area with a growing number of religious dissenters.

In 1836 her mother died and Evans (then 16) returned home to act as housekeeper, but she continued correspondence with her tutor Maria Lewis. When she was 21, her brother Isaac married and took over the family home, so Evans and her father moved to Foleshill near Coventry. The closeness to Coventry society brought new influences, most notably those of Charles and Cara Bray. Charles Bray had become rich as a ribbon manufacturer and had used his wealth in building schools and other philanthropic causes. Evans, who had been struggling with religious doubts for some time, became intimate friends with the progressive, free-thinking Brays, whose home was a haven for people who held and debated radical views. The people whom the young woman met at the Brays' house included Robert Owen, Herbert Spencer, Harriet Martineau and Ralph Waldo Emerson. Through this society, Evans was introduced to more liberal theologies, and writers such as David Strauss and Ludwig Feuerbach, who cast doubt on the literal veracity of Biblical stories. In fact, her first major literary work was translating into English Strauss' Life of Jesus (1846), which she completed after it had been begun by another member of the Rosehill circle.
When Evans began to question her religious faith, her father threatened to throw her out, although that did not happen. Instead, she respectably attended church for years and continued to keep house for him until his death in 1849, when she was 30. Five days after her father's funeral, she travelled to Switzerland with the Brays. She decided to stay in Geneva alone, living first on the lake at Plongeon (near the present United Nations buildings) and then at the Rue de Chanoines (now the Rue de la Pelisserie) with François and Juliet d’Albert Durade on the second floor ("one feels in a downy nest high up in a good old tree"). Her stay is recorded by a plaque on the building. She read avidly and took long walks amongst a natural environment that inspired her greatly. François painted a portrait of her.[9]

On her return to England the following year (1850), she moved to London with the intent of becoming a writer and calling herself Marian Evans. She stayed at the house of John Chapman, the radical publisher whom she had met at Rosehill (near Coventry) and who had printed her translation. Chapman had recently bought the campaigning, left-wing journal The Westminster Review, and Evans became its assistant editor in 1851. Although Chapman was the named editor, it was Evans who did most of the work in running the journal, contributing many essays and reviews, from the January 1852 number until the dissolution of her arrangement with Chapman in the first half of 1854.[10]
Women writers were not uncommon at the time, but Evans's role at the head of a literary enterprise was. She was considered to have an ill-favoured appearance,[11] and she formed a number of embarrassing, unreciprocated emotional attachments, including that to her employer, the married Chapman, and Herbert Spencer.

The philosopher and critic George Henry Lewes met Evans in 1851, and by 1854 they had decided to live together. Lewes was married to Agnes Jervis. They had agreed to have an open marriage, and in addition to the three children they had together, Agnes had also had four children by Thornton Leigh Hunt.[12] Since Lewes was named on the birth certificates as the father of these children despite knowing this to be false, and was therefore considered complicit in adultery, he was not able to divorce Agnes. In July 1854, Lewes and Evans travelled to Weimar and Berlin together for the purpose of research. Before going to Germany, Evans continued her interest in theological work with a translation of Feuerbach's Essence of Christianity, and while abroad she wrote essays and worked on her translation of Baruch Spinoza's Ethics, which she completed in 1856, but which was not published in her lifetime.[13]
The trip to Germany also served as a honeymoon as Evans and Lewes now considered themselves married, with Evans calling herself Marian Evans Lewes, and referring to Lewes as her husband. It was not unusual for men and women in Victorian society to have affairs; Charles Bray, John Chapman, Friedrich Engels, and Wilkie Collins all had affairs, though more discreetly than Lewes and Evans. What was scandalous was their open admission of the relationship.

ماري آن إيفانس
- Mary Ann (Marian) Evans هي روائية أنجليزية ولدت في (22 نوفمبر1819) وتوفيت في (22 ديسمبر 1880) وهي أكثر شهرة ً باسمها القلمي جورج إليوت رواياتها التي تحصل معظم أحداثها في إنجلترا معروفة بواقعيتها والبعد النفسي فيها.
وقد اختارت اسماً قلمياً ذكورياً لأنه بحسب رأيها أرادت ان تكون واثقة من أن تأخذ أعمالها محمل الجد وكي لا يعتربها أحد كاتبة رومنسية لمجرد أنها امرأة، رغم أن العديد من النساء كُن مؤلفات في ذلك الوقت في أوروبا ويُعتقد أيضاً انها غيرت اسمها لتبتعد عن عالم الشهرة كي لا يتطرق أحد إلى علاقتها مع الفيلسوف (جورج هنري لويس) الذي كان متزوجاً في ذلك الوقت.

ماري آن إيفانس هي الابنة الثالثة لروبرت إيفانس وكرستينا إيفانس ولها أخ وأخت من زواج سابق لأبيها. أبدت في طفولتها ذكاءاً واضحاً ونظراً لأهمية موقع والدها في المدينة سُمح لها بالدخول إلى مكتبة المدينة مما طور قدرتها إلى حد بعيد وكان من الواضح فيما بعد مدى تأثرها بالكتابات اليونانية كما كان تأثرها بالديانة كبير جداً حيث تلقت بعض تعليمها من المدرسة المعمدانية.
في عام 1836 توفيت أمها فأخذت ماري آن على عاتقها مهمة رعاية البيت لكنها أكملت تعليمها من خلال معلم خاص في البيت وعندما كانت في الواحدة والعشرين من عمرها تزوج أخيها وأخذ البيت له فانتقلت هي ووالدها للعيش في مكان آخر حيث تعرفت على تشارلز براي وتعرفت في منزله على العديد من الشخصيات اللبرالية وتأثرت بهم لكن هذا لم يبعدها عن تعلقها بالدين حيث أن أول عمل أدبي لها كان ترجمة لكتاب دايفد شتراوس (حياة السيد المسيح) 1846.
قبل وفاة والدها سافرت إلى سويسرا وبعد عودتها انتقلت لتعيش في لندن وكانت مصممة في ذلك الوقت على ان تكون كاتبة وهناك عاشت في منزل الناشر جون تشابمان الذي كان يملك صحيفة عملت هي فيها كمحررة في العام 1858 لمدة ثلاث سنوات لكن كل كتاباتها كان تنشر باسم تشابمان.
في العام 1851 قابلت الفيلسوف (جورج هنري لويس) الذي كان متزوجاً في ذلك الوقت وفي العام 1854 قررا أن يعيشا معاً بالرغم من ذلك وسافرا معاً إلى برلين وبعد عودتهما عاشا في لندن لكن بعيداً عن مجتمع الكتاب وفي ذلك الوقت قررت هي أن تتخذ الاسم جورج إليوت ونشرت أول رواية كاملة لها بهذا الاسم في العام 1859 بعنوان Adam Bede وحققت تلك الرواية نجاحاً مباشر وفوري لكن تلك الرواية اطلقت العديد من التكهنات حول هذا الكاتب الجديد لكن في النهاية وبعد فترة اعترفت ماري آن بأنها هي جورج إليوت فكان لذلك الخبر تأثير قوي على قرائها الذين صدموا بمعرفة تفاصيل حياتها الشخصية.
ستمرت ماري آن بعد ذلك بالكتابة لمدة 15 عاماً وقد نشرت آخر رواية لها في العام 1873 بعنوان Daniel Deronda وبعد نشر تلك الرواية بعامين توفي (جورج هنري لويس). لكن ماري آن لم تتوقف عن توجيه الصدمات لقرائها حيث تعرفت بعد ذلك على رجل أمريكي أصغر منها بعشرين عاماً اسمه جون والتر كروس وتزوجته في عام 1880 فكانت تلك صدمة للجميع وتوفيت بعد ذلك بأشهر حين كان عمرها 61 عاماً.

- ماري آن إيفانس Mary Ann (Marian) Evans هي روائية أنجليزية ولدت في (22 نوفمبر1819) وتوفيت في (22 ديسمبر 1880).
- وهي أكثر شهرة ً باسمها القلمي جورج إليوت رواياتها التي تحصل معظم أحداثها في إنجلترا معروفة بواقعيتها والبعد النفسي فيها
- قد اختارت اسماً قلمياً ذكورياً لأنه بحسب رأيها أرادت ان تكون واثقة من أن تأخذ أعمالها محمل الجد وكي لا يعتربها أحد كاتبة رومنسية لمجرد أنها امرأة، رغم أن العديد من النساء كُن مؤلفات في ذلك الوقت في أوروبا ويُعتقد أيضاً انها غيرت اسمها لتبتعد عن عالم الشهرة كي لا يتطرق أحد إلى علاقتها مع الفيلسوف (جورج هنري لويس) الذي كان متزوجاً في ذلك الوقت
- ماري آن إيفانس هي الابنة الثالثة لروبرت إيفانس وكرستينا إيفانس ولها أخ وأخت من زواج سابق لأبيها.
- عاشت في مدارس داخلية منها مدرسة راهبات حتى سن 16 سنه.
- في عام 1836 توفيت أمها فأخذت ماري آن على عاتقها مهمة رعاية البيت لكنها أكملت تعليمها من خلال معلم خاص في البيت وعندما كانت في الواحدة والعشرين من عمرها تزوج أخيها وأخذ البيت له فانتقلت هي ووالدها للعيش في مكان آخر ( وعمرها 17 سنة ).
- قبل وفاة والدها سافرت إلى سويسرا وبعد عودتها انتقلت لتعيش في لندن .
- في العام 1851 قابلت الفيلسوف (جورج هنري لويس) الذي كان متزوجاً في ذلك الوقت وفي العام 1854 قررا أن يعيشا معاً بالرغم من ذلك وسافرا معاً إلى برلين وبعد عودتهما عاشا في لندن لكن بعيداً عن مجتمع الكتاب وفي ذلك الوقت قررت هي أن تتخذ الاسم جورج إليوت ونشرت أول رواية كاملة لها بهذا الاسم في العام 1859 بعنوان Adam Bede وحققت تلك الرواية نجاحاً مباشر وفوري لكن تلك الرواية اطلقت العديد من التكهنات حول هذا الكاتب الجديد لكن في النهاية وبعد فترة اعترفت ماري آن بأنها هي جورج إليوت فكان لذلك الخبر تأثير قوي على قرائها الذين صدموا بمعرفة تفاصيل حياتها الشخصية.
- لكن ماري آن لم تتوقف عن توجيه الصدمات لقرائها حيث تعرفت بعد ذلك على رجل أمريكي أصغر منها بعشرين عاماً اسمه جون والتر كروس وتزوجته في عام 1880 فكانت تلك صدمة للجميع وتوفيت بعد ذلك بأشهر حين كان عمرها 61 عاماً.

يتيمة الام في سن 17

Midnight's Children is a 1980 book by Salman Rushdie that deals with India's transition from British colonialism to independence and the partition of British India. It is considered an example of postcolonial literature and magical realism. The story is told by its chief protagonist, Saleem Sinai, and is set in the context of actual historical events as with historical fiction.
Midnight's Children won both the Booker Prize and the James Tait Black Memorial Prize in 1981. It was awarded the "Booker of Bookers" Prize and the best all-time prize winners in 1993 and 2008 to celebrate the Booker Prize 25th and 40th anniversary.[1][2] In 2003, the novel was listed on the BBC's survey The Big Read.[3] It was also added to the list of Great Books of the 20th Century, published by Penguin Books.

The novel has a multitude of named characters; see the List of Midnight's Children characters.
Midnight's Children is a loose allegory for events in India both before and, primarily, after the independence and partition of India. The protagonist and narrator of the story is Saleem Sinai, born at the exact moment when India became an independent country. He was born with telepathic powers, as well as an enormous and constantly dripping nose with an extremely sensitive sense of smell. The novel is divided into three books.
The book begins with the story of the Sinai family, particularly with events leading up to India's Independence and Partition. Saleem is born precisely at midnight, August 15, 1947, and is, therefore, exactly as old as the independent republic of India. He later discovers that all children born in India between 12 a.m. and 1 a.m. on that date are imbued with special powers. Saleem, using his telepathic powers, assembles a Midnight Children's Conference, reflective of the issues India faced in its early statehood concerning the cultural, linguistic, religious, and political differences faced by a vastly diverse nation. Saleem acts as a telepathic conduit, bringing hundreds of geographically disparate children into contact while also attempting to discover the meaning of their gifts. In particular, those children born closest to the stroke of midnight wield more powerful gifts than the others. Shiva "of the Knees", Saleem's nemesis, and Parvati, called "Parvati-the-witch," are two of these children with notable gifts and roles in Saleem's story.
Meanwhile, Saleem's family begin a number of migrations and endure the numerous wars which plague the subcontinent. During this period he also suffers amnesia until he enters a quasi-mythologicalexile in the jungle of Sundarban, where he is re-endowed with his memory. In doing so, he reconnects with his childhood friends. Saleem later becomes involved with the Indira Gandhi-proclaimed Emergency and her son Sanjay's "cleansing" of the Jama Masjid slum. For a time Saleem is held as a political prisoner; these passages contain scathing criticisms of Indira Gandhi's overreach during the Emergency as well as a personal lust for power bordering on godhood. The Emergency signals the end of the potency of the Midnight Children, and there is little left for Saleem to do but pick up the few pieces of his life he may still find and write the chronicle that encompasses both his personal history and that of his still-young nation; a chronicle written for his son, who, like his father, is both chained and supernaturally endowed by history.

Winner of the Booker of Bookers
Saleem Sinai is born at the stroke of midnight on August 15, 1947, the very moment of India's independence. Greeted by fireworks displays, cheering crowds, and Prime Minister Nehru himself, Saleem grows up to learn the ominous consequences of this coincidence. His every act is mirrored and magnified in events that sway the course of national affairs; his health and well-being are inextricably bound to those of his nation; his life is inseparable, at times indistinguishable, from the history of his country. Perhaps most remarkable are the telepathic powers linking him with India's 1,000 other "midnight's children," all born in that initial hour and endowed with magical gifts.
This novel is at once a fascinating family saga and an astonishing evocation of a vast land and its people-a brilliant incarnation of the universal human comedy. Twenty-five years after its publication, Midnight's Children stands apart as both an epochal work of fiction and a brilliant performance by one of the great literary voices of our time

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سلمان أحمد رشدي

ويسمى سلمان رشدي ولد في مدينة بومباي في 19 يونيو 1947، وهو بريطاني من أصل هندي تخرج من جامعة كنج كولج في كامبردج بريطانيا، سنة 1981 حصل على جائزة بوكر الإنجليزية الهامة عن كتابه "أطفال منتصف الليل". نشر أشهر رواياته آيات شيطانية سنة 1988 وحاز عنها على جائزة ويتبيرد لكن شهرة الرواية جاءت بسبب تسببها في إحداث ضجة في العالم الإسلامي حيث اعتبر البعض أن فيها إهانة لشخص رسول الإسلام محمد.

غريموس تعتبر الرواية الأولى لسلمان رشدي ولكنها لم تحظ بأي اهتمام أو شهرة. الرواية التي اخذت الحيز الواسع من الشهرة والتقدير هي روايته الثانية أطفال منتصف الليل وبها دخل سلمان رشدي تاريخ الأدب وتعتبر اليوم أحد أهم اعماله الادبية. علماء الأدب الإنجليزي أشاروا إلى أن رواية طفل منتصف الليل أثرت بشكل كبير على شكل الأدب الهندي-الإنكليزي وتطوره خلال العقود القادمة.
بعد هذا النجاح جاء سلمان رشدي برواية جديدة بعنوان عيب وبعد هذه الرواية أصدر عمل جديد بني على تجربة شخصية وهو ابتسامة جكوار ثم تأتي اعمال أخرى كثيرة. وفي الفترة الأخيرة ظهر سلمان رشدي في دور قصير في فيلم بريدجيت جونز دايري مع رينية زيلويغر.

هو الابن الوحيد لأنيس أحمد رشدي، محامي خريج جامعة كامبردج تحول إلى رجل اعمال، ونيجين بهات، مدرسة. ولد رشدي في مومباي بالهند. تلقى تعليمه في مدرسة كاتدرائية جون كونن في مومباي، قبل أن ينتقل إلى مدرسة الرجبي الداخلية في انكلترا، ومن ثم درس دراسته الجامعية في الكلية الملكية، في جامعة كامبردج حيث درس التاريخ. عمل لدى اثنين من وكالات الاعلان (اوجلفي& ماثر وآير باركر) قبل أن يتفرغ للكتابة. تزوج رشدي أريعة مرات، أول زوجاته كانت كلارسيا لوارد من الفترة 1976 إلى 1987 وانجب منها ابنه زافار. زوجته الثانية هي ماريان ويجينز الروائية الأمريكية حيث تزوجا في عام 1988 وتم الطلاق في عام 1993. زوجته الثالثة (من 1997 إلى 2004) كانت إليزابيث ويست، انجبا ابن يدعا ميلان. في عام 2004 تزوج من الممثلة الهندية الأمريكية والموديل بادما لاكشمي. انتهى الزواج في 2 يوليو 2007 حيث صرحت لاكشمي ان نهاية الزواج كات نتيجة لرغبتها هي. في الصحافة البوليودية، كان هناك حديث في 2008 عن علاقة بينه وبين الموديل الهندية ريا سين التي كانت صديقته، وفي رد على ما جاء في وسائل الاعلام قالت ريا في تصريح لها "اعتقد حينما تكون سلمان رشدي، من المؤكد ان تصاب بالملل من الناس الذين دائما ما يتكلمون معك عن الأدب".
في عام 1999، خضع سلمان لعملية "تصحيح وتر" حيث -حسبما صرح- كان يعاني من صعوبة متزايدة في فتح عينيه. وقال" لو لم اخضع لهذه العملية لما تمكنت من فتح عيني نهائيا".

Sir Ahmed Salman Rushdie
(Kashmiri: अहमद सलमान रुशदी (Devanagari), احمد سلمان رشدی (Nastaʿlīq); pron.: /sælˈmɑːn ˈrʊʃdi/;[2] born 19 June 1947) is a British Indian novelist and essayist. His second novel, Midnight's Children (1981), won the Booker Prize in 1981. Much of his fiction is set on the Indian subcontinent. He is said to combine magical realism with historical fiction; his work is concerned with the many connections, disruptions and migrations between East and West.
His fourth novel, The Satanic Verses (1988), was the centre of a major controversy, provoking protests from Muslims in several countries, some violent. Death threats were made against him, including a fatwā issued by AyatollahRuhollah Khomeini, the Supreme Leader of Iran, on 14 February 1989.
Rushdie was appointed Commandeur de l'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres of France in January 1999.[3] In June 2007, Queen Elizabeth IIknighted him for his services to literature.[4] In 2008, The Times ranked him thirteenth on its list of the fifty greatest British writers since 1945.[5]
Since 2000, Rushdie has lived in the United States, where he has worked at Emory University and was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Letters. His most recent book is Joseph Anton: A Memoir, an account of his life in the wake of the controversy over The Satanic Verses.

Salman Rushdie views the main purpose of an author as being an antagonist to the state. He has been described as a disaffected intellectual who criticizes or makes fun of nearly everything, but he is nevertheless a highly acclaimed writer whose books continue to trigger arguments on the nature of free speech and an author's social responsibility.

Salman Rushdie was born in Bombay, India, on June 19, 1947, almost exactly two months before India gained her independence from Britain. His parents, Anis Ahmed and Negin (nee Butt) Rushdie, were devout Muslims, and Salman grew up a believer in the Islamic faith. After the partition of India and Pakistan, many of the Rushdies relatives moved to Pakistan, but Salman's parents chose to remain in the predominantly Hindu and cosmopolitan Bombay, where Salman could receive a British education.

The Rushdies were wealthy, and Salman and his three sisters had a sheltered and privileged childhood; he never saw the misery or the thousands of homeless people who slept in the streets of Bombay every night. Instead, most of his time as a child was spent in the world of Aladdin, Sinbad the Sailor, and the flying carpets of his favorite book Arabian Nights.

In his family life, Rushdie was "the little prince." "Being the only son and eldest child in a middle-class Indian family does make you think that the world revolves round you," Rushdie once commented. This status certainly spoiled him, but it also had the more long-term effect of convincing him that "he had a special role to play in the world." As an old family friend describes it, Rushdie felt "a responsibility to right wrongs and correct the errors of lesser mortals."

- At the age of 14, Rushdie left for England to attend Rugby School.
- He had always idealized British society, so it was a shock for him to find that he was considered an outsider at school, a "wog," an inferior.
- He was treated with hostility by both students and teachers and was often excluded from social activities.
- This bitter experience with racial prejudice was a shock that caused him to rethink much of what he'd been taught growing up.
During this period of his life, he poured his thoughts into a short autobiographical novel called The Terminal Report. It was the first time that he'd used writing as an outlet for his emotions, and it made him seriously consider writing as a profession.

- When he graduated from Rugby, he went to Pakistan, where his family had moved since he had left for England.
- But even at home he was now an outsider.
At school he had become more independent, more forceful with his opinions, and his English articulation had changed from its original Bombay accent to the more superior sounding English that older Indians associated with former British colonial officials.

- This was no longer his home: Rushdie was a displaced person, and although he'd hated Rugby, he decided, with much urging from his father, to attend Cambridge, where he'd won a scholarship.
- He didn't want to return to England, but it was really his only choice. He described this return in 1965 as "one of the most disorienting moments of my life."
It took Rushdie a few weeks to realize that Cambridge was very different from the Rugby sequel he'd expected. He began to excel in school, studying history in class and English literature on his own. He found an interest in acting and became involved in London's artistic circles, but his secret dream was still to become a writer.

These years at school also made him aware of the world beyond his small circle. The Civil Rights movement was closely followed at Cambridge, and there was much opposition to the American involvement in the Vietnam War. Rushdie was very much caught up in this anti-establishment wave at Cambridge, and its influence would be felt in his writings later on in life.

Rushdie graduated in 1968 with a Master of Arts in history with honors, and again returned to his family's home in Karachi. He spent two unsuccessful years working at a television station, whose constant censorship frustrated him. He returned to London in 1970.

There Rushdie married a British woman, Clarissa Luard, making him a British subject. To pay the bills, Rushdie worked as an advertising copywriter. His first book, Grimus: A Novel, was published in 1976, but this bizarre science fiction version of an old Sufi poem received mixed, though mostly poor, reviews. It was only after a decade working as an ad copywriter that he had his breakthrough.

His second book, Midnight's Children, brought him critical acclaim and the Booker Prize in 1981. This unflattering allegory of India's independence gave him the freedom to devote himself full time to writing at a young age, which also meant the freedom from worrying about how to support his wife and his son Zafir, who was born in 1979.

His third book, Shame, which criticized the leaders and society of Pakistan, also won acclaim when it was published in 1983, but not to the degree of Midnight's Children. It kept the money flowing in, however, and Rushdie was able to travel and to continue focusing on his books.

The Jaguar Smile, a short travel book, chronicled Rushdie's brief trip to Nicaragua in 1986 and his wholehearted admiration of the Sandanistas, perhaps the only group and place that he ever described fondly. It was also around this time that he divorced Luard, and three months later married Marianne Wiggins, an American novelist living in London.

The Satanic Verses was published in 1988 and earned widespread critical praise, establishing Rushdie as a leading member of the London intelligentsia. This story of migration presents challenges against Islam and brought about widespread protest from Muslims. It was almost immediately banned in India.

The most severe reaction, however, came from the Iranian Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini. On Valentine's Day, 1989, a "fatwa," or decree, from the Ayatollah was announced, sentencing not only Salman Rushdie, but also all of the publishers and translators of The Satanic Verses, to death. He called "on all zealous Muslims to execute them quickly, wherever they may find them, so that no one will dare to insult the Islamic sanctions. Whoever is killed on this path will be regarded as a martyr, God willing."

Rushdie immediately entered into hiding in London. Bounties, which quickly rose to number in millions, were placed on his head for this blasphemy against Islam. Khomeini himself died that year, but for many years to come Rushdie nevertheless had to live under constant police protection, and all his public appearances took place only with the highest security. Nevertheless, he still managed to write.

During his years in hiding, Rushdie wrote a series of novels and stories, among them Haroun and the Sea of Stories (1990) and The Moor's Last Sigh (1995). It was also during this time that Rushdie separated from his second wife and married a third. In 1999, almost entirely out of hiding, although he was still constantly shadowed by bodyguards, Rushdie published his most recent novel, a love story entitled The Ground Beneath Her Feet.

This rock-and-roll retelling of the myth of Orpheus and Eurydice opens with the death of a rock star, on Valentine's Day 1989. This date was very much intentional "because I thought, well, one of the reasons I'm writing a novel about cataclysms in people's lives, about earthquakes, about the fact that the world is provisional and the life that you think is yours can be removed from you at any moment -- one of the reasons I'm writing this book is because of what happened in my life."

In continuing to write, he has succeeded in sidestepping "two traps set by the fatwa: writing timid novels and writing bitter ones." It is his personal philosophy that 'if somebody's trying to shut you up, sing louder and, if possible, better. My experience just made me all the more determined to write the very best books I could find it in myself to write." And now, from his home in New York City, he continues to do so; he continues to push his work to a place where he never thought it could go, and he takes us with him.