Middlemarch

In a provincial English town on the eve of reform, ardent young Dorothea Brooke marries a dried-up scholar because she wants her life to mean something, and discovers too late what she has signed up for. Around her, an ambitious doctor makes his own disastrous match, a banker's respectable facade develops cracks, and half of Middlemarch's inhabitants find their fates knotted together by money, gossip, and the choices they can't take back.

George Eliot's masterpiece is often called the greatest English novel, and its special power is sympathy. She lets you inside everyone, even the characters you want to shake. It's long and wise and quietly funny, exactly the kind of book that a good voice and a daily commute can finally open up for you.

At roughly 310,900 words, Middlemarch runs about 34½ hours at 1x narration speed. That figure is an estimate based on a typical narration pace. The exact length depends on the voice and the playback speed you choose.

The edition linked here is available from Project Gutenberg under its US public-domain listing. Check the edition, translation, completeness and copyright rules where you live. LoudReader lets you browse and download Gutenberg books; they are not all stored on installation. To listen:

1. Install LoudReader on iPhone or iPad, or its iPad app on a compatible Apple Silicon Mac.
2. Search for “Middlemarch” in the built-in catalog and add it to your library.
3. Press play. A natural offline voice reads the book while each word highlights on screen, and your place is saved between sessions.

Speech is generated locally without uploading the book for narration. Download the book and check your chosen voice before travelling offline. Available voices depend on your device; check the in-app voice list. Try every available voice for your first 8 hours of listening. Afterwards, keep a free English voice selection and unlimited book listening. No LoudReader account or word quota.