[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":-1},["ShallowReactive",2],{"doc-detail-143523-en":3,"doc-seo-143523-105":29,"detail-sidebar-cat-0-en-105":91},{"code":4,"msg":5,"data":6},0,"success",{"doc_id":7,"user_id":8,"nickname":9,"user_avatar":10,"doc_module":4,"category_id":11,"category_name":12,"doc_title":13,"doc_description":14,"doc_content":15,"file_id":16,"file_url":17,"file_type":18,"file_size":19,"view_count":11,"is_deleted":4,"is_public":11,"is_downloadable":11,"audit_status":11,"page_count":20,"language":21,"language_code":22,"site_id":23,"html_lang":22,"table_of_contents":24,"faqs":25,"seo_title":26,"seo_description":14,"update_tm":27,"read_time":28},143523,8796095462418,"Noah","https://ap-avatar.wpscdn.com/avatar/80000253c1241d02b47?x-image-process=image/resize,m_fixed,w_180,h_180&k=1778826106357471780",1,"Story & Novel","Middlemarch - Chapter 1 - Miss Brooke","Middlemarch opens with a prelude that reflects on how Time shapes human lives, using the figure of Saint Theresa to explore the pursuit of an epic purpose and the tension between ideal longing and practical circumstance. It then begins Book I, “Miss Brooke,” presenting Dorothea and her sister Celia through careful description of character, upbringing, and religious conviction. The narrative highlights social expectations, “good” family roots, and the moral reasoning behind Dorothea’s plain manner.","Middlemarch  \nBy George Eliot  \nDownload free eBooks of classic literature, books and novels at Planet eBook. Subscribe to our free eBooks blog and email newsletter.  \nTo my dear Husband, George Henry Lewes, in this nineteenth year of our blessed union.  \n􀀖 Middlemarch  \nPRELUDE  \nWho thowhtathecarmyesstmucherious to kmixou the histbehavesoruynodferahne,vaandrying experiments of Time, has not dwelt, at least briefly, on the life of Saint Theresa, has not smiled with some gentleness at the thought of the little girl walking forth one morning hand-in-hand with her still smaller brother, to go and seek martyrdom in the country of the Moors? Out they toddled from rugged Avila, wide-eyed and helpless-looking as two fawns, but with human hearts, already beating to a national idea; until domestic reality met them in the shape of uncles, and turned them back from their great resolve. That child-pilgrimage was a fit beginning. Theresa’s passionate, ideal nature demanded an epic life: what were many-volumed romances of chivalry and the social conquests of a brilliant girl to her? Her flame quickly burned up that light fuel; and, fed from within, soared after some illimitable satisfaction, some object which would never justify weariness, which would reconcile self-despair with the rapturous consciousness of life beyond self. She found herepos in the reform ofa religious order.  \nThat Spanish woman who lived three hundred years ago, was certainly not the last of her kind. Many Theresas have been born who found for themselves no epic life wherein there was a constant unfolding of far-resonant action;  \n[Free eBooks at](Free eBooks at Planet eBook.com)[ Planet eBook.com](Free eBooks at Planet eBook.com) 􀀕  \nperhaps only a life of mistakes, the offspring of a certain spiritual grandeur ill-matched with the meanness of opportunity; perhaps a tragic failure which found no sacred poet and sank unwept into oblivion. With dim lights and tangled circumstance they tried to shape their thought and deed in noble agreement; but after all, to common eyes their struggles seemed mere inconsistency and formlessness; for these later-born Theresas were helped by no coherent social faith and order which could perform the function of knowledge for the ardently willing soul. Their ardor alternated between a vague ideal and the common yearning of womanhood; so that the one was disapproved as extravagance, and the other condemned as a lapse.  \nSome have felt that these blundering lives are due to the inconvenient indefiniteness with which the Supreme Power has fashioned the natures of women: if there were one level of feminine incompetence as strict as the ability to count three and no more, the social lot of women might be treated with scientific certitude. Meanwhile the indefiniteness remains, and the limits of variation are really much wider than any one would imagine from the sameness of women’s coiffure and the favorite love-stories in prose and verse. Here and there a cygnet is reared uneasily among the ducklings in the brown pond, and never finds the living stream in fellowship with its own oary-footed kind. Here and thereis born a Saint Theresa, foundress of nothing, whose loving heart-beats and sobs after an unattained goodness tremble off and are dispersed among hindrances, instead of centring in some long-recognizable deed.  \n􀀋 Middlemarch  \nBOOK I.  \nMISS BROOKE.  \nChapter I  \n‘Since I can do no good because a woman, Reach constantly at something that is near it.  \n—TheMaid’s Tragedy: BEAUMONT AND FLETCHER.  \nMisbse Bthrooke hadrown into threaltiekfindbyopfoboreadutyresswhicHerhhseeanmds tanod wrist were so finely formed that she could wear sleeves not less bare of style than those in which the Blessed Virgin appeared to Italian painters; and her profile as well as her stature and bearing seemed to gain the more dignity from her plain garments, which by the side of provincial fashion gave her the impressiveness ofa fine quotation from the Bible,—or f","cbCaikHjk0ijrBPX","https://ap.wps.com/l/cbCaikHjk0ijrBPX","pdf",3801070,1193,"English","en",105,"# PRELUDE\n# BOOK I. MISS BROOKE\n## Chapter I","[{\"question\":\"What is the purpose of the “PRELUDE” in Middlemarch?\",\"answer\":\"The “PRELUDE” frames the novel’s themes by considering how lives are formed by “Time,” contrasting ideal spiritual longing with the realities that limit or redirect it.\"},{\"question\":\"Who are the main characters introduced at the start of Book I?\",\"answer\":\"Book I introduces Dorothea Brooke and her sister Celia, focusing on how their personalities and beliefs show through their behavior and appearance.\"},{\"question\":\"What role does religion play in Miss Brooke’s characterization?\",\"answer\":\"Dorothea’s plain dressing is linked primarily to religious feeling, and Celia supports Dorothea’s sentiments while tempering them with practical common sense.\"}]","Middlemarch - Chapter 1 - Miss Brooke | PDF",1787695572,1837,{"code":4,"msg":30,"data":31},"ok",{"site_id":23,"language":22,"slug":32,"title":13,"keywords":33,"description":14,"schema_data":34,"social_meta":86,"head_meta":88,"extra_data":90,"updated_unix":27},"middlemarch-chapter-1-miss-brooke","",{"@graph":35,"@context":85},[36,53,68],{"@type":37,"itemListElement":38},"BreadcrumbList",[39,43,47,50],{"item":40,"name":41,"@type":42,"position":11},"https://docshare.wps.com","Home","ListItem",{"item":44,"name":45,"@type":42,"position":46},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/","Document",2,{"item":48,"name":12,"@type":42,"position":49},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/story-novel/",3,{"item":51,"name":13,"@type":42,"position":52},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/middlemarch-chapter-1-miss-brooke/143523/",4,{"url":51,"name":13,"@type":54,"author":55,"headline":13,"publisher":57,"fileFormat":60,"inLanguage":22,"description":14,"dateModified":61,"datePublished":62,"encodingFormat":60,"isAccessibleForFree":63,"interactionStatistic":64},"DigitalDocument",{"name":9,"@type":56},"Person",{"url":40,"name":58,"@type":59},"DocShare","Organization","application/pdf","2026-09-04","2026-08-25",true,{"@type":65,"interactionType":66,"userInteractionCount":11},"InteractionCounter",{"@type":67},"ViewAction",{"@type":69,"mainEntity":70},"FAQPage",[71,77,81],{"name":72,"@type":73,"acceptedAnswer":74},"What is the purpose of the “PRELUDE” in Middlemarch?","Question",{"text":75,"@type":76},"The “PRELUDE” frames the novel’s themes by considering how lives are formed by “Time,” contrasting ideal spiritual longing with the realities that limit or redirect it.","Answer",{"name":78,"@type":73,"acceptedAnswer":79},"Who are the main characters introduced at the start of Book I?",{"text":80,"@type":76},"Book I introduces Dorothea Brooke and her sister Celia, focusing on how their personalities and beliefs show through their behavior and appearance.",{"name":82,"@type":73,"acceptedAnswer":83},"What role does religion play in Miss Brooke’s characterization?",{"text":84,"@type":76},"Dorothea’s plain dressing is linked primarily to religious feeling, and Celia supports Dorothea’s sentiments while tempering them with practical common sense.","https://schema.org",{"og:url":51,"og:type":87,"og:title":13,"og:site_name":58,"og:description":14},"article",{"robots":89,"canonical":51},"index,follow",{"doc_id":7,"site_id":23},{"code":4,"msg":5,"data":92},[93,96,100,104,109,114,119,124,129,132,136],{"id":11,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":45,"category_name":12,"show_sort_weight":94,"slug":95},90,"story-novel",{"id":46,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":45,"category_name":97,"show_sort_weight":98,"slug":99},"Literature",80,"literature",{"id":52,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":45,"category_name":101,"show_sort_weight":102,"slug":103},"Exam",70,"exam",{"id":105,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":45,"category_name":106,"show_sort_weight":107,"slug":108},5,"Comic",60,"comic",{"id":110,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":45,"category_name":111,"show_sort_weight":112,"slug":113},6,"Technology",50,"technology",{"id":115,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":45,"category_name":116,"show_sort_weight":117,"slug":118},7,"Healthcare",40,"healthcare",{"id":120,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":45,"category_name":121,"show_sort_weight":122,"slug":123},8,"Research & Report",30,"research-report",{"id":125,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":45,"category_name":126,"show_sort_weight":127,"slug":128},9,"Religion & Spirituality",20,"religion-spirituality",{"id":127,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":45,"category_name":130,"show_sort_weight":127,"slug":131},"World Cup","world-cup",{"id":133,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":45,"category_name":134,"show_sort_weight":133,"slug":135},10,"Lifestyle","lifestyle",{"id":137,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":45,"category_name":138,"show_sort_weight":105,"slug":139},19,"General","general"]