George Eliot's novel "Middlemarch" is set in which fictional English town?

George Eliot's novel "Middlemarch" is set in the fictional English town of Middlemarch. The town lies in the English Midlands and gives the novel its full title, "Middlemarch, A Study of Provincial Life."

The story takes place mainly between 1829 and 1832, a period shaped by political reform, the arrival of railways, and the accession of William IV. Eliot weaves together several interconnected plots, including Dorothea Brooke's unhappy marriage, Dr Tertius Lydgate's medical ambitions, and the social and financial troubles surrounding Nicholas Bulstrode.

Middlemarch is fictional, but Eliot probably drew on Coventry, where she lived before moving to London. Like Coventry, the town is associated with silk-ribbon manufacturing. A common mix-up is confusing Middlemarch with other fictional English communities: Cranford belongs to Elizabeth Gaskell, Barsetshire is Anthony Trollope's fictional county, and Casterbridge is associated with Thomas Hardy.