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Middlemarch Book 8: Finale Summary

  • The narrator tells us that we've reached the end of the story, but will go over all the major characters to tell us what happened to everyone:
  • Mary and Fred live happily ever after and have lots of children, of course, and Fred even writes a book about farming, which everyone suspects his wife to have written.
  • And then Mary writes a collection of stories for children taken from Plutarch, and everyone suspects Fred of having written that.
  • Lydgate dies when he is only fifty, and always considers himself a failure.
  • Rosamond gets remarried after her husband's death to an older physician who is nice to her four kids.
  • Rosamond never forgets Dorothea's generosity to her.
  • Dorothea never regrets giving up her wealth and position to marry Will.
  • He becomes a Member of Parliament, and does great work in the political world.
  • Sir James finally breaks down and agrees to visit Dorothea when Celia receives a letter announcing the birth of their first son.
  • Mr. Brooke lives to a ripe old age, and Dorothea's son inherits his estate at Tipton.