Written in 1871, George Eliot's masterpiece Middlemarch looks back 40 years to an England in the period just before the Great Reform Act. The characters whose stories it tells are unforgettable - the lives of the ardent and empathetic Dorothea Brooke, the idealistic young doctor Tertius Lydgate and the evangelical and flawed banker Bulstrode are set against a backdrop of seismic change in society, politics, economics and science. But how does Eliot achieve such a panoramic sweep? How can ordinary people live a good life? How do we cope with disappointment and failure? What was provincial life like in the early 1830s? And why is pawnbroking not a good way to start a career in finance?

Join Charlie and Rupert in the first of two episodes on Middlemarch, as they explore these issues and talk about the life of the brilliant Mary Anne Evans, who became known as George Eliot. Part 2 to follow very shortly.