Richard Holt Hutton

Richard Holt Hutton Hutton edited The Spectator alongside Meredith Townsend from 1861 until his death in 1897, and was in charge of the magazine's literary coverage. He was editor of The Economist from 1857 to 1861, and founded a now defunct journal with Walter Bagehot in 1855. He was regarded as one of the finest literary critics of his generation.

Tuesday

Richard Holt Hutton

The melancholy of Middlemarch (1872)

George Eliot’s novel Middlemarch was released in eight instalments, or ‘books’, throughout 1871 and 1872. A century and a half later, it is heralded as one of the greatest works in the English language. The following piece was written 150 years ago, in anticipation of the release of the fifth book. The author is Richard