Wit,irony,pathos and brilliant insight into human nature colour every strand og plot and every beutifully drawn character.Foremost among these are Dorothea Brooke,passionate to use her spirit and talent in a wider world than that typically afforded to women in the 1830s;Casaubon, the dry,jealous academic;Doctor Lydgate,who dreams of pioneering research into medical science;spoilt,pretty Rosamond Vincy who sees Lydgate as "a man whom it would be delightful to enslave".