2.5 stars at best 
 The story is ok, although the ending is ridiculous. And the book is so long-winded that the ending doesn't impart any sense of tragedy. You just want it to be over. 
 Eliot doesn't just abuse the rule "don't tell, show." She beats it over the head with a shovel until she's sure it will never move again. Why use a word when a paragraph will do almost as well? They must have been paying her by the word. Instead of just showing you some behavior and letting you infer what you will, she instead provides you a dissertation on every human motivation that might possibly bear on the behavior in question. 
 Not a terrible book, but also not one worth the difficult journey.