This is really 4 1/2 stars, rounded up. I love her writing, and the story is a good one, it has to be to keep the reader's attention for almost 1000 pages. But man, even though I know I need to read this bearing in mind the time in which it was written, it still just irked me endlessly when everyone just talks about Jewish people like they are less than human or some kind of extra-terrestrial beings who speak an unintelligible language. And this is true even with characters who are themselves Jewish. I should instead be glad that Eliot wrote a book sympathetic to the aliens rather than irritated that she portrayed them in a way I don't like, but there you have it. Read it anyway.