We analyze a negotiation drawn from George Eliot’s great novel Middlemarch: A Study of Provincial Life. Eliot is renowned as a perceptive chronicler of social interaction, and she understood the process of negotiation and its role in the community perhaps as well as anyone. The negotiation in question is between a wealthy banker and a former associate who sets out (or perhaps just ends up) blackmailing him. From this negotiation we draw insights into the importance of preparation and the prenegotiation, empathy, and the fostering of relationships (even when you would prefer not to); and the problems of focusing on one’s own BATNA rather than your counterparts’. We consider six key negotiation lessons for the fictional negotiator (and for us) and reflect on the difficulty of negotiations in which one's self‐regard is at issue in addition to material goods. We conclude with a brief account of how both fictional and “nonfictional” negotiations further our understanding of how to learn about and improve negotiation practice.

中文翻译：

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中间商谈判

我们分析了乔治·埃利奥特（George Eliot）的伟大小说《中间人》（Middlemarch）：省生活研究。艾略特（Eliot）以社交互动的敏锐纪事而著称，她了解谈判的过程及其在社区以及任何人中的角色。有争议的谈判是在一位富有的银行家和一位前合伙人之间进行的，后者提出（或可能只是最终）勒索他。通过这次谈判，我们可以洞悉准备工作的重要性以及谈判，同情和建立关系的重要性（即使您不愿这样做）；以及专注于自己的BATNA而不是同行的问题。我们为虚构的谈判者（以及对我们）考虑了六个关键的谈判课程，并反思了谈判中除了物质商品之外还存在自我考虑问题的困难。