Product Description
Adam Bede was George Eliot's first full-length novel. Set in the English Midlands of farmers and village craftsmen at the turn of the eighteenth century, the book tells a story of seduction, and is also a pioneering record of a long lost rural world.
Middlemarch is a complex tale of idealism, disillusion, profligacy, loyalty and frustrated love. This penetrating analysis of the life of an English provincial town is told through the lives of Dorothea Brooke and Dr Tertius Lydgate, illuminating the condition of English life in the mid-nineteenth century.The Mill on the Floss is a masterpiece of ambiguity in which moral choice is subjected to the hypocrisy of the Victorian age. Maggie Tulliver's love for her brother Tom turns to conflict. His bourgeois standards contrasting with her own lively intelligence, and the result, is tragedy.Silas Marner tells the tender and moving story of the unjustly exiled linen weaver, Silas Marner of Raveloe in the agricultural heartland of England. It tells of how he is restored to life and his sadness ended by the unlikely means of the orphan child Eppie. ... Read more

Amazon.com
From Gordon Haight's scrupulous 1968 work George Eliot through Ruby Redinger's 1976 feminist rethinking George Eliot: The Emergent Self and beyond, the unconventional life and probing fiction of Victorian England's loftiest female author has attracted the scrutiny of numerous biographers. British scholar Kathryn Hughes's pungent account distinguishes itself by limning Mary Ann Evans's turbulent emotions with as much acuity as she does the creative drive that eventually led one of London's most prominent editors and critics to reinvent herself as the novelist George Eliot. Cast out of respectable public life when she moved in with the married George Henry Lewes, Eliot found personal happiness with a man who understood her need for all-consuming love and artistic salvation. Lewes demonstrated his dedication to her by screening Eliot from outside criticism and inner doubts that could have prevented her from writing. Hughes's analysis of their relationship is as sympathetic yet candid as the rest of her narrative. She paints a vivid portrait of Victorian intellectual life and Eliot's provocative role within it as a writer who questioned conventional wisdom of all sorts, but whose heroines ultimately chose lives of modest usefulness within the existing society. As her biographer puts it in a typically well turned phrase, "Eliot's novels show people how they can deal with the pain of being a Victorian by remaining one." --Wendy Smith Book Description
This intensely engaging biography examines the extraordinary life of George Eliot from her childhood, through her scandalous liaison and social exile, to her hard-won status as one of Victorian England's literary elite. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (8)

Thanks, Kathryn
I have started to read a lot of biographies, and somehow most of the authors manage to extinguish my passionate interest in the lives of the greats by a tedious writing style.Kathryn Hughes' book George Eliot: The Last Victorian is innocent of such charges. In fact, the book is both eruditely scholarly and reads like an exciting novel. I hope Kathryn Hughes writes more biographies.

the basic essentials you need to know on Eliot are in this book
Whata complex person was George Eliot (1819-1880). Mary Ann
was born in the English midlands in a rural, conservative and
evangelical society. She became an agnostic, free thinker whose
brilliant early works were translations of German scholarship dealing with a critical examination of the life of Jesus.
Eliot had a succesion of love affairs which such literary types as John Chapman editor of the Westminster Review and the
brillian but cold Herbert Spencer. Her true love was George
Henry Lewes a literary man who never divorced his unfaithful wife Agnes continuing to support her and his children through the long years he spent living with Eliot.
With the encouragement, nurturing care and support of Lewes the fragile, tempermental, moody and gloomy plain girl from the Midlands became the leading light in the intellectual-literary world of mid 19th century London.
Eliot is in the first rank of Victorian novelists. Her classics include "Adam Bede"; "The Mill on the Floss"; "Silas
Marner"; "Felix Holt the Radical': "The Spanish Gypsy"; "Romola"
"Middlemarch" and "Daniel Deronda.:
Eliot was a brilliant woman who all of her life was concerned about her plain appearance. She married young John Cross in 1880
dying only eight months into the marriage.
Hughes gives a plainly written account of Mary Ann's life from the provincial girl to the grand old lady of English letters.
Her life was sad since her brother Isaac and family refused to accept her arrangement of living with a married man. She was
scorned as a fallen woman by polite society but found a modicum of happiness with Lewes.
Huges provides short adequate summaries of all the novels and poems by Eliot. Some readers may find the infighting among family members and literary people in London tedious.
Hughes had done her homework producing a solid biography.

Fine basic biography on the life of this essential writer
Though the book was overall a bit biased toward Eliot's needy side, and didn't include quite enough literary criticism for my taste, I still found this a great and very informative read, especially for those with not a lot of background on the subject of this major Victorian writer.

Workmanlike Bio
Hughes' life of Eliot is solid, comprehensive, and given its dazzling subject, remarkably tedious. The book provides an ample chronicle of Eliot's documented life without ever bringing Marian Evans or her marvelous writings to life.

Hughes is much better at piling on the details of Victorian intellectual life than working her way inside the creative processes that created Middlemarch, Adam Bede, and Daniel Deronda. The first half of the book, covering Evans' family life and difficult early adulthood, reads well, the impressive accumulation of research making up for lack of narrative.

But when Evans creates Eliot and the first of her fictions, the book should snap to life. It instead deflates, dutifully cranking out novel synopses and recounting scandals without ever getting at why Eliot's fiction was so beloved in her day, and remains so today.

A novelist of uncanny power and tremendous influence, Eliot deserves a biography at the level of Peter Ackroyd's spectacular life of Dickens. We're still waiting...

Scrutinizes the Victorian society that Mary Evans lived in
George Eliot: The Last Victorian is an intimate biography of noted author Mary Ann Evans, who is perhaps better known by the pen name of George Eliot (1819-1880). Some of Ms. Evans' most famous works include the novels Silas Marner, Middlemarch, and Adam Bede. This informative biography focuses quite closely on Evans' life, including her friendships with Dickens and Trollope, and the controversial scandal of her relationship to a married writer George Henry Lewes. Biographer Kathryn Hughes also scrutinizes the Victorian society that Mary Evans lived in and wrote so much about. Even Queen Victoria enjoyed books by George Eliot, but you don't need royal blood to enjoy this intriguing and meticulously presented biography. ... Read more

Book Description
This volume of specially commissioned essays provides accessible introductions to all aspects of George Eliot's writing by some of the most distinguished new and established scholars and critics of Victorian literature. The essays are comprehensive, scholarly and lucidly written, and at the same time offer original insights into the work of one of the most important Victorian novelists, and into her complex and often scandalous career. With its supplementary material, including a chronology and a guide to further reading, this Companion is an invaluable tool for scholars and students alike. ... Read more

Book Description
This volume makes available for the first time the entire surviving journals and diaries of the great Victorian novelist, George Eliot, and constitutes a new text by her--the closest she came to autobiography. The journals span her life from 1854, when she entered into a common-law union with George Henry Lewes, to her death in 1880, revealing the professional writer George Eliot as well as the remarkable private woman, Marian Evans. The edition includes a chronology, introduction, headnotes to each diary, and an annotated index supplying valuable contextual and explanatory information. ... Read more

Product Description
Limited to 750 copies, this 25-volume set published by Houghton Mifflin in 1907 consists of mauve red clothbound hardcovers, brown endpapers with black type, photographs/daguerrotypes of George Eliot and scenes from her life. ... Read more

Product Description
This volume is produced from digital images created through the University of Michigan University Library's preservation reformatting program. ... Read more

Book Description
The works assembled here introduce George Eliot’s incisive views on religion, art, and science, and the nature and purpose of fiction. Essays show her rejecting her earlier religious beliefs, questioning conventional ideas about female virtues and marriage, and setting out theories of idealism and realism that she developed further in her famous novels. Also included are selections from Eliot’s translations of works by Strauss and Feuerbach, excerpts from her poems, and reviews of writers such as Wollstonecraft, Goethe, and Browning. Wonderfully rich in imagery and observations, these pieces reveal the intellectual development of this most rewarding of writers. ... Read more

Book Description
Felix Holt, austere, idealistic, and passionate, is pitted against the self-satisfied local landlord Harold Transome in this story set in a Midland borough at the time of the Great Reform Bill of 1832. Every class of society is included in Eliot's vivid picture of political ferment. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

Perfect reading for an election year
I've heard a lot of moaning this year about how democracy is dead and how much better things were in the good old days. Eliot's unromantic view of human nature is the perfect cure for all that. As she tells it, people were dumb, and cunning, and selfish back then - just as they are today. The biggest difference was that most people weren't allowed to vote: "universal suffrage" was about as beyond-the-pale then as gay marriage is today.

Here's the TV preview version: _Felix Holt_ is a lively mix of barroom treating, soapbox preachers, riots, bribery, "irregularities," and a courtroom scene with a shocking finale! One caveat: readers spoiled on modern pap may find this novel difficult going. But it's worth it.

Wonderful novel of 19th century society.
Felix Holt combines themes of political responsibility and social concern amidst the background of a community that is facing problems involved with the rapid industrialization of the country.Eliot depicts a village caughtin a battle between tradition and progressivism.The characters who makeup this struggle are brilliantly portrayed.There is even a sweet romantictwist to the story that renders it even more enjoyable.Eliot gives onethe impression that in order for society to make advances for the good ofall, some people must willingly give up the prosperity and status thataccompanies a largely capitalistic state.It is through such noble actsthat those less fortunate can gain a voice in a system that constantlyrepresses them. This is the major theme of this incredible novel. ... Read more

Book Description
Felix Holt, austere, idealistic, and passionate, is pitted against the self-satisfied local landlord Harold Transome in this story set in a Midland borough at the time of the Great Reform Bill of 1832. Every class of society is included in Eliot's vivid picture of political ferment. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

Perfect reading for an election year
I've heard a lot of moaning this year about how democracy is dead and how much better things were in the good old days. Eliot's unromantic view of human nature is the perfect cure for all that. As she tells it, people were dumb, and cunning, and selfish back then - just as they are today. The biggest difference was that most people weren't allowed to vote: "universal suffrage" was about as beyond-the-pale then as gay marriage is today.

Here's the TV preview version: _Felix Holt_ is a lively mix of barroom treating, soapbox preachers, riots, bribery, "irregularities," and a courtroom scene with a shocking finale! One caveat: readers spoiled on modern pap may find this novel difficult going. But it's worth it.

Wonderful novel of 19th century society.
Felix Holt combines themes of political responsibility and social concern amidst the background of a community that is facing problems involved with the rapid industrialization of the country.Eliot depicts a village caughtin a battle between tradition and progressivism.The characters who makeup this struggle are brilliantly portrayed.There is even a sweet romantictwist to the story that renders it even more enjoyable.Eliot gives onethe impression that in order for society to make advances for the good ofall, some people must willingly give up the prosperity and status thataccompanies a largely capitalistic state.It is through such noble actsthat those less fortunate can gain a voice in a system that constantlyrepresses them. This is the major theme of this incredible novel. ... Read more

Book Description
New chronology and updated further reading.

Edited with an Introduction by A. S. Byatt. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (13)

Lengthy, but worth it
This was a really sad, but really great novel.Granted, it's not an action packed novel, but if you like Dickens or Austen, and have a shred of patience (the novel is lengthy) you'll like this novel, too.I really felt for Maggie and her unrelenting desire to be loved and accepted by her family.Unfortunately, the way she goes about trying to earn their love and affections doesn't turn out the way she wants it to.This novel has it's share of melodrama, as much Victorian literature does.I liked this novel particularly because it doesn't center around passion/romance (although it has that too), but the love and closeness of family, and what a woman will do in order to have that.The characters in this novel are well written, and as shocked as I was by the ending, I thought it was really good.I was satisfied because finally there is a point in the story where I think Maggie was truly happy.I recommend this read wholeheartedly.

Maggie: Whatta "Gell"
I read this book for a Victorian Lit/Graduate class and I was a bit put off because others, who had read it before, disparaged it as tedious. Yet again, I learned that one cannot judge by means of conformity (ever!). This is perhaps one of the best Victorian novels ever written. Seriously.
Maggie is the slightly wayward and tomboyish (but undeniably goodhearted) daughter of a proud, stubborn, and provincial man, and a dull witted, ridiculous mother. She is sister to an immature and exasperating brother who believes he possesses the very kernel of justice within his beliefs and actions, but in truth is a selfish and undeniably cruel "bastard." Lastly, she is a companion (and "potential" lover) to Philip, the deformed, yet soft-spoken and educated son of her father's worst enemy...

The Mill on the Floss is a novel of sacrifice and determination, revenge and forgiveness, society and selfhood. And in case anyone cares, I read this 400+ page novel in two days. Not because of a dealine I had to meet, but because I could not seem to put it down.

Interested yet? Listen, if you already know that you love Victorian literature, you will not be disappointed in this text. It is absolutely full of surprises. Granted, the ending could be infinitely better, but alas it is what it is. Regardless, the ending of a book is not necessarily where its merit is at.
Furthermore, if you are into Queer Theory, you might find this text interesting reading as it plays with gender roles and expectations throughout.
George Eliot (i.e., Mary Ann Evans) was a master and equivalent, in my opinion, to the great Charles Dickens.

Eliot is superb as always! I would give this 10 stars if I could
This is Eliot's semi autobiographical novel, and tells the story of Maggie Tulliver and her brother Tom.The story takes place in the village of St. Ogg, and at the Mill on The Floss that's been in the Tulliver family for generations.Other reviewers have told enough of the story (in some instances too much) that I don't see the need to go into it again. I thoroughly enjoyed the way Eliot depicted the sibling relationship between Maggie and Tom with all of those ups and downs that we all have experienced with our siblings, and culminating in the final finish of the story that thoroughly blew me away.I think I just sat for a good ten minutes just saying Oh Wow over and over again, and then felt the need to seek out my brothers and give them both a big hug.

The joy of reading this novel or any other by Eliot is her gorgeous prose and brilliant characterizations, even with the minor characters. Just be warned, this is not an action packed, sit on the edge of your seat, can't put it down until it's finished type of novel. This is a story to savor and enjoy the multi-faceted characters and the author's glorious prose like a fine red wine or a box of chocolates (or both). If you are looking for high action and adventure, this is not the book for you. Highly recommended for any lover of 19th century English literature, not as dark and brooding as Hardy can be, but the prose is just as lovely, if not better.

not Dickens, but as good as Dickens
Never read George Eliot?Ifyou like Dickens or Wilky Collins, you need to read George.(she's a woman).

unequivocally a great company in times of perplexity
George Eliot with her keen observation of human attribute, had written another novel about man's struggle with ephemeral follies and victorious governance of emotion towards what is right.

This story preludes with sibling fondness of Tom and Maggie Tulliver with each other marred by the former's occassional bullyness and the latter's childish peevishness.As manifested on the personality of the brother and sister, Tom's perusal of Latin in boarding school where Philip Wakem also attends and excells fuels his repugnance towards the deformed Philip. During her visits to Tom, Maggie meets Philip whose intellectual interest matches hers and instantly initiates friendship with the physically deformed lad.

To Maggie however, the feud between the Tullivers and Wakem clan doesn't put a damper on her clandestine meetings with Philip in the mill.Until she meets her cousin's lover Stephen Guest.Torn between Philip's undying love and Stephen's fleeting adoration, she finally succumbs to rendezvou with the young and handsome coxcomb.

It is not unusual for a woman of caliber to make indelible mistakes and for a learned man to let his boorishness seeps out of the cracks of his soul.Nonetheless, a woman of higher intellect on command can disengage liquid glue that travels short distance from her brain to mend a broken heart.

The novel ends with poetic justice. For relationships cultivated out of soil of deceit will bear sweet but poisonous fruit; and the toxic seeds will proliferate to feed the mouth hungry for misery. ... Read more

Book Description

Customer Reviews (1)

Like wading through melted chocolate
This is definitely an important book by an important female author.It's a lot a page turning, but well worth it.Take your time and enjoy. ... Read more

Book Description
The most exotic and adventurous of George Eliot's novels, Romola reconstructs a turning-point in the intellectual history of Europe by charting the career and martyrdom of the charismatic religious leader Savonarola, who rebelled against the humanist spirit of the age and burned books on a `bonfire of vanities'.Download Description
There was a rising sob in Romola's voice as she said the last words, which touched the fatherly fibre in Bardo. He stretched his hand upward a little in search of her golden hair, and as she placed her head under his hand, he gently stroked it, leaning towards her as if his eyes discerned some glimmer there. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (12)

A Neglected Gem
Funny how Eliot's least-loved novel today was the author's personal favorite and her best seller during her lifetime. How did it slide into relative obscurity?Partly because Eliot's acknowleged forte is her depiction of rural life in Victorian England, whereas this novel is set in a large Italian city (Florence) during the Renasaissance.Also, the novel does bog down a bit in its own scholarliness, as nearly every reviewer has mentioned.Still, the innumerable references to prominent Florentines can be glossedover without losing much.As for the urban setting, Eliot's Florence is every bit as vivid as Dickens' London, or Dostoevsky's St. Petersburg.And, of course, every page is filled with Eliot's trademark wisdom.
For anyone who cares about great books, all seven of Eliot's novels are absolutely mandatory.So, by all means start with "Adam Bede" or "Middlemarch", but don't neglect "Romola."
A word about the Konneman edition:I love the compact format (It fits easily into a briefcase or purse), the lovely cover art and the high-quality cloth binding.Be advised, however, that it is loaded with typos, some of them hilarious.It's still a good buy, however.

everything you expect from George Eliot
Romola was engrossing and, of course, very well-written.I'm even inspired to find out more about a historical period that's not really one of my favorites.

One of my best surprises as a reader.
When one starts reading a Victorian novelist, one prepares before hand to face a certain amount of wooden, heavy-handed moralizing, as every great narrative of the epoch is fraught with the opposition between the calls of pleasure and the calls of duty, between seeking for one's private advantage and sticking to one's role, with the writer making the latter to win overwhelming. This novel is no different, in that it's the dutiful Romola that has the upper hand over her nice and debauched husband Tito Melena in the end. However, the novel being set in late Renaissance Italy- a countrywith which George Eliot had an enduring love affair - it captures the atmosphere of the time and place in such a beautiful way that this enormous, throughly reserched historical novel has such a flowing, luxurious style that takes an almost liquid quality, like a fresh, transparent scream flowing along a summer Mediterranean landscape. Also, in the person of Savonarola, Eliot menaged to introduce the figure of the idealist turned evil through his attachment to his call. In short: a gorgeous novel. Loved it!

Gorgeous and underrated
Romola is constantly called Eliot's weakest novel, with even serious critics reluctant to praise it. However, it was seen in the 19th century as Eliot's masterpiece. Some of the blame for the novel going out of fashion must rest with F.R. Leavis who said that "few will want to read Romola a second time, and few can ever have got through it once without some groans." If Leavis, viewed as one of the great literary minds, thinks this, then more average readers like us are bound to be put off.

True, the start of Romola is bogged down in detail, but it is introduced by a wonderful, stirring and majestic 'Proem' which sees the Angel of the Dawn sweeping across the Earth and loftily states how humanity is the same now as it was when Romola is set. After this, the notes are best ignored - consult them separately, and concentrate on getting into the book. It is a stirring and sometimes hard read, and moves one with awe at what Eliot has created - you really feel you are experiencing Florence in the 15th century. There is one scene that stands out for me - the haunting and almost surreal episode where Romola drifts by boat to an apparent coastal haven. Images of peace and life are reversed disturbingly.

So ignore Leavis and the dissenters. If you've read another Eliot, you'll like it. If you haven't, maybe start with something else, but come back, for it's a rewarding read

Definitely worth her "best blood"
Given the majority of Eliot readers begin with Middlemarch, I found myself in the unique position of not only beginning with Romola, but also on a subject that I find most interesting. That of Renaissance Italy. Beginning at the death of the great Lorenzo di Medici in '92 I read this great novel twice. Once quickly as any other Twenty-First century paperback; the second, slowly, with more respect for the intellectual scope within the pages.
After the first attempt I was mildly disappointed. I came away with no true sense of the whole that is fifteenth century Florence and a bewilderment at the inconsistent central characterisation of Tito Melema and his golden-haired wife, Romola. The supporting actors were brilliant, from Fra Girolama's fantatical Catholicism to Bratti's salesmanship. But I was left disappointed, believing in the superficality of Tito, the maddening naivety of Tessa, and the almost puritanical martyrdom of Romola.
So I re-read it. Slowly.
It is now extremely clear why this great work of english literature is, as Eliot herself puts it, a "book of mine which I more thoroughly feel that I swear by every sentence as having been written with my best blood".
Each scene is mesmerically depicted, the infintesimal attention to details and Eliot's total control of her subject matter shines through.
Renaissance Florence wasn't so well depicted by its contemporaries.
From Tito's waking at the Loggia de' Cerchi to his final fall at the Ponte Vecchio his character moves through a full range as you would expect from a man in his early twenties. His child-like mesmerism coupled with his Greek tutorage gives rise to a cherubic man whom Florence loves. His fatal flaw is his desire for love and a single terrible lie he gives that, like Murphy's Law, evolves into a a stigma that alters his very persona. What is all the more damaging is that you truly believe he is unaware of the pain he causes. He is truly egocentric, in an almost blameless way. For Romola, you cold argue the opposite. Indeed she is potentially more culpable. Her fierce intellectualism is offset by a descent into a world of religious supersition, a world where religion is used as a political tool. Throughout she has the knowledge of where her actions will take her and a terrible sense of duty and restrains her. From the beginning, with the story we hear so often of Tito's escape from drowning, to his final near drowning at the hands of the mob, to his strangulation by his father there is a certain bitter justice until all that he leaves is his proud and world-scarred wife Romola and the innocence that he preserved with Tessa. Tito's move from innocent 'hero' to startled villain is an excerise in human failings. Yet it is not a sufficient single human tragedy, as Eliot says, "Florence was busy with greater affairs, and the preparation of a deeper tragedy".
In many respects `Romola' is Eliot's King Lear. The parallels are many, including Baldessare's depiction. There is no Edgar, nor Edmund but the Fool is here in many guises. In taking one of Shakespeare's finest themes, Eliot has given true life to fifteenth century Florence and it is, perhaps, best encapsulated by Romola's final statement to Tessa's son, Lillo:
"There was a man to whom I was very near... who made almost everyone fond of him, for he ws young, and clever, and beautiful...I believe, when I first knew him, he never thought of anything cruel or base. But because he tried to slip away from everything that was unpleasant, and cared for nothing else so much as his own safety, he came at last to commit some of the basest deeds - such as make men infamous."
So, Eliot's `Romola'. Read it, delight in it because it truly is, as the author can rightly claim, one of the finest works in english literature. ... Read more

Book Description
George Eliot’s final novel and her most ambitious work, Daniel Deronda contrasts the moral laxity of the British aristocracy with the dedicated fervor of Jewish nationalists. Crushed by a loveless marriage to the cruel and arrogant Grandcourt, Gwendolen Harleth seeks salvation in the deeply spiritual and altruistic Daniel Deronda. But Deronda, profoundly affected by the discovery of his Jewish ancestry, is ultimately too committed to his own cultural awakening to save Gwendolen from despair.

This Modern Library Paperback Classic is set from the 1878 Cabinet Edition. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (25)

Terrific
This is a classic novel by Mary Anne (Marian) Evans.Soon after writing the excellent article, "Silly Novels by Lady Novelists," Evans decided to write some novels herself.It seems to me that while she admired the works of great lady novelists such as Jane Austen, her style was in part a reaction not only to superb works but to awful ones.She adopted the pen name "George Eliot" for her first novel.Although her actual identity was made clear to everyone fairly quickly, she kept that pen name for her remaining novels, including this one.

This fine work gives us an interesting look at English society of the 1860s (the book appeared in 1876).And it includes an intriguing look at Zionism. While Theodor Herzl said he did not read her book, one key Zionist did, and he drew a real-life inspiration from it.That real-life person was Eliezer Ben-Yehuda (born in 1858), who was the individual most responsible for the revival of Hebrew as a language of everyday speech.Evans thus made a significant contribution to Zionism with this book.

Evans basically applauds a Jewish character in her book who argues for Zionism, saying that "there is store of wisdom among us to found a new Jewish polity, grand and simple, like the old - a republic where there is equality of protection."And the character continues by saying:

"Then our race shall have an organic centre, a heart and brain to watch and guide and execute; the outraged Jew shall have a defence in the court of nations, as the outraged Englishman or American.And the world will gain as Israel gains."

I think it is a clever plot element when Evans winds up having Deronda take up this challenge of trying to implement Zionism.

Daniel Deronda, who is raised by a Christian baronet and becomes an Etonian and Cantabrigian, is not sure that he is Jewish until he then gets to meet his actual mother (having last seen her at the age of two).That raises a couple of questions.Given that Daniel has no problems with his Jewish wedding, I think Marian Evans intends us to assume that Daniel was indeed circumcised soon after his birth, was not baptised (either as a Christian or a Jew), and that he eventually confirmed what his Hebrew name was (probably Daniyye'l, after his grandfather).

Daniel's classmates (and Daniel himself) would thus suspect that he might be Jewish.However, the issue might at least be in doubt, especially with Daniel participating in Christian activities at Eton.

Given that Daniel's Jewishness is a surprise to some of his acquaintances, I think it is also safe to assume that the author wants us to picture Deronda as not having what might be thought of as obviously Jewish facial features.

Henry James wrote a very amusing review of this book back when it first came out.In his review, three characters comment on the book, one of them liking it very much, another liking some parts better than others, and the last, "Pulcheria," declaring herself to be a Judeophobe and disliking the whole thing.

More recently, Ed Said, while not quite as silly as Pulcheria, still missed the opportunity to comment intelligently on the book because he was so averse to the idea of abiding human rights for Levantine Jews that he simply could not avoid substituting anti-Zionist propaganda for a serious discussion of the book.I mind the silliness of his comments even more than I do the ill will.To see what I mean, here are the first two lines of the book:

"Men can do nothing without the make-believe of a beginning.Even Science, the strict measurer, is obliged to start with a make-believe unit, and must fix on a point in the stars' unceasing journey when his sidereal clock shall pretend that time is at Nought."

Try to picture a silly astronomer writing about these two lines as if they were representing a critique of Big Bang cosmology.

At one point, Deronda gets some easy but excellent advice from the baronet who has raised him: "my dear boy - it is good to be unselfish and generous; but don't carry that too far.It will not do to give yourself to be melted down for the benefit of the tallow trade; you must know where to find yourself."Later, Deronda gives very similar easy but excellent advice to Gwendolen, telling her to accept some money that is rightfully hers and show her generosity only in the way she uses the money.

I think this is not merely good advice for us all, but especially good advice for Zionists: some of us are a little too inclined to refuse for ourselves what we might gladly award to anyone else.

The second paragraph of the novel begins with a question about Gwendolen: "Was she beautiful or not beautiful? and what was the secret of form or expression which gave the dynamic quality to her glance?"

Obviously, she was beautiful.

Was this novel excellent or not excellent?Oh, it was excellent in both form and expression, with a dynamic aspect no less, and, for what it is worth, I recommend it.

A union of man and woman is most likely to last if they cherish the same virtues and despise the same evil.
Imagine a crowd of men and women of various age, stature, and alibi assemble in a place where you the spectator are going to infer an observation as to their true sentiment.This task is difficult in a train packed with commuters, but easy in a casino where gamblers share one and only desire; to extract gain from someone's loss.This is where the two main characters of George Eliot's final novel "Daniel Deronda" first catch a glimpse of each other.

Gwendolen Harleth, young and vivacious, full of beauty but low on luck in a game of roulette resorts to gambling in order to help her destitute mother.With the last whirl of the disk comes the hope of big win amongst the sybarites vying for bestowal from the mindless wheel.The sight of the ill-fated creature bewitches Daniel.For is it not true that attraction is at its superb when mixed with sympathy?

In this classic, George Eliot creates an exemplar in the character of Daniel Deronda, a fine English man with chiseled look.His magnanimity is put to the test with the introduction of Mirah Lapidoth, a poor Jewish woman whose striking beauty emanates from the person who wishes to see it.Her magnificent feature is like the underwater world visible only to the diver.

Oh, if only our heart came in two like most parts of our body; so that we continue to live if we lose one.While our brain chooses as many objects to fill its contentment, our heart chooses singularly when it comes to truest love.Moreover, why is it when we lose this true love our head which houses our big brain does not hurt yet our heart feels inexplicable pain, what a power this organ as small as our fist has on our being.

Like Daniel, we face ultimate decision, which puts our susceptibility in check.Nevertheless, most of us are not as steadfast as he is.We continue to err because our values change with whoever we are with now akin to chameleon in search of prey and acceptance.

Fantastic Example of Fine Victorian Literature
I read this book as part of a graduate class on the "study of the novel" and was absolutely blown away by it. This was my first attempt at George Eliot and though I had been wanting to read her for some time, the sheer girth of most of her works prevented me from adding them to my "leisure reading" list.
The character of Gwendolen Harleth is strong and commanding, Henleigh Grandcourt is perhaps one of the best villains ever written into literature, and Daniel Deronda is unequivocally the most inherently flawless character ever created who does not bore the reader with his goodness.
This is a big book to be sure, but it reads fast and there is much said about the appearances and prejudices of Victorian society. There aremany recurring themes and parallels to be on the lookout for. This is an intensely "smart" read, and for that reason it is one of my favorite Victorian novels ever---next to Dickens' "Dombey and Son" and "David Copperfield," that is.
I look forward to reading more of Eliot's work in the future. She was a brilliant writer and observer.

WOW!
OHMYGOD- this book rocks! Quit work for a week and dive in- Every sentence will enrich your soul- She's THAT amazing.

A Positive View of Judaism by one of the Victorian era's greatest authors
Daniel Deronda was the final novel authored by George Eliot
(1819-1881) whose real name was Mary Ann Evans. In this novel
Eliot tells the story of two intriguing fictional characters:
Gwendolyn Harleth-egocentric, spoiled and rich husband hunting
young lady noted for her beauty, wit and charm. Her marriage to
the older aristocrat Grandcourt proves disastrous. Gwendolyn
emerges at the end of this 800 page three-decker as a more
mature person eager to live and grow.
Daniel Deronda is a young man raised as an English Protestant
who has a mysterious past. During the novel he learns of his
Jewish blood; becomes a good friend of Mordecai the prophetic
voice of the Jewish hope for a homeland in the Middle East.
Daniel falls in love with Mordecai's singing sister Mirah.
The novel is slow moving. Today it would have undergone editing
to reduce its numerous pages. It is a work which is sympathetic
to the beginnings of Zionism and has a postive view of the Jews.
All of this in a nineteenth century society which was very Anti-
Semitic.
George Eliot is more interested in the human mind and its many
labyrinthal peregrinations from youth to maturity. She is a forerunner of writers like Henry James who explores what underlies the surface behavior of fictional characters.
Eliot did not have the widescope of Dickens nor the practical relation of cold facts as did Trollope. She did have a massive intellect who told serious stories for thinking adults.
She is one of my favorite writers who is well worth knowing. ... Read more

Book Description
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Download Description
Exiled by superstition and betrayal from Lantern Yard, and cut off from faith and human love, for fifteen years the solitary simple-hearted weaver Silas Marner has plied his loom in Raveloe and devoted himself to the amassing of a hoard of golden guineas. Silas's chance of redemption, when it appears one New Year's Eve, is intimately connected with the fate of Godfrey Cass, son of the village Squire. Clandestinely married, then blackmailed by his dissolute brother Dunstan, Godfrey like Silas has been trapped by his past, from which he is seeking to escape. Humorous, richly symbolic, subtly characterized and meticulously plotted, George Eliot's 'sudden inspiration' in this slim novel of rural England cut across her plans for Romola, her vast Italian Renaissance epic. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (113)

A perfect story of redemptive love
George Eliot's SILAS MARNER is a literary classic. What does that mean? A classic is a book that has passed the test of time. A book taken out of its historical milieu and placed in a contemporary one, e.g. our 2008 society, and still reads fresh is a classic.

SILAS MARNER still reads fresh, if you are a sophisticated reader or have a teacher to guide you through the ground mines of vocabulary and complex writing. However, wrapped inside those is a great story, even a soap opera that students recognize as soon as the Cass brothers are introduced.

Two story lines run parallel until they intersect with the theft of Silas's gold. Silas Marner has been in this village for seventeen years, living a life of isolation, while he makes a living as a weaver. Even if he had chosen to live amongst people, he possesses two things that would always hinder acceptance: he is a herbalist and a victim of catatonic seizures. He discontinues his use of herbs early on, but he cannot stop catatonia, which of course becomes a metaphor for his life with others before Eppy appears.

It is these quiet seizures that result in blackouts that--bottom line--cause his banishment from a religious community where he was highly respected. In the seventeen years near Raveloe, nothing has happened to change his life with a dead heart. His great love in this time is his growing stacks of gold. He loves it! He idolizes it!

Enter Godfrey and Dunstan Cass, two landed gentry, both dissolute in differing ways, both catalysts in the change in Silas Marner's dull life. The younger brother, Dunstan, is a n'er-do-well, a gambler in debt and subject to embarrassment by a man to whom Dunstan owes a great deal of money. He finds gold in Silas's house. On the other hand, Godfrey leads a superficial respectable life, because he too has indulged himself and has a child born out of wedlock.

One cold, dark, stormy night two stories intersect: Dunstan steals Silas's gold, then disappears forever, and Silas is devastated by the loss of his gold. However, this loss brings Silas into community. The night the golden-haired child appears magically on Silas's hearth clinches Silas's total acceptance into village life. Silas adopts this child and Dolly Winthrop becomes his guiding angel in helping to raise the child.

When the two secrets are revealed concerning Dunstan and Godfrey, the reader cheers Silas on, directs hisses at Godfrey, and stands amazed at Dunstan's revelation.

Inside this "soap opera" is a fabulous story of love and redemption. Without love one man lives a life of solace in gold with a heart dried and shriveled. With love his heart beats passionately and lovingly and makes him live fully with family and friends. No greater lesson can come from a story as one of redemption. From the still-point of one golden-haired girl radiates a life that redeems a man.

George Eliot, or Mary Ann Evans, is a genius in depicting the lives of men and women and their influence on others for good or evil. Eppy is the source of good out of sinful circumstances and selfishness on Godfrey's part. Godfrey continues his static life force by not claiming his child at one point and trying to claim her when it is too late. The contrast between one man who has little and the other who has everything is instructive in explaining the ways of the heart.

If I were marooned on a deserted island and could take ten books with me, SILAS MARNER would definitely be on the list. It is a great book to teach and listen to students respond to it (and NO, I won't be stranded with students). Watching their faces in class discussion concerning Dunstan's re-appearance in Raveloe is absolutely priceless. Even though the foreshadowing is huge, students never figure out what happens.

Just think of all the choices we make in our lives, some irrevocable as to cause and effect. SILAS MARNER is a caution and a beacon to making the right choices. Making wrong choices to hide one's actions, more often than not, results in dire consequences. Silas shows us that right actions produce right results. I love this book!

Classical Gas
About halfway through when the little bundle of joy shows up in Silas's house I couldn't help thinking Dickens would have done a much better job with this story.As it is, the second part (which is actually the last third of this slim novel) is awkward and sloppy and doesn't make a lot of logical sense.Why does the father confess after he finds out he's going to get away with it scot-free?In "The Telltale Heart" Poe established the kind of guilt that made the eventual confession make sense, but there's nothing like that here to prod the father into doing anything--especially when he's waited so long as it is.By the time he does come forward and want to take responsibility there's really no point in doing so anymore as Silas has done the work for him.

Anyway, I could see why kids would hate reading this.I'd recommend they watch the old "Wishbone" episode from PBS instead.That got to the point and trimmed out a lot of the useless fat and would be far more entertaining for your kids--who doesn't like to see a dog wearing clothes?

That is all.

Cuts to the Heart of Things
Like some of the other reviewers, I found this a heartwarming story about Silas Marner, a solitary hermit who discovers things about himself he has forgotten, or may never have known.When his solitary existence is turned upside down by the departure of his treasure and the arrival of an unexpected guest, Silas takes the opportunity to examine his life and make the best of what life has given him.I felt this was an uplifting story telling how much the choices we make define who we are, and that it's never too late to decide to be something more.

George Eliot's timeless short novel of a miser who finds gold in the gift of parental love
Silas Marner is a nineteenth century Englishman. He belongs to a religious community; is falsely accused of theft and repairs to the isolated midland village of Raveloe. He is considered an alien by the clannish townsfolks. Marner is a Midas who enjoys collecting gold coins earned through long hours of weaving. One day the money is stolen by the dissolute Duncan Cass the son of the wealthy Squire Cass.
Marner is devastated by this theft. And then love enters his life. Love is incarnated in little Effie the child who is orphaned by the death of her opium eating mother who dies on her way to confront Godfrey Cass with the child he and she have had together. Effie's mother was abandoned by Cass who seeks to wed the rich znd lovely Nancy.
Through a series of plot machinations the ending is resolved when Effie is wed and is able to live with Silas. Godfrey Cass repents of his sordid past; acknowledges his parentage of Effie and confesses all to his forgiving wife Nancy.
George Eliot wrote this short novel in 1861 prior to beginning her long and largely forgotten novel "Romola "The novel reminds this reviewer of the tale woven on the loom of Dickens imagination called "A Christmas CArol" dealing with the redemption of the miser Ebeneezer Scrooge. Scrooge is redeemed by the ghosts of Christmas and the sick lad Tiny Tim.
George Eliot was a freethinker who held to a high moral standard of behavior. She knew rural England and its folkways well for it was here she grew to womanhooid. Her use of the customs, dialects and culture of the British peasantry is superb. She was before Thomas Hardy on the literary landscape and surpasses that great author in her ability to delve deeply into the human heart in conflict with itself.
Many readers may have been turned off to Eliot through being forced to read "Silas Marner" in high school. These readers deserve to reread this beautiful parable of love and redemption. "Silas Marner" was the favorite novel by George Eliot. It deserves to live as long as the English language. Its message of loving hope is eternal.

Silas Marner
Silas Marner spends his days weaving for the village-folk of Raveloe, weaving and saving, hiding his money in leather bags in the floor of his home.At nights, he counts the money, tinkling it between his hands, memorising the increasing total.He spends little, and has no friends or family.His life consists of waiting to leave his life, an endless weave that seems to have no beginning and no end.

But Silas was not always a weaver.As a young man, he was engaged, and living in another town.But his best friend, William Dane, who was jealous of his good fortune and hopeful prospects, engendered a plan to strip Silas of everything he held dear.His hometown, convinced he was involved with the robbery of a senior deacon, accused him of theft and he was forced to leave.He stumbles upon Raveloe and begins to weave, and fifteen years past.

It is to George Eliot's credit that a story with such fairy tale qualities is so successful.From the very beginning we are made aware of character-types and ideas, with Silas being an innocent man wrongly accused, and then, as a weaver, a giant metaphor of toil and struggle in an unfair world.The townsfolk of Raveloe, as they are outlined, remain simply that - a thick line that purports to show the broad details of a person, but in no way offers the subtle shading that makes a character come to life and become a person.But this is to the story's credit, for we are not interested so much in depth of character and complexity of situation, as we are in the constant weaving, the endless sadness, of Silas Marner's self-imposed exile.

While we learn of Marner's new life as a hoarder, a miser, a weaver, we come to see other characters and situations.There is a young man, Godfrey, who is running out of money and seeks a desperatemeasure to fix his worries.There is his father, who disapproves of his life and choices.One New Year's, the two stories intersect, and after Silas is robbed of all his money, a young girl, blonde and innocent and nameless, is found on his doorstep.Her mother, an opium addict, is discovered nearby, frozen to death.A father, if there is one, does not step forward.

Here, Eliot allows us to know the secret well before Silas or Eppie, his newly christened adopted daughter.Godfrey is the father, and it is a secret he carries with him well past necessary.His duplicitous action is flagged at a very early stage, which sets in our mind the idea that a comeuppance, or a truth revealing set piece, is somewhere along the line.Because this is known - for what fairy tale does not, in the end, end in goodness and retribution and justice for those who deserve it? - we are able to enjoy the experience of Silas as he becomes a good father, and learns how to love.

In a sense, the themes surrounding Silas are trite and over-used.The idea of a sad, lonely man discovering the beauty of the world again through love, is nothing new.Yet Eliot's mastery of character and evocation of place allow us to sail along with Silas as he sheds the hard carapace of armour that he has placed around himself.He becomes, as we do, devoted to Eppie.She is a caricature, a purely good and ultimately pure girl who, through the tutelage of her father, understands the meaning of love even where Godfrey, her real father, does not.

Eliot makes heavy use of dialect in Silas Marner.As a personal taste, I distinctly dislike dialect, because I find I spend more time translating what is being said than enjoying and understanding the character as they are presented.Yes, it can aid in characterisation and 'realism', but at what cost?Much like Wuthering Heights, several characters in Silas Marner were ruined for me, purely because I had to work so hard at what they were saying.And of course, upon figuring out their obscure words, I realised that they were saying nothing meaningful at all.A great disappointment, that.

Throughout, various characters are introduced and then pushed to the background, as needed by the story.When Silas is in difficulties concerning the raising of a child, a goodwife is found, Dolly Winthrop, who provides him with advice and stresses that the child must be christened.Later, a love interest is given to Eppie, because what happy ending does not finish with a wedding?

But these are minor quibbles.As a fairy tale, Silas Marner excels.There are good people done wrong, and bad people who come right in the end.There is a happy - or mostly happy - ending for everyone who deserves it, and a few that don't.But more than that, there is the construction of a wholly sympathetic man, and that is Silas Marner himself.Eliot does not stray down an easy route with him - when he becomes a miser, there is sadness, not avarice, in our minds as we sympathise.

This novel is considered minor Eliot; it is not hard to fault that estimation.Middlemarch is a towering literary achievement, whereas Silas Marner is merely a single flower in a garden of like experiments with words.But what flower does not deserve to be smelled, at least once? ... Read more

Book Description
When William Blackwood, George Eliot's publisher, first saw the manuscript of Felix Holt in 1866 he could not contain his enthusiasm; in a letter to a friend he described the novel as "a perfect marvel. The time is 1832 just after the passing of the Reform Bill, and surely such a... series of pictures of English Life, manners, and conversation never was drawn. You see and hear the people speaking. Every individual character stands out a distinct figure."

A political radical and a child of the working class, Felix has lost faith in a political system in which candidates never represent the interests of the working class. Harold Transome, the cynical son of wealthy Tory landowners, embraces radical politics for very different reasons. Both Harold and Felix vie for the affections of Esther Lyon, and she must weigh her feelings for them with the social and material goals she has set for herself. Their personal drama unfolds against the broad canvas of social and political upheaval of 1830s England.

This edition is based on the text of the first edition of the novel published in three volumes in 1866, and includes a full introduction, a wide range of appendices including reviews, as well as Eliot's "Address to Working Men, by Felix Holt"; "The Legal Plot of Felix Holt"; and a chronology of Eliot's life and career. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (5)

Felix Holt: Riveting tale of labor disputes; a love story and a mystery told in Eliot's unique style
George Eliot (Mary Ann Evans) was a great English novelist of
the Victorian period. Her list of classics is impressive:
"Scenes from Clerical Life'; "Adam Bede"; "The Mill on the Floss"
Middlemarch" and "Daniel Deronda" are among the greatest novels
ever written in the English Language.
Felix Holt tells the story of a radical candidate for Parliament. He has become a watchmaker; cares for his mother
and courts Esther Lyon the sophisticated daughter of a poor
minister. Esther is also courted by Harold Transome who like
Holt is also a Radical candidate for Parliament. Harold is rich, 35, a widower with a young son. Holt is young, fiery and idealistic.
The most interesting character in the novel is Mrs. Transome who has secrets to keep. She is well drawn by Eliot.
In addition to the love story is the tale of an inheritance.
This tangled delve into old documents is complex and may lose
some readers.
The tale climaxes with a working man's revolt and other suprises for the interested reader. The book is not as long as
some of her novels but does hold one's interest.
This is not Eliot's best novel but it is worth reading.

Underrated
George Eliot is an acquired taste. If one were to pick up only one of her books it would probably be "The Mill on the Floss", "Silas Marner" or "Middlemarch" and with any one of those might come frustration with Eliot's myriad of plots (not to mention her tendency for being a bit wordy). But I found "Felix Holt", for all its political twists and turns, to be the most accessible of Eliot's books. This accessibility can be attributed to two of the finest characters ever created: Mrs. Transome and Ester Lyon. I would say that the character of Mrs. Transome ranks up there with Emma Bovary in terms of literary creation and chapters 42 and 49 (I don't want to give away the story) are absolutely cinematic. I truly love this book.

The Political Novel
Felix Holt occupies a middle-tier in the critical estimation of Eliot's novels. It is often disparaged as the "political novel," or alternatively "the one where the legal subplot is way too complicated."

At first, this seems unfair. The early introduction of Mrs. Transome is a showstopper, heroine Esther Lyon fascinates, and the detailed evocation of 19th century rural politics is through Eliot's narrative magic made riveting.

But things do go awry in the second half. A big problem is Felix himself: an idealization of a political view rather than a detailed character, the reader loves him rather less than Eliot seems to intend. The legal schenanigans are intriguing, but the tortuous plot machinations through which Felix comes to be imprisoned are near ridiculous. And finally, Esther experiences her moral conversion rather too quickly and tidily, coming to seem just a sketch for Gwendolyn Harleth in the later Daniel Deronda. Indeed, by book's end the most compelling plot thread standing is that of the unfortunate Mrs. Transome.

But to say a book isn't as good as Daniel Deronda isn't much of a criticism. For all its faults, Felix Holt is filled with excellent characters, a strong story, and unparalled insight into both 19th century England and the more universal collisions of morality and politics.

Felix Holt - A Literary Hero to Fall in Love with...
This is my 4th novel by George Eliot (after "Adam Bede", "Middlemarch" and "The Mill on the Floss") and it has become my favourite along with "Middlemarch". "Felix Holt" is so marvelously written and gave me many hours of reading pleasure - I can't understand why it's not as highly acclaimed or well-known as Eliot's other novels.

If you're a fan of Victorian literature, then you mustn't miss this brilliant work. The story's set in the 1830s and is 1/3 focused on politics (i.e. a fascinating insight into the electioneering process and the fight for a Parliamentary seat between the Torys and the Radicals), 1/3 on family and sensational issues (e.g. illegitimacy, dispute over who has the legitimate claim on the wealthy estates of the Transome family and plenty of blackmail, manipulation and betrayals) and 1/3 devoted to a love triangle.

George Eliot wrote so eloquently and beautifully that many times I find myself re-reading a particular phrase in order to saviour its beautiful words. Each chapter also starts with either a beautiful poem or some well-chosen lines from Shakespeare/the Classics. Here's a favourite of mine from Chapter 45 (a poem by Eliot):

"We may not make this world a paradise
By walking it together with clasped hands
And eyes that meeting feed a double strength.
We must be only joined by pains divine,
Of spirits blent in mutual memories".

I confess that above all, it is the suspense over the touching love story that kept me turning the pages very quickly. The hero is Felix Holt, a passionate, idealistic young man who studies medicine but chooses to quit midway and forgo a comfortable future as a doctor in favour of leading the more righteous life (in his opinion) of an ordinary, poor workingman because of his scorn for wealth and its corrupting powers. Felix is described as honest, brusque, generous and highly intelligent. He's got "wild hair", dresses simple and to his own liking e.g. not wearing a cravat "like all the other gentlemen", and sometimes looks like a "barbarian". He patronizes no one and is rather unpopular in the town of Treby Magna where the story takes place. His political views are Radical (i.e. more severe than the Liberals) but his main concerns are for the well-being of the working class and especially the future of their children. (Read the excellent "Address to Working Men by Felix Holt" which comes after the Epilogue). Felix's good intentions land him in great trouble with the law later on when a massive riot breaks out among the drunk working class directly after the election and Felix is wrongly accused of being the leader of the mob.

Early on in the novel, Felix is introduced to the heroine, Esther Lyon (the beautiful daughter of a poor chapel minister) whose vanity and high-bred manner he scorns. He rebukes and lectures her constantly in that straight-forward and honest manner of his because he cares to improve her views on what are truly the important things in life. Esther dislikes him utterly at first... she cannot understand why Felix doesn't admire her beauty and graceful manners like other young men do. Esther is vain and proud (at least, initially) and has always dreamed of leading a better life, with fineries and beautiful clothes and servants to do her bidding. And Felix Holt is definitely not her idea of a lover! But Esther is not unkind or ungenerous - she loves her father dearly and treats everyone well. Gradually, she begins to see the true nature of Felix's character and noble aims, and holds him in great esteem, despite his outward looks and manners. But Felix has declared never to marry and if he were ever to fall in love, he would just "bear it and not marry" (preferring to "wed poverty"). Later in the novel, Esther is courted by the rich and handsome Harold Transome whose initial reason for wooing her is to save his family estates. But he doesn't count on falling in love with her subsequently.

Who does Esther ends up with finally: Felix or Harold? But take it from me that the romantic scenes between Felix and Esther are the most passionate and heart-wrenching I've ever come across in a classic literature - with many kisses and hugs amidst pure longing and despair, and scenes filled with beautifully spoken words of affection which brought tears to my eyes.

For many, many reasons, "Felix Holt" makes for a most brilliant read. I urge you not to miss it.

Incomparable
Some might say nothing can equal Middlemarch as Eliot's greatest work but I think that even if Felix Holt doesn't rank alongside it in literature, it should be given at least an equal status.

The novel deals with provincialpolitics in nineteenth century England through the mouthpiece of one of thebest male protagonists ever drwan in literature by a female writer. As inall her books, Eliot is sharp in her details, the satire is poignant andshe doesn't miss out on humor. Feminism takes a different turn here, withtelling criticisms on the way females were brought up at that time and inmany third world countries, still are brought up.

Eliot is never bitter,never hopeless, yet always realistic and idealistic with this difference:she doesn't let it get out of control. Fear not: mawkish is the last thingthis book is. Some details might seem to be superfluous but it adds up toshowing the literary prowess of this great woman, and is very helpful inletting you understand the real stuff going on at that time. A good, verywell-written socio-political novel, that depicts the atmosphere of its timewith more accuracy than many other books I've read.

Eliot does have themost amazing ability to get into her characters' minds. although this bookis an all rounder in the sense that it comments on most social issues, thetwo main intimate themes of the books are personal to the centralcharacter, Felix, the most "alive" hero of nineteenth centuryliterature: his politics and his love interest, in herself a verycompelling and subtly drwan character.

Worth reading for all Eliot,Dickens, and Hardy fans. Will definitely give you two or three newopinions: even if the time period is different, much of the philosophy ofthe book is still very relevant. ... Read more