Product Description
This biography of the author ofSilas MarnerandMiddlemarchrecounts her impact on the Victorian literary world, and her scandalous relationship with the married writer and editor George Henry Lewes.Amazon.com Review
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 ... 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

Product Description
George Eliot's first full-length novel, Adam Bede paints a powerful portrait of rural life, seduction, faith, and redemption. First published in 1859, this innovative novel carried its readers back sixty years to a time of impending change for England and the wider world. Eliot's penetrating portrayal of the interaction of ordinary people brought a new social realism to the novel, in which humor and tragedy co-exist, and fellow-feeling is the mainstay of human relationships. This is the first edition based on Eliot's final revision of the novel in 1861, using the definitive Clarendon text. It includes Eliot's journal entry on the real-life origins of the story and broadsheet accounts of Mary Voce, whose execution provided the germ of the novel. Carol Martin's superb Introduction sheds light on the novel's historical context and some of the main issues it explores: the role of work, class, and relations between the sexes, and Eliot's belief that the artist's duty is "the faithful representing of commonplace things." The book includes comprehensive notes that identify literary and historical allusions. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

James Was Right
"Adam Bede", Eliot's first novel, reminds me of something Rossini once said of Wagner's music:"Lovely moments followed by awful quarters-of-an-hour."Indeed, the awful bits of this work drag on for much longer than quarters of an hour, for even Wagner's longest opera ("Gotterdammerung" can clock in at a hair-pulling, teeth-gnashing five or six hours) doesn't demand quite so much of a time investment of its audience.

Henry James's 1866 criticisms of the work (which even include proposed alternate resolutions for the various characters) are spot-on.In the first place, James takes Eliot's work to task for the highly intrusive narrator, constantly inserting himself (herself?) and offering all sorts of nudges and helpful guides to reader sympathy.James's objection to this sort of thing should come as no surprise, insofar as James himself was the master of non-intrusive narration (and was even not above a bit of misleading of his readers for artistic purposes).As for his suggested plot revisions, particularly that one about the novel's hopelessly Pollyanna-ish linking up of Adam and Dinah, are spot-on.He also correctly points out that Adam's misery at Hetty's end is not a good enough reason to engage our own sympathy.

Furthermore, James's assessment of the character of Hetty, for which he praises Eliot, is correct.Most of the dramatic tension of the novel is supplied by the contrast between Hetty's fantasy-life of carriages and ball-gowns, and the quiet farm life of Hall Farm (which she despises).Some of the novel's other finer moments have to do with the young squire Donnithore, who finds his own fantasies crushed (but rather more by his own doing).

As for the titular character, at every page I kept waiting for the "other foot to drop," as it were, for Eliot to pull back the stolid curtain of Adam's wholesomeness (as James would have, for instance).The moment never came, and for this reason, Adam remains but "half made-up" (as Shakespeare put in), only unlike Richard III, there is no "deformity" for us descant upon.For this reason, his lovelife remains weirdly static and unconvincing, and unlike that of any male ever to walk this earth.By contrast, Donnithore's on-again, off-again pursuit of Hetty, with all of its nervous, guilty sexuality, is far more true to life, and absorbing as a result.

In sum, this book suffers from a bad case of bloat, as though Eliot were being paid by the word, particularly in those additional chapters following Hetty's imprisonment.Frankly, the last fifteen chapters of this novel were a pretty hard slog. ... Read more

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This book was converted from its physical edition to the digital format by a community of volunteers. You may find it for free on the web. Purchase of the Kindle edition includes wireless delivery. ... Read more

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Vast and crowded, rich in irony and suspense, Middlemarch is richer still in character, with two of the era's most enduring characters, Dorothea Brooke, trapped in a loveless marriage, and Lydgate, an ambitious young doctor.George Eliot was the nom de plume of Mary Ann Evans (1819-1880). She began her literary career as a translator and later was editor of the Westminster Review. In 1857 she published Scenes of Clerical Life, the first of eight novels she would publish under the name George Eliot. ... Read more

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"What I want, you know, said Mr. Tulliver of Dorlcote Mill--what I want is to give Tom a good eddication. That was what I was thinking of when I gave notice for him to leave th'' academy at Lady Day. I meant to put him to a downright good school at Midsummer. " ... Read more

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Indulge Yourself with the best classic literature on Your PDA. Navigate easily to any novel from Table of Contents or search for the words or phrases. Author's biography and poems in the trial version.

Customer Reviews (2)

Perfect format for the Kindle!
I've purchased over 20 of these complete author collections from this publisher. I have purchased William Shakespear, Charles Dckens, Mark Twain, Edgar Alan Poe, Fyodor Dostoevsky, Leo Tolstoy, Jule Verne, Oscar Wilde, Alexander Dumas, and a few others. These collections work superbly on the Kindle. Take Mark Twain collection. The collection includes huge number of Mark Twain's works all in one place, searchable and well-organized. If I would have purchased all these books separately, searching for `The Gilded Age' among hundreds of other books on my Kindle would be a nightmare. With Mobile Reference collections, I simply click `Works of Mark Twain', then click Novels> `The Gilded Age'. I can also click `List of works in alphabetical order' > `G' > `Gilded Age'. If I forget the book title but remember that `The Gilded Age' was written by Mark Twain early in his career, I can click on `List of works in chronological order' > (1873) `The Gilded Age'.

If I want another author, say, Charles Dickens, I click `Home' > `Works of Charles Dickens'. If I want Dostoevsky, I click `Works of Fyodor Dostoyevsky'. I think this format is perfect for organizing books on the Kindle.

Inside collections, each book has links to chapters and footnotes. The text is nicely formatted and seems to be complete and accurate - something that cannot always be said about inexpensive ebooks. I think these collections are great bargains both in terms of saved money, time, and book organization!

powerful and moving
Works of George Eliot. The Mill on the Floss, Adam Bede, Middlemarch, poems & more. FREE Author's biography and poems in the trial version.

It is a joy to read any novel by Eliot. Her prose is beautiful. Highly recommended for any lover of 19th century English literature. ... Read more

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In this story the author recreates her own childhood through the story of the gifted Maggie Tulliver and her spoilt, selfish brother. Though tragic in its outcome, this comic novel combines vivid images of family life with a portrait of the heroine. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

"It's not right to sacrifice everything to other people's unreasonable feelings."
The Mill on the Floss, published in 1860, traces the turmoil in the life of Maggie Tulliver, a young woman who has a streak of independence but who also feels close to her father and her brother and believes that she must always honor their feelings and wishes. Maggie's father is the owner of the Dorlcote Mill on the Floss River, a failing business drawing him into increasing debt to his relatives and creditors. Her brother Tom, with no interest in the mill, is encouraged to learn other skills which may suit him for a higher level of society. When the mill fails and is sold at auction to Lawyer Wakem, the Tullivers become social outcasts, at the mercy of creditors and dependent on their extended family.

Philip Wakem, son of Lawyer Wakem, is a hunchback who has been a school friend of Tom Tulliver and a special friend of Maggie, who treats him kindly and appreciates his intelligence and thoughtfulness. When the mill is sold to Wakem, Tom and Mr. Tulliver end all contact with the Wakem family, and though Maggie continues to see Philip privately, Tom eventually forces her to choose between the family and Philip. Another relationship with Stephen Guest, who has been courting her cousin Lucy, unleashes Maggie's passions and leads to a dramatic conclusion.

Throughout the novel George Eliot (the pen name of Mary Ann Evans) explores the many kinds of love in Maggie's life--her devoted love of her father, her dependence on and love for her brother, her intellectual and kindly love for Philip, and her passionate love of Stephen Guest. Creating a fully drawn character in Maggie, Eliot shows a full picture of a young woman of 1860, trying to be independent, trying to live according to society's strictures, and trying to be true to her own feelings, despite pressures from family and society. Eliot, who herself made the scandalous choice to live openly with a married man for twenty-six years, was thoroughly familiar with these issues herself, and her depictions of such themes as family loyalty and the social conventions and limitations of class carry the ring of truth.

Psychologically astute in the exploration of themes as they affect Maggie, Eliot amplifies these themes through imagery from nature, legend, and even religion. Often melodramatic in plot, the novel remains realistic, even autobiographical, in its attention to character. Though it is not as fully developed as her later novel Middlemarch, Mill on the Floss is still a well developed, thoughtful novel which goes far beyond the pulp fiction being serialized in newspapers and magazines during that time.Mary Whipple

Middlemarch (Signet Classics)
Daniel Deronda (Modern Library Classics)
Romola
Silas Marner
George Eliot: The Last Victorian

The Mill on the Floss
The most obvious thing about "The Mill on the Floss" is the quality of writing. You can't argue with that. It's vivid, with wonderful descriptions, and many lovely parts. George Eliot writes of an incredible place, describing everything and making everything easy to visualize. She writes of characters that are so human and real, and then she describes situations with these real characters and everything works so well. Her writing is undeniably good, so now we need to move onto the plot itself.

Here we have the Tullivers. Maggie is our heroine, starting out as a very young girl. She adores and idolizes her brother, loves her father, and rather disdains everything society wants her to be. She's independent, different, and bold. She'll do anything for Tom, her brother, and at the same time she wants to be herself. As she grows up, she finds that these two parts of her will fight against each other: her independence, or her beloved older brother.

Tom is also an interesting character. Our first view of him is from Maggie's adoring eyes, so we find him to be strong, intelligent, and all-knowing. It becomes clear, though, that Tom also enjoys having a certain level of command over his sister, and he very often gives her ultimatums for their friendship. In situations like these, Maggie, trying so hard to please him, gets very hurt, and then Tom would act superior and ignore her. Tom lives strictly in the "black or the white" - for him there is no gray.

Much of the book is simply about their relationship as they are growing up, but many parts revolve around other, slightly more minor characters. For example, Philip Wakem. Philip, a schoolmate of Tom's and a friend of Maggie's enters and leaves and reenters the story many times. At first he seems like a minor but solid character, but he then becomes very fixed in the plot as Maggie's secret, forbidden friend. He demonstrates a case of Tom's orders to Maggie. Stephen Guest is another example. He fell in love with Maggie and tried to elope with her. Maggie refused, though by the time she was able to return home, Tom had deduced the worst, once again demonstrating his "black or white" policy. Tom rejects Maggie, and Maggie has to leave.

The main character is without a doubt Maggie, Maggie who feels such love for the people around her, wants to please them and receive love in return, and wants to be independent. Maggie struggles against so many things throughout this book (I won't reveal them all) and all sort of lead up to the grand finale, which may possibly be the best part of this wonderful book. Everything is written wonderfully, the characters are so rich and interesting, and the plot is never stale. It's an excellent book that I couldn't put down once I started.

I recommend this whole-heartedly, and urge you to go buy it or borrow it from the library. It's a wonderful piece of writing that is so easy to love. This edition is small, compact, and convenient - it does not weigh much. It's easy to read, is comfortable, and is offered at a remarkably friendly price. A good purchase to make for those seeking "The Mill on the Floss". ... Read more

Product Description
This title includes introduction and notes by Dinny Thorold, University of Westminster. "Felix Holt" is set, like "Middlemarch" in the Midlands at the time of the Great Reform Bill of 1832. This novel brings social and political history vividly to life with its magnificent rendering of provincial England in the ferment of electioneering. Against this background Eliot tells a love story and weaves a plot which has many elements of the sensation novel, such as illegitimacy, blackmail, and the discovery of an heiress, where suspense is maintained until the end. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (9)

Radically good
The first Reform Bill has just passed. The wealthy squire Harold Transome is set to compete against the more deserving, labouring Felix Holt on the same Radical ticket to the local borough seat. And they soon become unwitting rivals in another arena, for the heart of the book's real heroine, Esther Lyon, the dissenting minister's daughter. 'Felix Holt' is a rich novel: both political speculation and comedy of manners. It portrays 19th century election processes in their full, colourful detail: corruption, intimidation, vote-buying and all, while leaving room for hope and ultimately painting a fascinating picture of nascent democracy. It is also endowed with George Eliot's subtle dialogue and keen eye for psychological and social nuance.

I have only read Middlemarch by the same author. The much thicker and better known work has a wider cast of characters and, with its more slowly-paced plot, it provides a deeper analysis of early Victorian country mores, but it is also a more classical piece of social study. `Felix Holt' is a busier, rowdier novel, yet I found it just as convincing and engaging in its characters and relations. It is entertaining on multiple levels; this is a book that appeals both to readers with a historical interest and to those simply looking for a good intrigue. Highly recommended.

A background-propelled novel.
If you're looking for a novel propelled by its plot, then perhaps you should look elsewhere. Felix Holt, as well as the other characters of this novel, are more stock-types set in concrete than actual individuals, and the (far-too-complicated) legal issue that pushes the novel foward is never much convincing and quickly set aside in the end for the sake of moralizing. But then, the background - the socio-political changes in the Early 19th. Century English countryside, brought in the wake of the first Reform Act - is throughly and convincingly described, specially at the opening of the novel, which is, in itself, a must-read.

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. ... Read more

Product Description
Middlemarch
Silas Marner
The Mill on the Floss
Daniel Deronda
Brother Jacob
The Lifted Veil
Romola
The Mill on the Floss ... Read more

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It is one of the curiosities of history that the most remarkable novel about Jews and Judaism, predicting the establishment of the Jewish state, should have been written in 1876 by a non-Jew - a Victorian woman and a formidable intellectual, who is generally regarded as one of the greatest of- English novelists.- And it is still more curious that Daniel Deronda, George Eliot-s last novel, should have been dismissed, by many of her admirers at the time and by some critics since, as something of an anomaly, an inexplicable and unfortunate turn in her life and work.Yet Eliot herself was passionately committed to that novel, having prepared herself for it by an extraordinary feat of scholarly research in five languages (including Hebrew), exploring the ancient, medieval, and modern sources of Jewish history.- Three years later, to reenforce that commitment, she wrote an essay, the very last of her writing, reaffirming the heritage of the Jewish -nation- and the desirability of a Jewish state - this well before the founders of Zionism had conceived of that mission.Why did this Victorian novelist, born a Christian and an early convert to agnosticism, write a book so respectful of Judaism and so prescient about Zionism?- And why-at a time when there were no pogroms or persecutions to provoke her?- What was the general conception of the -Jewish question,- and how did Eliot reinterpret that -question,- for her time as well as ours?Gertrude Himmelfarb, a leading Victorian scholar, has undertaken to unravel the mysteries of Daniel Deronda. -And the mysteries of- Eliot herself: a novelist who deliberately wrote a book she knew would bewilder many of her readers, a distinguished woman who opposed the enfranchisement of women, a moralist who flouted the most venerable of marital conventions - above all, the author of a novel that is still an inspiration or provocation to readers and critics alike. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (6)

Jewish Odyssey of George Eliot
Impeccable scholarship and the luminous intelligence one has come to expect from Gertrude Himmelfarb shine through this valuable book.

Little New Insight
I bought this book with high hopes. Unfortunately, it proved to be ponderous and tough going. From the outset, when the author places the history of European anti-semitism "in context", I was put off by the heavy hand of scholarship. The first chapter of Ms. Himmelfarb's book relied on philosophical heavyweights (like Feuerlicht and Hegel) and important critics (F.R. Leavis and Edmund Wilson).At the mention of these names, I did not thrill with anticipatory joy. The ensuing footnoted plot summary was unnecessary. Why would anyone who is not already familiar with the novel Daniel Deronda be reading this critical essay?Much of Himmelfarb's material on Deronda has been treated before, notably in the introduction to the hefty paperback published by Barnes & Noble, the edition I read. The only moment that caught my interest was on Lionel Trilling, to the effect that the Jewish characters in the novel were idealized, not fully realized creations, and that Jews range the gamut of character.This had been my own reaction as I read the novel. If only Himmelfarb had provided more of her own ideas, gone beyond what others have written. The chapter on Natan Sharansky as an example of a Jew who discovered his "mission" to go to Israel in Soviet Russia, was an excellent, interesting analogy. But most of the book seems to be at third hand, a summary of critical sources, when I was looking for an individual critical perspective.

So THAT'S how she did it.
I discovered "Daniel Deronda" this year, and then read it twice. I was baffled how a gentile like George Eliot could have been able to write so accurately about Jewish culture and anticipate the Zionist movement and the re-establishment of the State of Israel. This scholarly work also illustrates gentile views of Jews and Judaism before, during, and after Eliot's lifetime. If you enjoy "Daniel Deronda," this book is a must-read.

Of high recommendation for any collection on early Zionism
Sometimes support comes from the strangest of sources. "The Jewish Odyssey of George Eliot" tells the story of Victorian era novelist George Eliot, an agnostic writer, and her heavy involvement in early Zionism before the movement had a name. The origins of her opinions boggled her readers, and Gertrude Himmelfarb does her best to explain the enigma of Eliot. An intriguing read about an interesting figure, "The Jewish Odyssey of George Eliot" is of high recommendation for any collection on early Zionism.

A great companion to Daniel Deronda and George Eliot
If you like George Eliot's books you should read this short essay. It is one that any reader can understand and enjoy. Here are some of the highlights of her life, her strong personality and individualism against the prejudices of her day. She was an honest intellectual: a rare species at any given time in history. She (George Eliot)cared for Judaism and Jews before the Holocaust or the Dreyfus affair took place, when Jews were the usual suspects, the easy prey; she demanded a right for a national home for the Jews in Palestine when it was not yet an issue (a right that Muslims already enjoyed multiple times).

A courageous woman indeed. Daniel Deronda was her last novel, right after Middlemarch, her greatest book and one of the very best in the English language. I recommend that you read the book before you read this essay. There is also a section on how the critics of her time received the book (Daniel Deronda) -which for the most part was not positive, specifically due to the Jewish element in it, which section is probably the least interesting of this essay.

George Eliot was an intellectual giant, a size only matched by her honesty, straightforwardness independence and compassion. She was no blind follower of the crowd; a serf to nobody; a truly great writer with her heart in the right place. God bless her. ... Read more

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The Complete Essays of George Eliot by George Eliot

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The action take place at the close of the 18th century. Hetty Sorrel, the niece of farmer Martin Poyser is loved by Adam Bede, the village carpenter, but is deluded by the attentions of a young squire. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (33)

Slow Going
"Adam Bede" is a bucolic novel, and in its attempt to capture daily life in a small, rustic town in England (circa 1800) it succeeds remarkably well.Unfortunately, its this leisurely portrait of the town and its denizens that made reading the first 300-plus pages something of a chore.My two greatest problems with the story were its lack of plot until that point, and near lack of interesting characters.Adam and Seth are dull, hardworking, self-sacrificing, and would give Jesus a run for his money in terms of saintliness (significantly, they're carpenters).The book spends a great deal of time visiting the different homes in the town, and creating realistic depictions of the people who live and work there.Most are almost as dull as Adam.Hetty Sorrell is the only truly interesting character in the book (although the author continually berates her with moralistic reproaches).Arthur Donnithorne has some interesting moments as well, but he ultimately (and unconvincingly) proves spineless -- sacrificing his own happiness to comply with societal opinion (and to redeem himself in Adam's eyes).Once Hetty's story kicked into gear, the book became increasingly interesting -- culminating in her desperate trek across a larger world she'd never dreamed existed.As someone else noted, Hetty's character bears some resemblance to Mdme Bovary ... and to Hedda Gabler, Scarlet O'Hara, Hester Prynne (after whom she is named), and many other great female literary characters.And, for all its upright characters (and moralizing narrator), the real heart of the book is Hetty's tragic fate.A 17-year old girl, she is essentially a victim of statutory rape (at least by today's standards) who finds herself shunned by family and society when she scandously becomes pregnant.Her unintentional infanticide, and subsequent trial and demise provide a far more telling commentary on the mores of Georgian England than they do on Hetty Sorrell.I suspect that Eliot, to her credit, may be more on Hetty's side than she lets on.

Very Entertaining
George Eliot (Mary Ann Evans, 1819-1880) has gained the reputation as being one of the finest writers of 19th century England. She is considered to be an equal of Jane Austen or the Bronte sisters, or any other writer of her era. Middlemarch is her masterpiece. The present novel was her first major work.

Many of her works have rural settings, involve moral values, and feature realistic plots and characters. Eliot was an agnostic but tied to Christian moral values which are an integral part of her stories. Her characters and plots are easier to believe than Dickens, who for example, introduced highly improbable reunions and lost relatives to get closure for his plot in Oliver Twist. And, the characters of George Eliot are more human and realistic than those found in the novels of Jane Austen or those in Charlotte Bronte's highly entertaining Jane Eyre. Also, she has much detail in her minor characters.Unlike Austen, the prose and the relations among characters are straightforward, and one does not have to make a family tree to understand all the characters, nor is there a learning period of 25 to 50 pages needed to understand the prose - as in Austen's Mansfield Park.

While her masterpiece is acknowledged to be Middlemarch, many consider her first novel Adam Bede to be an entertaining read. It features Eliot's style and techniques. As described in the introduction, Eliot is the "omniscient narrator...controlling reaction and interpretation with her own illuminating intelligence."

The story is a love triangle between two men and a teenage woman, the young, beautiful, naive, and self absorbed Hetty Sorrel. She is very young, approximately 17, obsessed with her beauty, and works at a farm which produces cheese. Adam Bede is one of the men interested in Hetty. He is a carpenter in his twenties.ArthurDonnithorne, the rich young squire and friend of Adam, is the other man interested in Hetty. There is a second female protagonist, Dinah Morris, who is also relatively young and who is a Methodist preacher.

Without giving away the plot, the heart of the story is the self delusion or self-deception of Hetty and the other primary characters. They are living in a rural farming community somewhere in north central England. Will Hetty accept the carpenter Adam Bede or do something crazy and run off or have an affair with Arthur? That is the main element of the plot.

The story is not exactly a page turner but it is good. In any case, it is an excellent read.

Recommend: 5 stars.

Adam Bede is the classic tale of child murder & bucolic romance in early nineteenth century England
"George Eliot" is the masculine pen name of the brilliant English classic novelist Mary Ann Evans (1819-1880). Evans grew up in Warwickshire and knew rural England like the back of her hand. It was with this background allied with her literary genius that persuaded her in 1859 to write her first full length novel "Adam Bede. She did so at the urging of her longtime lover George Henry Lewes. After a career penning short stories, literary reviews and translation she was ready to begin one of the greatest careers in all of English fiction. Eliot produced such masterpieces as "Silas Marner"; "The Mill on the Floss"; "Daniel Deronda"; "Romola" and her lengthy masterpiece "Middlemarch"
Adam Bede occurs in the time of the Napoleonic wars. Adam Bede and his brother Seth are carpenters living in the small village of Hayslope. Their mother is the cranky but good Lisbeth. The novel begins as a young female Methodist preacher the fetching Diane Morris is preaching in the village square. Seth is in love with her but his dreams of matrimony will not be fulfilled. Adam is smitten with the seventeen year old featherhead but lovely Hetty Sorrel. Hetty is an orphan who lives with her relatives the Poyser family at the Hall farm. Hetty will be seduced by the rich but weak willed Arthur Donnithorne. He will abandon her; she will kill her baby and plans on being married to Adam.Hetty is tried for murder but at the last minute is saved by a reprieve won for her by the repentant Arthur. Diane and Adam marry. Order and tranquility are restored to Hayslope but Eliot and her readers of 1860 knew that the rural life of sixty years before would soon yield to the encroachments of industrialism.
Adam Bede is a leisurely novel with a slow pace. We see the seasons unfold in all their English glory; met the Poysers and the garrulous Mrs. Poyser and her passel of children. We attend drinking and harvest parties and catch up on the gossip with the "rude mechanicals" of the town who share their folk wisdom and foolishness with the reader. Much of the book is written in a dialect but this is understandable and not an obstacle in perusing Adam Bede's many pages.
Although an agnostic, Eliot displays a deep knowledge of the Christian Bible and teaches us about the early Methodist movement in these pages. Many of the characters such as Adam, Seth and other characters have biblical names.
Hetty Sorrel reminds this reviewer of the character of Hester Prynne in Nathaniel Hawthorne's "The Scarlet Letter" of 1850. Unlike Hester, however, we see little moral growth in the soul of Hetty. Eliot had an understanding for those under a moral black cloud due to her unorthodox relationship with Lewes. Her style probes psychological corners of the human soul. Eliot wrote for literate adults producing a work of beauty, wisdom and love. She is the brighest of Victorian novelists and one of the best. I have read this book several times and list it as one of my all time favorites. Essential!

A love story as sophisticated as the author
Anybody who had fallen deeply in love would be touched by the character of Adam Bede.George Eliot's fecund words are reminiscence of a first kiss .... unforgettable.

Unqualified
As the title indicates, I feel quite unqualified to review the writings of George Eliot.But I did like the edition that Penguin classics puts out.It's sturdy, held up well being hauled around (never go anywhere without a book).I thought the explanatory notes at the end were quite thorough, and I enjoyed the editor's introduction. ... Read more

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Buy Serenity Publishers' paper edition of "The Lifted Veil & Brother Jacob" by George Eliot for only $5.99. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

The dark Hyde to Eliot's more familiar, 'warm' Jekyll works.
My previous experience of reading George Eliot (admittedly about a decade ago) had been unhappy - her celebrated humanism seemed like so much fussy interference; 'Silas Marner' was too cosy, and I could not get past the infuriating first chapter of 'Middlemarch'.I've always felt a bit guilty about abandoning 'the greatest English novelist', and this volume of two short tales was a perfect opportunity to see whther my tastes had matured.

'The Lifted Veil' is a dark masterpiece, part-Gothic tale, written in the stilted style of famous horror stories like 'Frankenstein', in which inexplicable horror is described with unnervingly inappropriate articulacy; part-Henry James study of an idle, wealthy man tormented by the unknowability of a woman and her faithfulness (shades of Proust too, who worshipped Eliot).

As Gothic, its influence on cinema has been slight, although the narrator who narrates his own death looks to 'Sunset Boulevard', while a character who can see others' minds was recently enacted in 'What Women Want'.The story begins with one of the best, most shocking openings in English literature, as the hero Latimer, blighted with the gift of 'prevision', gives a detailed account of the way he will die, alone in a crumbling mansion, abandoned by careless servants.

At times, the story reads like a textbook psychological study with a solipsistic hero who lost his beloved mother at a young age, whose father resented him as inadequate, and whose brother's fiancee he loves.The various previsions he has are full of those details Freudian critics enjoy.But those previsions are described in ominous tableaux, and the switch from 'real life' into these states has a genuinely disorienting effect on the reader.

The text has always been seen as valuable as a rare instance of Eliot in effect denying or questioning the humanist principles of her most characteristic work and her interest in progressive science - its narrative is hermetic, anti-humanistic, circular: conflating time to an eternal, hellish present.

'Brother Jacob' is more like the Eliot I remembered, the story of a confectioner's apprentice who steals from his mother to emigrate to Jamaica where he intends to be given his fortune.Although it is a (sour) moral fable, with every character emerging badly, rather than warmly humanistic, the novels' irritations are here - the bossy, intrusive narration; the portrait of a growing, bourgeois community, lifelessly focusing on their obsessions with status and money, where every metaphor is inextricably linked with commerce and consumption.Each character is a caricature: the 'humour' is smug, smart-alecky, sarcastic and sneering.The tale is full of the details English Literature critics enjoy - colonialism, mental defectives, assumed identities etc.

The volume is worth reading for Sally Shuttleworth's exhaustive introduction, which discusses the stories in the context of Eliot's life and work (both are seen as negative allegories for writing and the writer), British Imperialism, laissez-faire economics, gender, the growth of science and progressive philosophy as the new religion etc.

Between Frankenstein and Dr. Jekyll
A little-read story of George Eliot's "The Lifted Veil" is a lovely example of the intersection between humanities and science in 1859: it ends with a revivification scene worthy of Mary Shelley. Written justbefore Eliot admitted to being the author of *Adam Bede*, the emasculatedprotagonist, Latimer, mirrors Eliot herself in his desire for solitude.Exceedingly well-crafted Victorian writing. (I don't know the other story*Brother Jacob* well: it espouses that the wages of sin are embarassmentand ostracization.) ... Read more

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Best known for his brief marriage to George Eliot, John Walter Cross (1840-1924) compiled this three-volume 'autobiography' of 1885 from his late wife's journals and letters. Eliot was never married to her long-term partner G. H. Lewes, and she courted further scandal when she married Cross, twenty years her junior, in the spring of 1880. While these volumes offer a valuable insight into Eliot's private reflections, what is perhaps most telling is the material left out or rewritten in Cross' efforts to lend his wife's unconventional life some respectability, which he does at the expense of what one reviewer described as Eliot's 'salt and spice'. George Eliot's Life will be of particular interest to scholars of nineteenth-century biography and literature. Volume 2 covers the years 1858-1866, including Eliot's initial success in fiction and her travels in Italy, Holland, and along the Rhine. ... Read more

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Very definitive, very concise, and very interesting...

From William Shakespeare to Winston Churchill, the Very Interesting People series provides authoritative bite-sized biographies of Britain's most fascinating historical figures--people whose influence and importance have stood the test of time.

Each book in the series is based upon the biographical entry from the world-famous Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. ... Read more

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First published in Blackwood's Magazine in 1859, "The Lifted Veil" is now one of George Eliot's most widely read and critically discussed short stories. A dark fantasy drawing on contemporary scientific interest in the physiology of the brain, mesmerism, phrenology, and experiments in revification, it is Eliot's anatomy of her own moral philosophy. Narrated by an egocentric, morbid young clairvoyant man, the story also explores fiction's ability to offer insight into the self, as well as being a remarkable portrait of an artist whose visionary powers merely blight his life.
Published as a companion piece to "The Lifted Veil," "Brother Jacob" is by contrast Eliot's literary homage to Thackeray, a satirical modern fable that draws telling parallels between eating and reading. With an illuminating introduction by Helen Small, this Oxford World's Classics edition makes newly available two fascinating short stories which fully deserve to be read alongside Eliot's novels. ... Read more

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Critical Miscellanies (Vol 3 of 3) - The Life of George Eliot is presented here in a high quality paperback edition. This popular classic work by John Morley is in the English language. If you enjoy the works of John Morley then we highly recommend this publication for your book collection. ... Read more