Synopses & Reviews
Synopsis
A startling new portrait of George Eliot, one of the most beloved novelists in the English language and a rare philosophical mind who explored the complexities of marriage.
In the 1850s Marian Evans transformed herself into George Eliot--an author celebrated for her genius as soon as she published her debut novel. During those years she also became a wife. After eloping to Berlin with George Lewes--writer, philosopher, and married man--Eliot lived with him for twenty-four years. She asked people to call her "Mrs. Lewes" and dedicated each novel to her "husband." They could not marry, yet she found herself initiated into the "great experience" of shared life--"this double life, which helps me to feel and think with double strength."
Eliot's leap into life with Lewes was a crisis from which she never recovered, though she grew immeasurably within it. Her contemporaries were scandalized by their relationship. At the same time, Lewes helped her to become George Eliot.
In The Marriage Question, philosophy professor Clare Carlisle reveals Eliot to be not only one of the greatest novelists of all time but a rare philosophical mind who explored, in art and in life, the paradoxes and complexities of marriage. This philosophical biography exposes Eliot's immense and unconventional ambition, which undergirds the darker marriage plots of Middlemarch and Daniel Deronda. Reading her novels afresh, we find Eliot wrestling with themes that belong to a philosophy of marriage: choice and duty, passion and sacrifice, motherhood and creativity, trust and disillusion, destiny and chance.
Includes black-and-white images
Synopsis
A startling new portrait of George Eliot, a beloved novelist and rare philosophical mind who explored the complexities of marriage.
In the 1850s, Marian Evans transformed herself into George Eliot--an author celebrated for her genius as soon as she published her debut novel. During those years she also became a wife. After eloping to Berlin with George Lewes--a writer, philosopher, and married man--Eliot lived with him for twenty-four years. She asked people to call her "Mrs. Lewes" and dedicated each novel to her "husband." They could not marry, yet she found herself initiated into the "great experience" of shared life--"this double life, which helps me to feel and think with double strength."
Eliot's leap into life with Lewes was a crisis from which she never recovered, though she grew immeasurably within it. Her contemporaries were scandalized by their relationship. At the same time, Lewes helped her to become George Eliot.
In The Marriage Question, Clare Carlisle reveals Eliot to be not only one of the greatest novelists of all time but also a rare philosophical mind who explored, in art and in life, the paradoxes and complexities of marriage. This philosophical biography exposes Eliot's immense and unconventional ambition, which undergirds the darker marriage plots of Middlemarch and Daniel Deronda. Reading her novels afresh, we find Eliot wrestling with themes that belong to a philosophy of marriage: choice and duty, passion and sacrifice, motherhood and creativity, trust and disillusion, destiny and chance.
Includes black-and-white images
Synopsis
Named one of the ten Best Reviewed Nonfiction Books of 2023 by Literary Hub
A startling new portrait of George Eliot, the beloved novelist and a rare philosophical mind who explored the complexities of marriage.
In her mid-thirties, Marian Evans transformed herself into George Eliot--an author celebrated for her genius as soon as she published her debut novel. During those years she also found her life partner, George Lewes--writer, philosopher, and married father of three. After "eloping" to Berlin in 1854, they lived together for twenty-four years: Eliot asked people to call her "Mrs Lewes" and dedicated each novel to her "Husband." Though they could not legally marry, she felt herself initiated into the "great experience" of marriage--"this double life, which helps me to feel and think with double strength." The relationship scandalized her contemporaries yet she grew immeasurably within it. Living at once inside and outside marriage, Eliot could experience this form of life--so familiar yet also so perplexing--from both sides.
In The Marriage Question, Clare Carlisle reveals Eliot to be not only a great artist but also a brilliant philosopher who probes the tensions and complexities of a shared life. Through the immense ambition and dark marriage plots of her novels, we see Eliot wrestling--in art and in life--with themes of desire and sacrifice, motherhood and creativity, trust and disillusion, destiny and chance. Carlisle's searching new biography explores how marriage questions grow and change, and joins Eliot in her struggle to marry thought and feeling.
Includes black-and-white images