Synopses & Reviews
George Eliot is one of the most important women novelists of the 19th century. Throughout her writings, she explores the interconnectedness of the self and society. This theme of interconnectedness creates the social, psychological, and religious worlds of her fictional communities. Eliot distinguished herself from other Victorian novelists through her realism, her use of an engaging narrator, and her indebtedness to thinkers such as Comte, Mill, and Darwin.
The essays assembled in this book represent the best criticism of Eliot's novels from the 19th century to the present day. The essays are grouped in sections devoted to particular novels, and within each section the essays are arranged chronologically to chart the evolving critical response to her work. An introductory chapter briefly overviews the philosophical influences on Eliot's novels, and a bibliography of selected additional readings concludes the book. The volume summarizes the critical response to Eliot's work and documents changing views toward her novels.
Review
...a very useful selection of materials. RecommendedChoice
Synopsis
George Eliot is one of the most important women novelists of the 19th century. Throughout her writings, she explores the interconnectedness of the self and society. This theme of interconnectedness creates the social, psychological, and religious worlds of her fictional communities. The essays assembled in this book represent the best criticism of her works from the 19th century to the present.
Synopsis
The essays assembled in this book represent the best criticism of Eliot's works from the 19th century to the present.
Description
Includes bibliographical references (p. [215]-222) and index.
About the Author
KAREN L. PANGALLO is a Reference Librarian at the Lynn Campus Library of North Shore Community College in Massachusetts.
Table of Contents
Foreword by Cameron Northouse
Introduction
General Response to the Novels
Contemporary Review by Edward Dowden
Fortnightly Review by Sidney Colvin
Social Analysis in the Novels of George Eliot by Claude T. Bissell
George Eliot's Location of Value in History by Sara Moore Putzell
Critical Response to Adam Bede
Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine by W.L. Collins
The Times by E.S. Dallas
Eliot to Francois D'Albert-Durade
Adam Bede: Society in Flux by Brian D. Beyers
Infanticide and Respectability: Hetty Sorrel as Abandoned Child in Adam Bede by Mason Harris
Critical Response to The Mill on the Floss
The Guardian, Unsigned Review
The Times by E.S. Dallas
The Mill on the Floss and the Contemporary Social Values: Tom Tulliver and Samuel Smiles by David Malcolm
IOntogeny and Phylogeny in The Mill on the Floss by Preston Fambrough
Critical Response to Silas Marner
Eliot to John Blackwood
The Saturday Review, Unsigned Review
The Times by E.S. Dallas
Westminster Review, Unsigned Review
The Weaver of Raveloe: Metaphor as Narrative Persuasion in Silas Marner by Meri-Jane Rochelson
Critical Response to Romola
The Athenaeum, Unsigned Review
The Spectator by R.H. Hutton
Eliot to Richard Hutton
The Westminster Review, Unsigned Review
Romola and the Preservation of Household Gods by Henry Alley
Critical Response to Felix Holt, the Radical
The Times by E.S. Dallas
Eliot to Sara Sophia Hennell
Frederic Harrison to Eliot
Eliot to Frederic Harrison
The Nation by Henry James, Jr.
George Eliot's Vision of Society in Felix Holt, the Radical by Lenore Wisney Horowitz
Critical Response to Middlemarch
Eliot to Harriet Beecher Stowe
John Blackwood to Eliot
Saturday Review, Unsigned Review
Blackwood's Magazine by W. Lucas Collins
Fortnightly Review by Sidney Colvin
The Moral Imagination of George Eliot by Bert G. Hornback
Irony in the Mind's Life--Maturity: George Eliot's Middlemarch by Robert Coles
Critical Response to Daniel Deronda
The Strong Side of Daniel Deronda by R.H. Hutton
Saturday Review, Unsigned Review
Eliot to Mme. Eugene Bodichon
Eliot to Harriet Beecher Stowe
International Review by R.R. Bowker
Daniel Deronda and the Victorian Search for Identity by Arlene M. Jackson
The Rhetoric of Magic in Daniel Deronda by James Caron
Selected Additional Readings
Index