Comparative Literature Commons^™

Dearly Beloved Scott, Margaret Wolfit

The George Eliot Review Online, ISSN: 2831-5375

When Mary Ann Evans was seven years old, her elder sister Chrissie was lent a copy of Waverley. Unfortunately, the book had to be returned before Mary Ann had finished reading it: this distressed her greatly, and she began to write out the story herself.

Maggie Tulliver, in The Mill on the Floss, says of Scott's novel The Pirate,

'Oh, I began it once. I read to where Minna is walking with Cleveland and I could never get to read the rest. I went on with it in my own head, and I made several endings - but they were …

Message Of Greetings From The Fellowship President, Jonathan G. Ouvry

The George Eliot Review Online, ISSN: 2831-5375

Having left the composition of my message to members of the Fellowship, as always, until the last possible moment, I looked to see whether I could find some words of George Eliot appropriate to my predicament. In such a situation Mr. Alexander Main is a tremendous help. His compilation of Wise, Witty and Tender Sayings of George Eliot saves hours of looking through the real thing. As always, I did not look in vain, and, further vacillation being out of the question, I now greet my fellow members, having enjoyed a further successful year, and looking forward to the next. …

The Twenty-First George Eliot Memorial Lecture: The Names Of George Eliot, Ruth M. Harris

The George Eliot Review Online, ISSN: 2831-5375

'What's in a name?’ asked Juliet. Our response would surely be different if Romeo were no longer called Romeo, and from that romantic balcony in Verona there came the cry: 'O Egbert, Egbert, wherefore art thou, Egbert?' As an exploration of George Eliot's names should reveal, there is far more significance in names than Juliet or we might imagine.

Allowing for minor differences, George Eliot chose or was given seventeen different names during her life-time: Mary Ann(e) Evans, Little Mama, Marianne Evans, Marian Evans, Clematis, Deutera, Polly, Pollian, Marian Lewes, Marian Evans Lewes, Mutter, Madonna, The Prioress, our Lady, Beatrice, …

El Dialecto En Las Primeras Novelas De Geroge Eliot: Grafia Y Vocalismo, Maria Fuencisla Garcia-Bermejo Giner

The George Eliot Review Online, ISSN: 2831-5375

This is an examination of Scenes o/Clerical Life, Adam Bede, The Mill on the Floss and Silas Marner from the point of view of the linguist. The author points to these novels as repositories of examples of dialect speech of the Midlands in the first part of the nineteenth century. That George Eliot was interested in language and languages, and that she had a passion for getting local detail right makes it unthinkable, according to the author, that her use of dialect in these novels could be anything other than authentic. The examples of dialect speech by characters in these …

George Eliot Birthday Luncheon: November 24th 1991, Gina Quant

The George Eliot Review Online, ISSN: 2831-5375

Moving house - that worrying, complicated, exciting experience we've all had! - And moving house in November too - not an inspiring month for new beginnings!

But it was just that upheaval of moving house, and just at this time of year, that Marian and George Henry Lewes were undergoing as they moved into their new home, The Priory, 128 years ago. Marian describes in a letter how the domestic problems of moving house were diverting her from the work she so relished:

Before we began to move, I was swimming in Comte and Euripides and Latin Christianity: Now I …

Review Of Middlemarch: A Study Of Provincial Life, Kathleen Porter

The George Eliot Review Online, ISSN: 2831-5375

I read Middlemarch for the first time in the Everyman's Library edition of 1930, a trim book in two volumes with a note by Leslie Stephen by way of Introduction. The note was taken from the Essay on George Eliot in Hours in a Library, and is less than helpful to the reader. Stephen notices the high moral ideal George Eliot sets before us, but laments the absence of charm, or magic, which he found in her earlier works.

The new Middlemarch from Everyman's Library is an elegant book in one volume, convenient in size and moderately priced. There are …

Middlemarch's Dorothea Brooke And Medieval Hagiography, Judith Johnston

The George Eliot Review Online, ISSN: 2831-5375

Saint Theresa's life of achievement is offered as a contrast to the heroine of Middlemarch, Dorothea Brooke, and all that Dorothea fails to achieve. George Eliot examines Dorothea' s life in part through the medium of medieval hagiography, a form which recognises the tensions and crises through which a martyr passes. But George Eliot depends upon the paradox that martyrdom is achieved as readily from submissiveness and ineffectuality as from resistance and effective administration. Thus Eliot offers the reader a heroine whose life passes through a state of metamorphosis which is very like the passage through martyrdom regardless of whether …

London Branch Report 1991, Graham Handley, Beryl Gray

The George Eliot Review Online, ISSN: 2831-5375

Although the London Branch undertook nothing specific this year, it was represented by Graham Handley, Beryl Gray, Michael Forrest and Margaret Wolfit at a pleasant ceremony in Richmond on 22nd April 1992, when a plaque commemorating George Eliot was unveiled on the site of 8 Park Shot. The following address was given by Mr. Tim Brilton, Chairman of Richmond Magistrates' Court:

Mr. Mayor, Madam Mayoress, Ladies and Gentlemen - on behalf of the Richmond bench it gives me great pleasure to welcome the Mayor of Richmond, Councillor McKinney and the Mayoress to our ceremony this afternoon. We are pleased to …

Review Of Realist Fiction And The Strolling Spectator, John Rignall

The George Eliot Review Online, ISSN: 2831-5375

The problem of vision, of what the artist or writer sees, is among the most fascinating of the links between literature and painting, which separates them both from music. Vision itself implies something seen which cannot be separated from an inner quality of how it is seen. The I seeing and the eye seeing involves a synthesis which again distinguishes them both from the camera. The presence of this 'magic' which resists analysis has obsessed artists as frequently as critics, and led them to reject what seemed incapable of completion. A poem, according to W.H. Auden, was never finished, only …

Review Of George Eliot: Selected Critical Writings, Rosemary Ashton

The George Eliot Review Online, ISSN: 2831-5375

Walter Houghton made duality, and especially opposites, the keystone of his analysis of the Victorian frame of mind. Eliot's mind fits happily into that dualistic frame. Was she George or Marian (or any variation of the latter)? Was she the contriver of the novels or was it her husband? Was she hypochondriac or valetudinarian, diffident or arrogant, prominent or retiring, imposing or horse-faced? The identity remains fascinatingly protean.

If deciding whether Eliot was novelist or poet is less difficult than a similar decision with regard to Hardy, the common reader (and more particularly the paperback purchaser) has been at a …

London Branch Report 1992, Graham Handley, Beryl Gray

The George Eliot Review Online, ISSN: 2831-5375

The London Branch celebrated George Eliot's birthday by bolding a luncheon in her honor on 29th November at St Philip’s Church, Earls Court Road, London W8. This was attended by about 40 members and friends, and was preceded by a programme of readings devised by Margaret Wolfit and taken from Romola and Daniel Deronda. Margaret had chosen the appropriate title of The Italian Connection, and her sequence of extracts was greatly appreciated by the audience who listened to her with rapt attention for more than an hour. The luncheon followed, and once again we are indebted to Michael and Suzanne …

Review Of Gordon S. Haight; George Eliot's Originals And Contemporaries: Essays In Victorian Literary History And Biography, Hugh Witemeyer

The George Eliot Review Online, ISSN: 2831-5375

It is good to meet old friends, to discover again who is the real heroine of Middlemarch and to realise that Ladislaw can be defended and that Or Leavis was deaf to George Eliot's irony. Casaubon may not really have been impotent. All those theories about originals have been thoroughly tested, evaluated, replaced or re-stated by the investigative particularity of an eminent George Eliot scholar and, as some would have us believe, her definitive biographer (though I do not accept this last claim). Was Klesmer Liszt or, as appears more likely, a mercurial Rubinstein? Was Casaubon Mark Pattison? Does it …

Annual Report- 1992, Kathleen Adams

The George Eliot Review Online, ISSN: 2831-5375

As I reach the end of my 25 years as Secretary of the Fellowship I inevitably look back to the beginning of my years of office and, as I prepared this report, to the first one I delivered 24 years ago. It covered half of a sheet of quarto paper. The events recorded were insignificant compared to our current programme but we did have Richard Church as our Guest of Honour at the Birthday Dinner in 1968. Our membership for that year had just reached 60, 7 of whom were life members.

1992 began, as always, with a quiet Annual …

The Clerical Character In George Eliot's Fiction, Oliver Lovesey

The George Eliot Review Online, ISSN: 2831-5375

Writing to Blackwood in November 1856 to introduce Scenes of Clerical Life, G.H. Lewes promised,

tales and sketches illustrative of the actual life of our country clergy about a quarter of a century ago; but solely in its 'human' and 'not at all' in its 'theological' aspect; the object being to do what has never yet been done in our Literature, for we have abundant religious stories polemical and doctrinal, but since the Vicar and Miss Austen, no stories representing the clergy like any other class with the humours, sorrows, and troubles of other men.

Oliver Lovesey's new study is …

Wreath-Laying In The George Eliot Memorial Gardens, Nuneaton

The George Eliot Review Online, ISSN: 2831-5375

We are here this morning to remember a great English novelist, and one of the most formidable intellectuals of her day. It is appropriate that we should do so in Nuneaton, close to South Farm, Arbury, where Mary Ann Evans was born, and also close to Griff, where she grew up. It is right, too, that I should say Mary Ann Evans, for this was her birthplace; the birth of 'George Eliot' took place elsewhere.

But why, it might be asked, should we honour a writer at her place of birth when her adult life, and more importantly, her entire …

George Eliot Fellowship Annual General Meeting- Treasurer's Report

The George Eliot Review Online, ISSN: 2831-5375

From a financial point of view 1990 was an uneventful year with no major items of expenditure. Income from subscriptions showed a small increase over 1989 whereas that from donations was considerably less. This is because, you will recall, in 1989 we made a special appeal to Life Members to which they responded magnificently leading to an exceptionally large "Donation" income in that year.

Of our functions, the Gabriel Woolf readings once again showed an increase in profit but unfortunately the Diamond Jubilee Evening showed a loss. Souvenir Sales gave a healthy profit with the mini-statue of George Eliot and …

The George Eliot Fellowship Review 1991 No. 22, Kathleen Adams, Graham Handley

The George Eliot Review Online, ISSN: 2831-5375

Contributions are invited for the 1992 issue. They may be on any subject relating to George Eliot's work, life, family or friends. They should be up to 1500 words in length and it is preferred that footnotes are used only sparingly. Contributions must be typed (double spacing) and should reach the Editors not later than February 28th 1992. Editor's address for 1992 issue: Dr. Graham Handley, Glasgow Stud Farmhouse, Crews Hill, Enfield, Middlesex.

The Editors do not necessarily agree with the views expressed by contributors, nor does the George Eliot Fellowship accept responsibility for such views. No part of the …

Review Of The Presence Of The Present: Topics Of The Day In The Victorian Novel, Richard D. Altick

The George Eliot Review Online, ISSN: 2831-5375

Richard D. Altick, Regents' Professor Emeritus of English at The Ohio State University, is well known for such books as Victorian People and Ideas. His latest work draws from 150 novels to develop connections between people, objects, events, and issues mentioned in fiction and their real life originals in the Victorian period. The generous selection of sources includes not only the best remembered novelists but also such writers as Susan Ferrier, John Galt, Samuel Warren, and Charlotte Yonge. All of Eliot's novels except, of course, Romola, are included.

The material is organized into twenty thematic chapters, ranging from popular entertainments …

The Nineteenth George Eliot Memorial Lecture- 1990, Roemary Ashton

The George Eliot Review Online, ISSN: 2831-5375

In July 1990 I finished writing a biography of G.H. Lewes, which will be published by Oxford University Press in September 1991. There could be no better subject to have than Lewes (1817-1878). He is, of course, best remembered as the faithful companion, the husband in fact if not in law, of Marian Evans, the man without whose energy and support she might not have found the courage to become George Eliot. If he had nothing more than this to recommend him, he would still be worthy of our attention. But Lewes has a great deal more than this to …

London Branch Report 1990

The George Eliot Review Online, ISSN: 2831-5375

The London Branch held a George Eliot Supper Evening at S1. Philip's, Earls Court Road, W.8. in celebration of her 171st birthday on 22nd November. Sunday 18th was chosen, and the whole occasion was finely organised by Michael and Suzanne Forrest. The principle guest was the actor Robin Bailey. Some 50 or so guests were wined, dined and entertained by two young musicians, the pianist Roger Owens and the harpist Susannah Bale. It was good to see the parent organisation represented by Bill and Kathleen Adams.

Obituary: Edith Lenton- Vice President Of The George Eliot Fellowship

The George Eliot Review Online, ISSN: 2831-5375

Edith Lenton, who has died at the age of 81, was a Vice President of the Fellowship, a former treasurer and a very active and loyal member for nearly thirty years. Born in Nuneaton, the only child of Mr. and Mrs. Joseph Starkey, she had an early contact with George Eliot the novelist as she took part as a child in the centenary celebrations in 1919 of Nuneaton's famous daughter. These celebrations were organised by Nuneaton Borough Council and the principal participants were the schoolchildren of the town who gave their performances, consisting of dancing, singing, tableaux vivant and sketches, …

Review Of Approaches To Teaching Eliot's 'Midddlemarch', Kathleen Blake

The George Eliot Review Online, ISSN: 2831-5375

The editor quotes Gilbert Highet, who wrote 'Bad teaching wastes a great deal of effort, and spoils many lives which might have been full of energy and happiness'. Salutary words indeed, but what about those people who seem to have thought too much about it (Highet suggests that bad teaching results from not thinking enough about it) and too self-consciously at that? This book is a curious mixture of interesting and practical ideas on the one hand and inflated intellectual selfindulgence on the other. Kathleen Blake's introduction summarises the main concerns of the book and its trends. Here is an …

Phonetic Key To The Non-Standard Othography In The Novels Of George Eliot, Maira F. Garcia-Bermejo Giner

The George Eliot Review Online, ISSN: 2831-5375

Any writer attempting to represent graphically variant pronunciations is faced with the double problem of being accurate as regards the pronunciation he has in mind and of choosing a spelling easily identifiable with the standard word. As a rule, he will keep most of the normal spelling and alter only the orthography of the syllable pronounced in a different way. The results of this operation should enable the reader to interpret the variant spelling quickly and, at the same time, give him a good idea about how that word sounds in dialect speech. It is not always easy to interpret …

The Twentieth George Eliot Memorial Lecture: George Eliot And Elizabeth Gaskell, Jenny Uglow

The George Eliot Review Online, ISSN: 2831-5375

The title suggested for this talk was 'two literary ladies' - they were certainly literary, but at various times their contemporaries would have denied that either of them were ladies. George Eliot was 'the strong minded woman' in Carlyle's words, who ran off with G.H. Lewes. Mrs. Gaskell was the author of Ruth, burned by two members of her husband's Unitarian congregation at Cross Street Chapel, Manchester because its heroine was a fallen woman. And if George Eliot was strong minded, so was Mrs. G. Her stubbornness drove Dickens, for example, to distraction: 'Oh, Mrs. Gaskell, fearful, fearful! If I …

The Painful Challenge Of George Eliot's Epigraph, Mary Carroll

The George Eliot Review Online, ISSN: 2831-5375

Through her altruistic epigraph to a painful story, George Eliot suggests that the journey to greater human fellowship often requires a passage through suffering. In The Lifted Veil, Eliot explores the form of pain that shackles sado-masochistic relationships, and the roots of that pain - buried in the misperception that punishment is deserved. This paper will explore Latimer' s attempt to change by moving through his masochistic stance into the sadism which has bound him.

The masochistic need for the sadist is captured by Eliot when she has Latimer moan:

While the heart beats, bruise it - it is your …

Songs Of The Spanish Gypsy, Bill Adams

The George Eliot Review Online, ISSN: 2831-5375

One day in May 1873 a curious letter was delivered to the Lewes's London home. Couched in the most formal terms, it read:

Mr. C.V. Stanford presents his compliments to "George Eliot" and hopes he may be excused for troubling him (sic) with the following request. He has lately finished writing music to three songs from "The Spanish Gypsy", namely "Bright Fedalma", "Spring comes hither", and "Came a pretty maid", and hopes eventually to complete the music to the whole subject. He trusts that it may not be thought too much if he asks for permission to publish the songs …

Review Of George Eliot, Ian Sutton

The George Eliot Review Online, ISSN: 2831-5375

This is the first of a series which will 'take full account of contemporary literary theory, providing collections of key modern readings of major authors.... Among the critical positions represented are British poststructuralism, deconstruction, feminism, psychoanalysis, Marxism and new historicism'.

Do not despair, however. Things are not quite as bad as they sound. Most of the essays here can be understood with a bit of effort and most of those are worth the effort. They have been carefully chosen not only to include the main schools of criticism but also to cover the whole range of George Eliot's work, and …

Message Of Greeting From The Fellowship President, Jonathan G. Ouvry

The George Eliot Review Online, ISSN: 2831-5375

This year I write my annual greeting to the Fellowship between two very special occasions. Last June we celebrated in Westminster Abbey the Tenth Anniversary of the unveiling of the Memorial Stone. The occasion was made particularly memorable by the participation of Dean Edward Carpenter (now retired) who had taken such an active and positive part in the original installation of the stone. As on past occasions he gave a fascinating, scholarly and apparently quite spontaneous gem of a talk, for which we were and are most grateful.

The second special occasion, to which I am looking forward with what …

Technology And Development: Opposition To The Railway In Middlemarch, Paul H. Lorenz

The George Eliot Review Online, ISSN: 2831-5375

In Book 6 (chapter 56) of Middlemarch, George Eliot presents a scene in which the citizens of the hamlet of Frick set upon a group of railway surveyors, "the enemies of mankind”, with hayforks. The surveyors escape with their lives only through the intervention of Caleb Garth and Fred Vincy. This incident allows Eliot to discuss the attitudes of the working classes towards the technological developments of the Industrial Revolution and to contrast these attitudes with those of the middle class. While middle class women "regarded travelling by steam as presumptuous and dangerous", the local landowners, who had the vote …

Westminster Abbey Wreath-Laying, Bill Adams

The George Eliot Review Online, ISSN: 2831-5375

It seems incredible that it is now eleven years since the very exciting and moving day in June 1980 when a great congregation of some seven hundred people witnessed the consecration of this memorial to George Eliot. In the years before, the Fellowship Council had to make some momentous decisions. Among the most important was the choice of an inscription for the stone - words which would be on view here in the Abbey to millions of visitors for perhaps hundreds of years into the future. We needed to find a phrase which came as close as possible to an …