Comparative Literature Commons^™

Review Essay: Roland Bechmann, Trees And Man: The Forest In The Middle Ages, Kelly Devries

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Roland Bechmann, Trees and Man: The Forest in the Middle Ages, trans. Katharyn Dunham, rev. ed., Paragon House, 1990, 319 pp., biblio., index, $24.95.

Review Essay: Theresa Coletti, Naming The Rose: Eco, Medieval Signs, And Modern Theory, Frede Jensen

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Theresa Coletti, Naming the Rose: Eco, Medieval Signs, and Modern Theory, Cornell University Press, 1988, xi, 212 pp., index, $30.00.

Review Essay: Frederic J. Baumgartner, Henry Ii, King Of France: 1547-1559, Paul Solon

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Frederic J. Baumgartner, Henry II, King of France: 1547-1559, Duke University Press, 1988, xiv, 358 pp., biblio., index, $39.95.

Review Essay: Philippa Berry, Of Chastity And Power: Elizabethan Literature And The Unmarried Queen, Jean R. Brink

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Philippa Berry, Of Chastity and Power: Elizabethan Literature and the Unmarried Queen, Routledge, 1989, 193 pp., xii, ill., biblio., index, $35.00.

Review Essay: Jean R. Brink, Michael Drayton Revisited, Wyman H. Herendeen

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Jean R. Brink, Michael Drayton Revisited, Twayne Publishers, 1990, xiv, 167 pp., ill., biblio., index, $29.95.

Review Essay: George Parfitt, John Donne: A Literary Life, Patricia Demers

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George Parfitt, John Donne: A Literary Life, St. Martin's Press, 1989, viii, 140 pp., biblio., $35.00

Review Essay: Miguel De Cervantes, The Trials Of Persiles And Sigismunda, A Northern Story, Edward H. Friedman

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Miguel de Cervantes, The Trials of Persiles and Sigismunda, A Northern Story, trans. Celia Richmond Weller and Clark A. Colahan, University of California Press, 1989, 395 pp., ill., biblio., $37.50.

Review Essay: John Ogilby, The Entertainment Of His Most Excellent Majestie Charles Ii In His Passage Through The City Of London To His Coronation, Retha M. Warnicke

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John Ogilby, The Entertainment of His Most Excellent Majestie Charles II in His Passage through the City of London to His Coronation, Medieval and Renaissance Texts and Studies 43, 1988, 192 pp., ill., biblio., index, $30.00.

Review Essay: Philip J. Gallagher, Milton, The Bible, And Misogyny, Clement H. Wyke

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Philip J. Gallagher, Milton, the Bible, and Misogyny, ed. Eugene R. Cunnar and Gail L. Mortimer, University of Missouri Press, 1990, x, 185 pp., biblio., index, $27.50

Review Essay: María Jesús Fuente Pérez, La Ciudad De Palencia En El Siglo Xv: Aportación Al Estudio De Las Ciudades Castellanas En La Baja Eedad Media, J. B. Owens

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María Jesús Fuente Pérez, La ciudad de Palencia en el siglo xv: Aportación al estudio de las ciudades castellanas en la Baja Edad Media, Universidad Complutense de Madrid, 1989.

Rafael Sánchez Saus, Caballería y linaje en la Sevilla medieval: Estudio genealógico y social, Diputación Provincial de Sevilla and Universidad de Cádiz, 1989, 531 pp., 2500 pesatas esp.

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 …

Obituary: Ann Robson- Curator Of Nuneaton Museum And Art Gallery, Ann Robson

The George Eliot Review Online, ISSN: 2831-5375

Ann Robson had just passed her 32nd birthday when she died a few days before Christmas 1990. She was born in South Shields in October 1958. She learned to play the piano and was particularly fond of the Christmas carol' Away in a Manager'. The singing of this carol at her memorial service at the end of December was, therefore, particularly poignant. She had a passion for horses, as did so many girls of her generation, and this interest remained with her into her adult life. She was educated at Doncaster Grammar School and in 1977 went to Durham University …

Review Of George Eliot's Selected Essays, Poems And Other Writings, Graham Handley, A.S. Byatt

The George Eliot Review Online, ISSN: 2831-5375

In 1963 Thomas Pinney published his edition of The Essays of George Eliot, a meticulous, scholarly and conservative selection. It was a major contribution to George Eliot studies, coming as it did in the wake of her rediscovery, more properly re-evaluation, through F.R. Leavis, Joan Bennett, Barbara Hardy, W.J. Harvey and others. Gordon Haight had discovered her for himself in the 1930' s, and devoted the rest of his life to editing her letters, writing her biography, encouraging scholars and critics and initiating the Clarendon edition of her works. Pinney is in the immediate Haight tradition, clear, concise, admirably relevant: …

George Eliot And Greek Tragedy, P.E. Easterling

The George Eliot Review Online, ISSN: 2831-5375

A quotation from Romola in S. H. Butcher's essay on Sophoc1es (1891) first led me to George Eliot as a reader of Greek tragedy:

Our deeds are like children that are born to us; they live and act apart from our will: nay, children may be strangled, but deeds never; they have an indestructible life both in and out of our consciousness. (Ch. 16)

The intensity of the language used here matches that of the Aeschylean contexts that must have been Eliot's ultimate model;2 it implies a close imaginative contact which can perhaps help to enrich our own reading of …

Annual Report, Kathleen Adams

The George Eliot Review Online, ISSN: 2831-5375

An uneventful Annual General Meeting in March began our year and was followed by a much more stimulating AGM of the Alliance of Literary Societies in Birmingham on April 20th, when a party from the Fellowship attended and had the pleasure of meeting members of other literary societies with whom we could exchange ideas. The Alliance President, Gabriel Woolf, addressed the meeting and spoke with feeling about the need to educate our young people in the literature of the past - a sentiment echoed a few days later by the Prince of Wales.

On April 26th we attended the official …

Review Of George Eliot's Midlands: Passion In Exile, Graham Handley

The George Eliot Review Online, ISSN: 2831-5375

Various biographies and critical studies argue that Mary Ann or Marian Evans's formative years in the Midlands influenced George Eliot's art. They do so by explaining that memories of Robert Evans contributed to George Eliot's conceptions of Adam Bede and Caleb Garth, that Cheverel Manor is Arbury Hall, that Amos Barton is largely based on the Rev. John Gwyther, the curate of Chilvers Coton whom Mary Ann knew as a child, that a good deal of autobiographical material went into the creation of Maggie Tulliver, and so on.

Is there a need, then, for Graham Handley's George Eliot's Midlands when …

Review Of G.H. Lewes: A Life, Beryl Gray, Rosemary Ashton

The George Eliot Review Online, ISSN: 2831-5375

For a very long time, George Henry Lewes's reputation has centred on the fact that, for the last 25 years of his life, he was George Eliot's partner. Not a vast number of people have cared to know very much about him beyond an idea, perhaps, that he was a rather freewheeling journalist who produced a Life of Goethe, and that he was free-thinking and - at least until he took up with George Eliot - somewhat free-living. It is gratifying, therefore, that this highly intelligent, quick and versatile, immensely fair-minded man who loved science as much as he loved …