Literature in English, British Isles Commons^™

Audio Cassette Review, Ruth Harris, Gabriel Woolf

The George Eliot Review Online, ISSN: 2831-5375

Gabriel WooIf' s second cassette of readings from George Eliot begins and ends with her poetry. However we assess the value of her poems, there can be no doubt that they raise issues that were fundamental to her. Nor can there be any doubt that the poetry is illuminated for us by the voice of the reader. His tenderly nostalgic interpretation of the Brother and Sister sequence is enlivened by glints of humour as George Eliot describes her devoted dependence on her "little man / Of forty inches", or reveals her excitement when she catches the' 'silver perch" - her …

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 …

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.

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: …

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, …

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 …

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 …

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 …

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 …

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 George Eliot (Marian Evans): A Literary Life, Kerry Mcsweeney

The George Eliot Review Online, ISSN: 2831-5375

Many publishers run series of 'introductions' to English literature - handy roll-calls of the canon, beginning with Chaucer and ending with Virginia Woolf or thereabouts - and inevitably George Eliot has to be there. One is, of course, glad for the small army of academics for whom gainful employment is thus provided, but the question naturally arises whether so many books covering the same ground serve any useful purpose.

In Professor McSweeney's case the answer is yes. His book is rewarding because he is sufficiently master of his subject to make it his own. He forms his own judgements, chooses …

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 …

George Eliot Birthday Lucheon: The Toast To The Immortal Memory, Ted Veasey

The George Eliot Review Online, ISSN: 2831-5375

As a local historian I have been thinking to what extent did George Eliot portray Nuneaton - more especially in her most local book Scenes o/Clerical Life - and how good a historian was she in this work.

Essential dates, first of all. George Eliot was born in 1819 and wrote Scenes in 1857- 58. She sets the events of Amos Barton and J and s Repentance some 25 years before the date of writing; that is roughly 1830 when she was a young girl of some eleven years of age. Mr. Gilfil' s Love Story starts in 1820 but …

Westminster Abbey Wreath-Laying

The George Eliot Review Online, ISSN: 2831-5375

June 1990 marked the tenth anniversary of the unveiling of the memorial stone to George Eliot in Poets' Corner. The anniversary service was held as closely in content as possible to the one ten years earlier and our Guest of Honour was the Revd. Dr. EDW ARD CARPENTER K.C. V.O. who, as Dean of Westminster in 1980, conducted our service on that important day and had also been very much a part of our negotiations with the Abbey long before the project came to fruition. We have affectionate memories of our association with him during that time and it was …

Wreath-Laying In The George Eliot Memorial Gardens, Nuneaton On June 17th 1990, Hilda Gunn

The George Eliot Review Online, ISSN: 2831-5375

I count it a great honour to be here to pay tribute to George Eliot and especially as it is shortly to be the Diamond Jubilee of the Fellowship, founded by the late Francis Cross in 1930.

I cannot claim to be the oldest member, either in years or in length of membership, but my first introduction to George Eliot the novelist goes back even more than sixty years. As a jubilee is not only a time of rejoicing but of looking back, I would like to share with you some of my recollections.

In October 1927 I began to …

George Eliot Fellowship Annual General Meeting- Treasurer's Report

The George Eliot Review Online, ISSN: 2831-5375

This being my first report to you as Treasurer I would like to begin by thanking my predecessor, Brenda Evans, for her initial instruction into the nature of the job, for her continuing help throughout the year and for her patience in forwarding mail for the time it took to get addresses sorted out. I would also like to thank your Council and especially your Secretary, Kathleen, for their help and understanding towards a "new boy".

Turning now to the accounts, you will see that I have made some changes to the presentation. In particular, at the left hand side …

The Kapellmeister, Bill Adams

The George Eliot Review Online, ISSN: 2831-5375

"Rosamond played admirably. Her master at Mrs. Lemon's school (close to a county town with a memorable history that had its relics in church and castle) was one of those excellent musicians here and there to be found in our provinces, worthy to compare with many a noted Kapellmeister in a country which offers more plentiful conditions of musical celebrity. Rosamond, with the executant's instinct, had seized his manner of playing, and gave forth his large rendering of noble music with the precision of an echo. It was almost startling, heard for the first time. A hidden soul seemed to …

The Triumph Of Spirit Over Law: Free Will Versus Determinism In Adam Bede, William Klein

The George Eliot Review Online, ISSN: 2831-5375

One of the primary intellectual influences that shaped George Eliot's thought was positivism, or rather the various influence of positivistic philosophers such as Comte, Mill, Spencer, Feuerbach and Lewes, who each in his own way subscribed to an empiricism dictating that knowledge of anything but actual phenomena is impossible, and thus rejected any metaphysical speculation concerning ultimate causes or origins. This is a broad definition of positivism, and perhaps generalizes at the expense of the fine points of the thinkers under discussion; however, George Eliot's ultimate rejection of the notion of a God whose existence cannot be empirically demonstrated was …

Review Of Adam Bede At The Orange Tree Theatre, Richmond, Surrey, Rosalind Holt

The George Eliot Review Online, ISSN: 2831-5375

Gaps in appreciation.

The rash boast of many an English teacher - that Middlemarch is the greatest novel in our language - is enough to put most people off literature for life.

City Limits

Dinah Morris ... played ... has a warm humanity which is a distinct improvement on the preachifying original.

The Staines Informer

Some of our best stories are buried in thick tomes, accessible only to literature students who often fail to appreciate their beauty, or to academics.

Surrey Comet

.... thankless task ... as Seth Bede, the least satisfactory character in the novel

Financial Times

I remember …

Going, Going, Gone.......... But Where? A Slightly Sad Look At A House Sale, Kathleen Adams

The George Eliot Review Online, ISSN: 2831-5375

During the last decade Antique and Collectors' Fairs have flourished in Britain and are a very popular way for many of the population to spend a pleasant afternoon browsing amongst the items for sale. Forty years ago, when I began collecting - in a very modest way - antique shops were way out of my bracket and it was in junk shops that I picked up what I now regard as bargains. In those days few people seemed to be collecting pretty pieces of china or old pieces of brass and the prices were low. Junk shops, particularly in the …

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

The George Eliot Review Online, ISSN: 2831-5375

It hardly seems possible that ten years have passed since the memorial stone was laid in Westminster Abbey. For the George Eliot Fellowship the stone-laying was an end, the accomplishment of something worked for for many years. For me it was a beginning, as it marked my introduction to the Fellowship, a happy meeting which I have had much cause to be pleased about ever since. For me the Fellowship has provided new and lasting friendships, much information about and insights into George Eliot and her work, the same in respect to George Henry Lewes, the opportunity to listen to …

Obituary: Mrs. D.E. Beamish: Vice President Of The George Eliot Fellowship

The George Eliot Review Online, ISSN: 2831-5375

When Eva Beamish died in March she was in her ninety-first year. Her death this year has held a particular sadness for us since she was to have been our Guest of Honour at the Wreath-laying in Nuneaton in June. As this is the Fellowship's Diamond Jubilee year, it was thought most fitting that our wreath should be laid by our oldest member - certainly in terms of the length of her membership. Indeed, when we invited her, we were under the impression that she was a founder member but, in accepting the invitation, she pointed out that her father …

A Letter From George, Kathleen Adams

The George Eliot Review Online, ISSN: 2831-5375

BBC CWR is a new local radio station launched at the beginning of the year to cover Coventry and Warwickshire. It became clear very early on that the station wished to show an interest in and pay tribute to George Eliot. A Letter from George was their first attempt and from the success of this I feel we can look forward to a long period of co-operation between the Fellowship and the BBC in Warwickshire in relation to George Eliot.

In choosing eight episodes of about ten minutes each it was inevitable that the life of the novelist would be …

Review Of Emily Davies And The Liberation Of Women, Kathleen Adams, Daphne Bennett

The George Eliot Review Online, ISSN: 2831-5375

Daphne Bennett has rewritten, in this book on Emily Davies, the history of the feminist movement. She seethes when she hears people talk about the movement as though it began with the suffragettes, for her heroine had been working for the emancipation of women for 50 years before the suffragettes were making themselves noticed in no uncertain manner.

Emily Davies was one of the great pioneers in the cause of women but little is, or has been, really known about her. She has often been confused with Emily Davison who threw herself under the feet of the King's horse, but …

Review Of George Eliot: An Intellectual Life, Valerie A. Dodd

The George Eliot Review Online, ISSN: 2831-5375

The tendency to produce esoteric books is one of the less pleasing registers of our critical and scholarly time. Valerie Dodd' s book fills a gap at great length, and in doing so examines a number of intellectual lives, among them those of Mill and Carlyle. It also presents a mini-thesis on Saint-Simonianism. All this is heavy preamble to Marian Evans (63 pages to be exact) and Marian's own heavy (and often passing) preoccupations before she began to write fiction. Sources are voluminous and often cited, so that the narrative is weighed down with references which arrest its flow while …

Review Of Middlemarch: A Student's Companion To The Novel, Bert G. Hornback

The George Eliot Review Online, ISSN: 2831-5375

Advanced undergraduate or graduate students, as well as general readers who are quite familiar with Middlemarch, should find Homback's book interesting reading. It is well documented with frequent references to the Norton Critical Edition of Middlemarch, which Hornback edited, and to other sources.

This volume follows the standard format of the Masterwork series, including a chronology, a discussion of the historical context, a review of the critical reception, a discussion of key themes and ideas, and a bibliography and an index.

Thematic discussions take place under such chapter titles as "Seeing," "Feeling and Knowledge," "Being Heroic and Constructive," and "Reform." …

Review Of Octavia Hill, Jonathan Ouvry, Gillian Darley

The George Eliot Review Online, ISSN: 2831-5375

I find that objectivity is difficult to achieve when considering a work by or about someone with whom I have a family relationship, however distant. In the case of Octavia Hill, my great-great-aunt, I have been aware of her all my life as a figure revered in the family. Outside the family I have been aware of her work in the field of housing through my involvement with the Housing Association that bears her name, and of her role as one of the three founders of the National Trust.

It is perhaps surprising that there has been no full length …

George Eliot And The Linnet's Life, Beryl Gray

The George Eliot Review Online, ISSN: 2831-5375

In the last year of her life, George Eliot gave John Walter Cross her copy of The Linnet's Life, which was published in 1822. At an earlier time, she had inscribed on the recto of the frontispiece:

"This little book is the first present I ever remember having

received from my father. Let anyone who thinks of me with

some tenderness after I am dead, take care of this book for my

sake. It made me very happy when I held it in my little hands,

and read it over and over again; and thought the pictures

beautiful, especially the …

The Eighteenth George Eliot Memorial Lecture: Novelists And Things: George Eliot In A Victorian Perspective, Asa Briggs

The George Eliot Review Online, ISSN: 2831-5375

I am privileged as a historian of Victorian England to deliver this Memorial Lecture on the occasion of the 170th anniversary of George Eliot's birth. The future Queen was born on May 24th 1819, described by her father as ' a model of strength and beauty combined': George Eliot was born at five o'clock in the morning on November 22nd. This was the year of the Massacre of Peterloo, when discontent and repression drove the Lancashire radical Samuel Bamford to ask in his poem 'The Lancashire Hymn'

'Have we not heard the infant's cry

And mark'd its mother's tear;

That …

Review Of George Eliot: A Reference Guide, 1972-87, Karen L. Pangallo

The George Eliot Review Online, ISSN: 2831-5375

Karen L. Pangallo attempts to fill a gap in reference works on Eliot with this guide. Entries are arranged by years and then alphabetized by author. There are an Index of Authors, an Index of Secondary Titles, and an Index of Subjects (which would be helped by more detail).

In the preface Pangallo states that she has" attempted to compile a complete bibliography of references to George Eliot," and she cites Dissertations Abstracts International, the MLA International Bibliography of Books and Articles on the Modem Languages and Literatures, and a variety of other sources. The volume does seem to include …