Literature in English, British Isles Commons^™

Orts 16, 1989, The George Macdonald Society

Orts: The George MacDonald Society Newsletter

1. MacDonald and Blake. Adrian Thomas has come up with the answer to our query in ORTS 15 about William Blake. The quotation is from Plate 77 of Jerusalem, and was printed thus: Plate 77 To the Christians Devils are False religions “Saul, Saul, “Why persecutest thou me?” I give you the end of a golden string, Only wind it into a ball, It will lead you in at Heaven’s gate Built in Jerusalem’s wall.

Orts 17, 1989, The George Macdonald Society

Orts: The George MacDonald Society Newsletter

1. Our next AGM will be on Friday 24 November at 7.30 pm. It will be held at 58a Westbourne Park Villas, LONDON W2. All members are welcome. **************************************************************************

2. Things afoot 1. The committee is thinking of arranging a three-day tour of Huntly and district in autumn 1990. The event would include lectures on MacDonald and visits to places connected with him and his family. Participants would stay at a local hotel and transport would be by bus. Guest lectures would be included, possibly a memorial service and a celebration dinner – and perhaps the unveiling of a plaque …

Orts 18, 1989, The George Macdonald Society

Orts: The George MacDonald Society Newsletter

1. The Society held its AGM on November 24, and the Committee were confirmed in office. We hope to carry a fuller report in “Orts” 19.

2. The Society still has tentative plans for a gathering in Huntly at the end of September 1990. Costs are estimated at £120 for a shared room, £140 for a single room and £70 if you want to follow the day programme only. (Events would extend from a Monday evening dinner and welcome to a Friday departure.) Further details should reach members soon. In the meantime it is good to report that enquiries regarding …

Orts 15, 1989, The George Macdonald Society

Orts: The George MacDonald Society Newsletter

1. Annual General Meeting. A dozen people attended the AGM of the Society, held at 58a Westbourne Park Villas, London, on Friday November 18th. The evening fell into two parts, with business first followed by Rachel Johnson’s talk on the MacDonald family and Pilgrim’s Progress. The business section resolved to have a joint meeting with the Lewis Carroll Society in the coming year, and noted that North Wind had cost slightly less than last year to produce. The treasurer told the meeting that the Society now had £177.78 in its account. Tony Richardson, the architect, gave an update on the …

Shakespeare’S King Lear: “Points Of Light” For A Dark World, Michael J. Collins

Studies in English, New Series

No abstract provided.

Augusta Geraldine Almeda: Emily Bronte’S Gothic Anti-Heroine, B. G. Till

Studies in English, New Series

No abstract provided.

Patterning, Time And Nietzsche’S “Spirit Of Revenge" In Beowulf And The Mayor Of Casterbridge, Gillian R. Overing

Studies in English, New Series

No abstract provided.

Boswell’S First Meeting With The Infamous Margaret Caroline Rudd: A Study In Dramatic Technique, Colby H. Kullman

Studies in English, New Series

No abstract provided.

Browning’S Don Juan: Libertine Or Victorian?, Carol Reeves

Studies in English, New Series

No abstract provided.

Blood And Transfusion In Bram Stoker’S Dracula, David Hume Flood

Studies in English, New Series

No abstract provided.

Spenser’S Cannibals: Pornography Punished, John Rooks

Studies in English, New Series

No abstract provided.

The Drunken Boat: Malcolm Lowry’S Lunar Caustic, David Falk

Studies in English, New Series

No abstract provided.

The Victorians Forty Years After [An Essay Review], Benjamin Franklin Fisher Iv

Studies in English, New Series

No abstract provided.

Review Of Reclaimed, Graham Handley

The George Eliot Review Online, ISSN: 2831-5375

When Middlemarch was being issued in Eight Parts from December 1871 until December 1872, there was a strong readership interest in the fact that Dorothea and Lydgate had made, in each instance, a wrong choice of marriage mate. It went farther than this, some readers even expressing the view that Dorothea and Lydgate would have been ideally suited. With Daniel Deronda, which was also issued in parts from February to September 1876, readership sympathy was also involved. There was much dissatisfaction in Daniel's forsaking of Gwendolen at the end ('I said I should be forsaken: says Gwendolen in her anguish) …

Review Of The World's Classics Series: Middlemarch, Kathleen Porter, David Carroll

The George Eliot Review Online, ISSN: 2831-5375

"It is a curious fact that when a writer has attained to a certain eminence, we English cease to bother ourselves about him. There he is, recognised, accepted, labelled." I recalled these words, from the conversation of Katherine Mansfield in 1920, and recorded in her journal, when I opened the World's Classics paperback edition of Middlemarch edited by David Carron, Professor of English literature at the University of Lancaster. Katherine Mansfield's opinion may have been well-grounded in 1920, but it would certainly not be valid today, especially in relation to George Eliot and her work. A glance at the Select …

Who Are You. Herr Klesmer?, Mara Mauermann

The George Eliot Review Online, ISSN: 2831-5375

Who is Klesmer? He is not - as Gordon Haight points out - Franz Uszt; he may be Anton Rubinstein (2). Has anyone, I wonder, thought about the possibility that he may be just what his name proclaims: Klesmer? A klesmer, that is.

Klesmermeans 'a musician'. It is Yiddish and derives from 'k'lejsemer' - (3) musical instrument. The 'Klesmorim' were wandering Jewish musicians who played at weddings or on holidays like Purim, later also in public houses or on fair-grounds. They could play everything their audience demanded, from sentimental pieces to wild dancing tunes. Throughout the middle ages they had …

Romola On The American Stage, George V. Griffith

The George Eliot Review Online, ISSN: 2831-5375

About George Eliot Americans were certain of two truths by the time of her death in 1880: she was a genius who was pushing the novel into a new terrain of seriousness, intense moral purpose, and artful design; she was also a glum realist in whose work characters were called to a high moral duty in a godless world without transcendent values. Lavish praise of her work from its first appearance in the United States in 1858 continued largely without qualification until the publication of Middlemarch in 1873. Throughout the seventies she was as frequently denounced, "gloom and doom" replacing …

Review Of Victorian Britain- An Encyclopedia, Ed Sally Mitchell

The George Eliot Review Online, ISSN: 2831-5375

There is an old adage that if you have a large problem, the best way to tackle it is to break it down into small parts and deal with each in turn. The trouble with this theory is that if your problem is as large as the Victorian era the resultant number of parts is so huge that they resemble the unconnected pieces of a jigsaw puzzle, each individual piece having some value in its own right, but not giving an idea of the complete picture.

The reign of Queen Victoria, the longest in British history, witnessed an unprecedented explosion …

How, Twenty Years Ago, The George Eliot Fellowship Found Gabriel Woolf, Gabriel Woolf

The George Eliot Review Online, ISSN: 2831-5375

Starting a new friendship is often a very chanoey business and none more so than the friendship which developed between The George Eliot Fellowship and one of its staunchest supporters, Gabriel Woolf. Gabriel's recent 20th visit to Warwickshire to present his ann\J.al programme of Readings has reminded us how much of a fluke our finding him really was.

In 1969 the Fellowship planned to mark the 150th anniversary of George Eliot's birth with a week of celebrations in Nuneaton. We were then a very small society with a very inexperienced committee but, nothing daunted, we hoped to put the George …

Sacred And Secluar: George Eliot's Concept Of Pilgrimage, M. Joan Chard

The George Eliot Review Online, ISSN: 2831-5375

The distinctive tenor of George Eliot's mind was theological. Pre-eminent among Victorian novelists for her prodigious scholarship, she ventured into that realm of thought which Ruskin declared a "dangerous science for women - - one which they must indeed beware how they profanely touch - - that of theology" .'in a letter of6 November 1838 to Maria Lewis, her Nuneaton governess and first confidante, Eliot expressed her early preoccupation with the spiritual life and her wish not to "rest contented with making Christianity a mere addendum" to her pursuits, or "with tacking it as a fringe" to her garments: "May …

George Eliot And Music, Beryl Gray

The George Eliot Review Online, ISSN: 2831-5375

This is a fascinating investigation of the influence of music on George Eliot, and how that influence permeates both her life and her writing. The focus is on three novels - The Mill on the Floss, Middlemarch and Daniel Deronda - but before that there is a brief musical biography. Or Gray asserts that hitherto the pervading presence of music in her work has been critically undervalued, that, in fact, music 'arches over' that work and 'greatly illuminates her artistry.' She praises the influence of the Brays in widening and deepening the young Marian Evans's capacity for appreciation, so that …

Review Of A George Eliot Chronology, Graham Handley, Timothy Hands

The George Eliot Review Online, ISSN: 2831-5375

On the face of it this is a much needed book, and certainly it makes a considerable contribution in a portable way to our ease of reference when we want to look up something in George Eliot's life or writing. But I am doubtful about the method used here of incorporating into the chronology historical or other facts. For example, on the first page (which covers the years 1819-27 in George Eliot's life) we find entries which say: 1821 (29 Jan) Death of George Ill. Accession of George IV (Regent since 1811): (17 Aug) Death of Queen Caroline. 1824 (19 …

Wreath Laying In The George Memorial Gardens, Nuneaton On June 12th 1988, When The Guest Of Honour Was John Burton, Chairman Of Bedworth Society, John Burton

The George Eliot Review Online, ISSN: 2831-5375

In the short time at my disposal I would like to talk briefly about four aspects of my interest in George Eliot and this area, from the standpoint of my position as chairman of The Bedworth Society. The four are the buildings in Bedworth; the buildings associated with George Eliot, especially Coton Free School; future developments for local societies like ours; and the need for integrity in all we do.

To start then, with buildings in Bedworth. As a preliminary to deciding what I would say today, I was making a mental list of the buildings still existing in Bedworth …

Literature Crossword, William Adams

The George Eliot Review Online, ISSN: 2831-5375

CLUES ACROSS

1 Novel subtitled 'A Study of Provincial Ufe' (11)

6 'Rare' Mr Jonson (3)

9 George - - - -, sixth Baron Byron (6)

11 lane - - - - - , by 'Currer 26 across' (4)

12 In ------A.H.H., by Tennyson (8)

13 'Remembrance of things - - - - - " Shakespearian quotation used as the English translation of Proust's A la Recherche du Temps Perdu (4)

14 Surname of David Copperfield's aunt (8)

17 Miss Durbeyfield (4)

18 'Humble' Dickensian villain (4)

21 First name of 'the Boy who wouldn't grow up' (5)

22 One …

Review Of With Great Pleasure, Gabriel Woolf

The George Eliot Review Online, ISSN: 2831-5375

Well, Gabriel, you have completed the first twenty that 'will not come again'. It gives us great pleasure to say "thank you", on behalf of the George Eliot Fellowship, for all you have done for us. After twenty years we regard you as one of the family. Your regular visits have given many people a great deal of enjoyment, and you have garnished and enriched the Fellowship besides.

Your latest programme was received with great pleasure by all who heard it. Its form was intriguing: Inspiration, First Effort, Love up North, Music and Children's Hour. Was it biographical, autobiographical, or …

The George Eliot Fellowship Review 1989, Kathleen Adams, Graham Handley

The George Eliot Review Online, ISSN: 2831-5375

CONTENTS -1989

President's Message........................ 1

Annual Report - 1988 2 Accounts - 1988......................... 7

Treasurer's Report - 1988............................ 8

George Eliot Memorial Lecture - 1988: George Eliot and Marriage by Graham Handley................... 10

Westminster Abbey Wreath-laying - 1988....................... 12

Sacred and Secular: George Eliot's Concept of Pilgrimage by M.loan Chard.............. 14

Nuneaton Wreath-laying - 1988.................... 18

Book Reviews: World's Classics Series: Middlemarch ed .. by David Carroll.................... 20

Scenes of Clerical Life ed. by Thomas A. Noble..................... 22

Romola on the American Stage by George V.Griffith.................... 23

Book Review: Victorian Britain - An Encyclopedia............................. 28

Literature Crossword..................... 29

How, Twenty …

Chaucer And George Eliot, George Schlesinger

The George Eliot Review Online, ISSN: 2831-5375

I was interested to read David Ball's article on "Triangular Patterns in Middlemarch" (Review No. 19, 1988) with its reference to farcical triangle situations. I have been wondering about similarities and connections between Chaucer and George Eliot - Middlemarch (and Daniel Deronda) as almost Eliot's answer to Chaucer's ''Marriage Group" of tales. The most concentrated and specific link seemed to be between the Merchant's Tale and the Casaubon-Dorothea - Will triangle. Given Eliot's interest in Chaucer (there are four Chaucer epigraphs in Middlemarch, three from comic contexts including one from the Wife's Prologue (ch.lxv) and one from the climax of …

George Eliots's Epigraphs: A Note, R.J. Owens

The George Eliot Review Online, ISSN: 2831-5375

George Eliot followed the conventions of her time in titling her novels either after their hero or heroine or the setting where the action takes place. Later she began to give titles to each chapter, or to the individual "Books" which made up the complete novel, or to both. Since the titular hero was sometimes not the only or the main centre of interest in the novel, for example in Felix Holt or Daniel Deronda, the practice of giving titles to "Books" helped, in the usual circumstances of nineteenth century publishing, to point the reader's attention to the appropriate aspect …

Review Of Virago Classics: Brother Jacob, Kathleen Adams

The George Eliot Review Online, ISSN: 2831-5375

Brother Jacob, like The Lifted Veil, has always been in the shadow of George Eliot's longer and better known fiction, but Beryl Gray's afterword in this Virago edition brings it into the light. She offers interesting suggestions why the story was written after The Mill on the Floss and before Silas Marner, showing that the rhythms of George Eliot's creative life are revealing.

Our attention is drawn to those critics who have spoken disparagingly of the story, 'rather cheerless and austere' (U.C. Knoepflmacher), 'cynical and coldly sarcastic' (G. S. Haight) and 'that tedious tale' (W. J. Harvey). Those of us …

Review Of The World's Classics Series: Scenes Of Clerical Life, Hilda Gunn, Thomas A. Noble

The George Eliot Review Online, ISSN: 2831-5375

This edition of George Eliot's first fiction reproduces the text of the much acclaimed Clarendon Edition which is also edited by Thomas S. Noble. It is an excellent edition for a student because, besides being so reasonably priced, it contains a most concise chronology of George Eliot and explanatory notes which have been researched with great thoroughness.

In the Introduction, Thomas A. Noble stresses that George Eliot, as one-time editor of The Westminster Review. had been used to reviewing contemporary literature. She had, therefore, a very clear view of what she wished to accomplish as a novelist. She was convinced …