George Eliot and Nineteenth-Century Science
The Make-Believe of a Beginning

This study explores the ways in which George Eliot's involvement with contemporary scientific theory affected the evolution of her fiction.

Sally Shuttleworth (Author)

9780521335843, Cambridge University Press

Paperback, published 12 March 1987

272 pages
22.9 x 15.2 x 1.9 cm, 0.56 kg

This study explores the ways in which George Eliot's involvement with contemporary scientific theory affected the evolution of her fiction. Drawing on the work of such theorists as Comte, Spencer, Lewes, Bain, Carpenter, von Hartmann and Bernard, Dr Shuttleworth shows how, as Eliot moved from Adam Bede to Daniel Deronda, her conception of a conservative, static and hierarchical model of society gave way to a more dynamic model of social and psychological life.

Acknowledgements
Preface
1. Science and social thought: the rise of organic theory
2. Adam Bede: natural history as social vision
3. The Mill on the Floss: the shadowy armies of the unconscious
4. Silas Marner: a divided Eden
5. Romola: the authority of history
6. Felix Holt: social and sexual politics
7. Middlemarch: an experiment in time
8. Daniel Deronda: fragmentation and organic union
Conclusion
Notes
Bibliography
Index.

Subject Areas: Literary studies: general [DSB]