Life of George Eliot

This biography of perhaps the greatest Victorian novelist was published by a friend in 1890, a decade after her death.

Oscar Browning (Author)

9781108040495, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 8 December 2011

194 pages
21.6 x 14 x 1.1 cm, 0.25 kg

'George Eliot' was the pseudonym of Marian Evans (1819–80), possibly the greatest of the Victorian novelists, whose works include The Mill on the Floss (1860), Middlemarch (1871–2) and Daniel Deronda (1876). Her personal life was complex - she was an independent woman who challenged social conventions. Her friend, Eton master and historian Oscar Browning (1837–1923), was moved to write this affectionate assessment of her life, and it was published in 1890, offering 'no claims … but a friendship of fifteen years, and a deep and unswerving devotion to her mind and character'. Browning takes a chronological approach, focusing mainly on the beginnings of Eliot's writing career and on her novels, while adding recollections of their encounters. He also writes with candour about Eliot's relationship and cohabitation with the married writer G. H. Lewes (1817–78), which transgressed the social norms of the period.

1. Present general views with regard to George Eliot's work
2. George Eliot settles down at Richmond to a literary life
3. The idea of Romola results from visit to Florence during Italian tour
4. More poetical productions
5. Which of George Eliot's novels ranks highest?
Index.

Subject Areas: Literary studies: c 1800 to c 1900 [DSBF]