- Mass Market Paperback: 480 pages
- Publisher: Penguin Books Ltd; New edition edition (27 Nov 1997)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0140242910
- ISBN-13: 978-0140242911
- Product Dimensions: 20.3 x 12.7 x 2.8 cm
- Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (1 customer review)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 293,719 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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Product Description
Product Description
This biography of Eliot sets her vividly in the political, social and religious context of the time. She arrived in London in 1851, determined to make her way as a journalist on the "Westminster Review", a paper until then exclusively dominated by men. It was whilst she was working on this journal that she found her writer's voice - ironic, sceptical and broadly sympathizing. The author examines her relationship with Lewes (the subject of a previous biography), his encouragement, battling both against her pride and her fear of failure, her unrequited love for Chapman, her employer on the Review and her love for Spencer, the recipient of her extraordinary love letters, begging attention, yet at the same time strong, self-aware and witty at her own expense. This is a sensitive and revealing portrait of a modern and highly unorthodox life, giving a fuller treatment than any other biography on George Eliot, by an author who has been studying Eliot for 15 years.
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
Format:Mass Market Paperback
In this efficient and workmanlike biography of George Eliot, or Mary Anne Evans, as she was properly called, Rosemary Ashton gives a reasonable account of Eliot's life and times.
The book does go over the way some of her early work was received but doesn't quite succeed in placing it in the wider society. I wanted more about how her fiction was received and how her work related to to that of others at the time, which might have helped me understand more clearly how high in the literary canon Eliot's novels deserve to stand. When she began writing novels Eliot was well-known and respected as a journalist and translator, with a particular interest in theological works. Ashton shows how the favourable reception of her early work culminated in the sine qua non of modern novels Middlemarch.
Eliot had to brave the social opinions of the literary and respectable worlds by living as an unmarried woman with George Henry Lewes, whose wife refused to divorce him. He was a writer, philosopher and scientist manque, who proved to be Eliot's indefatigable protector and mentor. Without George Henry it is possible she would never have gained the confidence and encouragement to write fiction. She married a much younger man after Lewes's death, John Cross, but survived only a few years afterwards.
The book does go over the way some of her early work was received but doesn't quite succeed in placing it in the wider society. I wanted more about how her fiction was received and how her work related to to that of others at the time, which might have helped me understand more clearly how high in the literary canon Eliot's novels deserve to stand. When she began writing novels Eliot was well-known and respected as a journalist and translator, with a particular interest in theological works. Ashton shows how the favourable reception of her early work culminated in the sine qua non of modern novels Middlemarch.
Eliot had to brave the social opinions of the literary and respectable worlds by living as an unmarried woman with George Henry Lewes, whose wife refused to divorce him. He was a writer, philosopher and scientist manque, who proved to be Eliot's indefatigable protector and mentor. Without George Henry it is possible she would never have gained the confidence and encouragement to write fiction. She married a much younger man after Lewes's death, John Cross, but survived only a few years afterwards.
Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta)
Amazon.com:
1 review
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful
Exemplary Biography
7 Aug 2008
Format:Mass Market Paperback
Marian Evans ("George Eliot") comes alive in this biography. With one of the most brilliant analytical and creative minds of the 19th Century she overcame personal feelings of insecurity about her abilities, accomplishments, social situation and even personal appearance, to write books that were both profound, admired and successful. It helped that she had the constant encouragement of her publisher and the support she received in a decades- long relationship with George Lewes (who was legally unable to divorce his unfaithful wife.) Ashton gives a thoroughly digested chronological account of her activities, including travels and relations with family and friends, notably focusing on the writing and publication of each major work, with critical discussion of each. Some minor players in her story might have been more fully introduced but, after the initial chapter on the very early years, Ashton carried me with her all the way to the end.
R. James Tobin
R. James Tobin
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