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The Collected Complete Works of George Eliot
This ebook comprises the complete writings of English writer George Eliot.
The collection is sorted chronologically by book (or magazine) publication. There are the usual inline tables of contents and links after each text/chapter to get back to the respective tables. The dates of first publication are noted whenever available.
Contents:
Scenes of Clerical Life. (1858): The Sad Fortunes of the Rev. Amos Barton, Mr. Gilfil's Love Story, Janet's Repentance.
Adam Bede. (1859)
The Lifted Veil. (1859)
The Mill on the Floss. (1860)
Silas Marner, the Weaver of Raveloe. (1861)
Romola. (1863)
Brother Jacob. (1864)
Felix Holt, the Radical. (1866)
The Spanish Gypsy. (1868)
Middlemarch. (1871/72)
The Legend of Jubal, and Other Poems. (1874): The Legend of Jubal, Agatha, Armgart, How Lisa Loved the King, A Minor Prophet...
The collection is sorted chronologically by book (or magazine) publication. There are the usual inline tables of contents and links after each text/chapter to get back to the respective tables. The dates of first publication are noted whenever available.
Contents:
Scenes of Clerical Life. (1858): The Sad Fortunes of the Rev. Amos Barton, Mr. Gilfil's Love Story, Janet's Repentance.
Adam Bede. (1859)
The Lifted Veil. (1859)
The Mill on the Floss. (1860)
Silas Marner, the Weaver of Raveloe. (1861)
Romola. (1863)
Brother Jacob. (1864)
Felix Holt, the Radical. (1866)
The Spanish Gypsy. (1868)
Middlemarch. (1871/72)
The Legend of Jubal, and Other Poems. (1874): The Legend of Jubal, Agatha, Armgart, How Lisa Loved the King, A Minor Prophet...
5408 pages, Kindle Edition
Published March 6, 2018
129 people are currently reading
39 people want to read
About the author
George Eliot
3,083 books4,886 followersMary Ann Evans, known by her pen name George Eliot, was an English novelist, poet, journalist, translator, and one of the leading writers of the Victorian era. She wrote seven novels: Adam Bede (1859), The Mill on the Floss (1860), Silas Marner (1861), Romola (1862–1863), Felix Holt, the Radical (1866), Middlemarch (1871–1872) and Daniel Deronda (1876). Like Charles Dickens and Thomas Hardy, she emerged from provincial England; most of her works are set there. Her works are known for their realism, psychological insight, sense of place and detailed depiction of the countryside.
Middlemarch was described by the novelist Virginia Woolf as "one of the few English novels written for grown-up people" and by Martin Amis and Julian Barnes as the greatest novel in the English language.
Middlemarch was described by the novelist Virginia Woolf as "one of the few English novels written for grown-up people" and by Martin Amis and Julian Barnes as the greatest novel in the English language.
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October 9, 2021
These beginning reviews were written when I began writing reviews on Shelfari, and reviews of novels etc by George Eliot are here. Those of her essays, poetry reviews are at
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
and at
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
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The Sad Fortunes of the Rev. Amos Barton
For an early work this story has amazing insight into human nature and behaviour, along with a detailed description of the place and time, and also usage of the language far more extensive than what one is used to during 20th century even before the sms era.
Even if one knows nothing of the author it is easy to suspect post finishing the book that this is an autobiographical tale, and it mainly at heart is a very deeply loving daughter's heartbreaking tribute to her very beautiful and universally loved mother who was also a very good person, along with the outward story that is a factual exoneration of her father of a false blame and suspicion harboured by silly neighbours of the parish who could not imagine a beautiful woman taking an extensive stay with a family of a man of cloth even if his own wife was beautiful, much loved by all including himself, and very much present on premises.
Why the author could not show details of the family post the departure of the mother is what one immediately questions after finishing this abruptly ending tale - along with such questions as what happened to other children (only two are mentioned, did the rest die as children did of decease and starvation in poverty in Europe those days?) and why Patty did not marry. That can be only explained by the surmise that this is the story of Mary Ann Evans who took the pen name of George Eliot in order to be able to write in peace and publish at all (- misogyny was not so violent then as now what with crimes against women being more violent and explicit by the day, but women were not seen as people who could think and were certainly not allowed to write and publish, and being an exception was a harsh struggle, so Bronte sisters had male names to publish too as did Madam Sand -) and that she did not marry due to the horror and pathos of the marriage of her mother who died so early in her life, compounded by the fact that there was no dowry for Patty or Mary Ann Evans to help her marry with security of a middle class life, since her father was a poor man of cloth with several children to feed and clothe and shelter.
One cannot but help compare here, since it is very pertinent and relevant - Barton in all his poverty and ordinary Englishman's life and persona of someone who has been to university and is involved day to day in matters intellectual and religious (for Barton approaches religion and sermons within strictly the intellectual realm and bores his parish stiff, enabling them to distance themselves until they sympathise with his loss of his wife) and little or none of the luxuries or power in his life or riches for that matter, is nonetheless no different from the Mongol (Mughal is Persian for Mongol, and the close relatives of Kublai Khan that settled in India routed via Persia bringing that nomenclature) emperor Shah Jahan who built that extravagant mausoleum for his wife on top of the revered temple of the majority religion of the country, achieving two shots in one; both the women were worn out by extensive childbearing beyond their health capability and died due to this " excessive love from the husband", a husband who was incapable of forbearing his sexual appetite even when the consequences endangered the wife's health to the point of death.
Perhaps the only difference is that Barton (or Evans) had no harem to satisfy his needs elsewhere while preserving the loved wife's health and life, and Shah Jahan did but wore out the one loved nevertheless. Amelia Barton died after giving birth to seven children (or is it eight?) and Mumtaj Mahal to fourteen, but then the latter had servants galore to do all her work and take care of her as well, and no lack of physicians or food or remedies of any sort available around in half the known world.
Milly Barton was poor, overworked, starving, worrying about her children being fed and clothed, and paying the bills in all honour.
This says two separate and related things to any aware reader - one, those involved in intellectual and spiritual line of work are likely to be poor as a rule, whether vicars and curates of England or Brahmans of India or rabbis of Jewish diaspora anywhere for that matter, and especially more so when they have families of their own to support and are not allowed to make money by using any skills since they are men of cloth or are Brahmans as indeed they are not by tradition allowed in most of these cases. And two, the only difference in the various traditions mentioned here is that in the older ones the Brahman or the rabbi is at least nominally most respected member of the society while a curate or a vicar is not accorded that social respect without backing of independent wealth, which in fact gets him a better living too.
Positions of vicar, curate, etc might be obtained by anybody and are not hereditary, but that in practice merely means that the positions are either bought by someone for the person appointed or are doled out as a favour to someone for some reason for the favour; as a consequence those richer get higher positions and those from poor background get less paid ones if at all, in church as well in trade or military or any other sphere of work.
On thinking it over, men inheriting their father's trade is not so far off this buying of positions, since most poor in the world are limited to what knowledge their parents can provide them as heritage; and women all over the world are limited even now with everyone seeing them as reproductive functionaries and food preparing and other services providers, to be browbeaten and blackmailed and threatened into it irrespective of time, place, relationship, occasion, whatever.
Indeed the only women that escape it might be born princesses and queens regina of Europe, if any. Others may fight back, but this merely makes life unpleasant, and this is the choice offered them socially as a weapon to force them to submit - until they do submit they are constantly attacked. I have heard a supposedly educated scientist from space agency of Europe questioning sexual capacity of a very famous high profile chief of a computer firm only because he heard about her being appointed in that position, and he went worse from that point. Till date I suspect most people hold him innocent in the huge quarrel we had and of course he probably does not mention his wrongs if indeed he is aware of them, but then even if he did they would not seem wrong to most people but only humour, not to be taken seriously or pointed out the wrongs of seriously. He in fact said it was different if he made racist jokes, which he would not, and was very angry when informed it was not different at all.
His wife wanted to discuss caste system of India, and was nonplussed when pointed out that her not requiring her sons or husband to help her in the kitchen but requiring or expecting any woman around irrespective of age, including any casual visitor or invited guests or new acquaintances, was caste system.
Most men and probably most women too would think this is harsh against Barton and against someone who spent twenty years and millions of public fund to build the most famous mausoleum in the world, since men's sexual needs are held not only incontrollable but sacrosanct, with rape considered natural and of no consequence and in fact the woman's fault for being raped (why was she there, what did she were, did she not encourage it and want it and if so how does anyone prove it, what difference does it make unless it is a damage to her husband or father's honour) through most of the world even now when law is changing and some lip service to a woman's right to be not assaulted is paid at some places around the world.
But fact is, these women died of their husbands "love" for them, thoughtless as it was and driven by the physical needs of the husbands, and what difference does a tombstone or a mausoleum make to the one that is dead?
If that is not convincing, consider what a man - any man anywhere in the world - would say offered the same alternative, of repeated usage and death in youth with a handsome mausoleum as a memento to the "love". It is a no brainer - men would club anyone suggesting this to death, with no memorial.
March 10, 2011.
............
Adam Bede (1859)
A bit of a tough going for those not quite facile with old dialects of northern country England, especially from a century or so ago, this starts slow and takes time to grip one, what with the extensive description of religion and Methodists of the fledgling times. Then before one quite knows the characters grip one, with a familiar tale of temptation and lack of resolution and foresight made more than worth reading and in fact a must due to the excellent descriptions of characters and variety thereof.
As to the story, surprises await one around every corner, almost. And before one knows there is the wolf in the woods dressed up in a deceptively attractive form. (The wolf is only the temptation leading to disaster, though, and not presented here quite as a personified human as another author would present it.) And before one knows one is deep into one third, then half, and then two thirds of the tale, all the while wondering why Eliot has not been allowed the same high pedestal as Austen, Hardy, and so on. Adam Bede has the same character of a story where little happens page after page and yet one is unable to leave it behind, most of the time.
The explanation comes soon enough with the - as Maugham described it of the most popular Tolstoy work of literature - barely or not even barely disguised nature of the moral lesson presented as a story. Hardy's Tess, Tolstoy's Anna Karenina and then Eliot's poor Hetty Sorrel who is a barely mid-teen country girl with no knowledge and experience to keep her out of danger that presents itself disguised as love of a beautiful man, the lord of the land, all are innocent women that suffer consequences of their being unprotected as Tess was or not well guided as Hetty or falling in love as Anna Karenina does, and one is left to wonder if the author or the readers of those days were quite aware that these women, indeed very young women at that, were only human. They are punished, every one of them, with ruin of life and love, and death coming as the only escape for their ruined lives. Meanwhile Tess's rapist or seducer must be murdered by her as the only possible punishment he could find in the social set up, and the various other men of the stories depend on the authors for their just due, with Anna's brother habitually straying and nevertheless maintaining a social respectable position, and Arthur Donnithorne suffering on par with Hetty Sorrel (although not physically or socially but only at heart and less so socially) since Eliot would not let the guilty male go scot free.
As an aside, Eliot is rather less realistic about the time frames - Hetty's travails seem to be sprung on not only the reader but all of her family and other people as a complete surprise all of a sudden, and at that the reader is better prepared with a couple of hints but then lulled into comfort with the passing of time until the troubles suddenly pile up (a bit like the several miles long pile up of the vehicles on highway some years ago in Virginia due to paper mill and fog). This confusion of time factor leads one to wonder if Eliot is quite unaware of facts of life or was dressing those days so very aiding and abetting in hiding them from people - but no, even then, the women around Hetty being unaware for so long of the state she is in is inexplicable. And this must be the reason for the otherwise excellent work being not so very popular or held high in esteem in comparison with works of Austen.
March 6, 2011.
............
The Lifted Veil. (1859)
............
The Mill on the Floss (1860)
Human nature, the author's era, and in particular a corner of the veil over caste system of Europe lifted with the casual reference to the separate churches or chapels for the poor and the gentry - all in all, good.
Friday, February 11, 2011.
............
Amazingly this is one of the few works of literature where a film or a television serial gives more, not less, than the original work in some ways. The social contexts of the time and the general setup is described in the book by the author as much as the author saw necessary, but times change and perhaps social set up across the world in another land, another time is different. At any rate, what comes across as a very personal story of a young woman in particular and her family in general, with the society as the frame thereof, changes when one takes into account the context of the time and the society, which is brought to view far more clearly on film in the film or television series.
The central character Maggie is very endearing in her persona full of life and aspiring for a life of mind and spirit while in turmoil of heart and conscience. Eliot seems to be a follower of Aquinas, and at any rate finds it necessary to make the poor young girl give up her one chance of finding life of happiness when she and a young man are inexorably drawn in spite of all obstacles, with little quarter given to his very valid arguments about the others they are engaged to being merely cheated if these two pretended no love existed between them.
The author seems to make little of the young woman's quest for independence by on one hand making her insist she won't depend on her relatives if she can make her own living and on the other hand give far more importance to the claims of various relatives and others when weighed in against her own mind and heart.
As for others, the society then clearly had its caste system with money and power playing top roles (which one doubts has changed much) and more, society including most women (author mentions them towards the end as the wives whom the rector cannot bring to see reason or truth where a poor young woman without powerful connections when compared to others is concerned - what else is new? -) consider a young woman as not quite proper except as someone belonging to, property of, under protection of a relative with some money, prestige, power, preferably male. If the male is merely a slightly older brother, nevertheless he has the power of righteous indignation and wrath if the young woman has any emotions much less actions or thoughts that are not explicitly approved prior to having them by the said male, and same is true of other relatives. The young man in question gets far more latitude in comparison.
In short the life and society of Europe was not that different regarding the feudal structure especially regarding women from what is now protested about as the restricted version in lands other than those of richer western nations (which is not a geographical term, since it includes Australia and NZ generally) with lifestyles of plenty and so ....
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
and at
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
................................................................................................
................................................................................................
The Sad Fortunes of the Rev. Amos Barton
For an early work this story has amazing insight into human nature and behaviour, along with a detailed description of the place and time, and also usage of the language far more extensive than what one is used to during 20th century even before the sms era.
Even if one knows nothing of the author it is easy to suspect post finishing the book that this is an autobiographical tale, and it mainly at heart is a very deeply loving daughter's heartbreaking tribute to her very beautiful and universally loved mother who was also a very good person, along with the outward story that is a factual exoneration of her father of a false blame and suspicion harboured by silly neighbours of the parish who could not imagine a beautiful woman taking an extensive stay with a family of a man of cloth even if his own wife was beautiful, much loved by all including himself, and very much present on premises.
Why the author could not show details of the family post the departure of the mother is what one immediately questions after finishing this abruptly ending tale - along with such questions as what happened to other children (only two are mentioned, did the rest die as children did of decease and starvation in poverty in Europe those days?) and why Patty did not marry. That can be only explained by the surmise that this is the story of Mary Ann Evans who took the pen name of George Eliot in order to be able to write in peace and publish at all (- misogyny was not so violent then as now what with crimes against women being more violent and explicit by the day, but women were not seen as people who could think and were certainly not allowed to write and publish, and being an exception was a harsh struggle, so Bronte sisters had male names to publish too as did Madam Sand -) and that she did not marry due to the horror and pathos of the marriage of her mother who died so early in her life, compounded by the fact that there was no dowry for Patty or Mary Ann Evans to help her marry with security of a middle class life, since her father was a poor man of cloth with several children to feed and clothe and shelter.
One cannot but help compare here, since it is very pertinent and relevant - Barton in all his poverty and ordinary Englishman's life and persona of someone who has been to university and is involved day to day in matters intellectual and religious (for Barton approaches religion and sermons within strictly the intellectual realm and bores his parish stiff, enabling them to distance themselves until they sympathise with his loss of his wife) and little or none of the luxuries or power in his life or riches for that matter, is nonetheless no different from the Mongol (Mughal is Persian for Mongol, and the close relatives of Kublai Khan that settled in India routed via Persia bringing that nomenclature) emperor Shah Jahan who built that extravagant mausoleum for his wife on top of the revered temple of the majority religion of the country, achieving two shots in one; both the women were worn out by extensive childbearing beyond their health capability and died due to this " excessive love from the husband", a husband who was incapable of forbearing his sexual appetite even when the consequences endangered the wife's health to the point of death.
Perhaps the only difference is that Barton (or Evans) had no harem to satisfy his needs elsewhere while preserving the loved wife's health and life, and Shah Jahan did but wore out the one loved nevertheless. Amelia Barton died after giving birth to seven children (or is it eight?) and Mumtaj Mahal to fourteen, but then the latter had servants galore to do all her work and take care of her as well, and no lack of physicians or food or remedies of any sort available around in half the known world.
Milly Barton was poor, overworked, starving, worrying about her children being fed and clothed, and paying the bills in all honour.
This says two separate and related things to any aware reader - one, those involved in intellectual and spiritual line of work are likely to be poor as a rule, whether vicars and curates of England or Brahmans of India or rabbis of Jewish diaspora anywhere for that matter, and especially more so when they have families of their own to support and are not allowed to make money by using any skills since they are men of cloth or are Brahmans as indeed they are not by tradition allowed in most of these cases. And two, the only difference in the various traditions mentioned here is that in the older ones the Brahman or the rabbi is at least nominally most respected member of the society while a curate or a vicar is not accorded that social respect without backing of independent wealth, which in fact gets him a better living too.
Positions of vicar, curate, etc might be obtained by anybody and are not hereditary, but that in practice merely means that the positions are either bought by someone for the person appointed or are doled out as a favour to someone for some reason for the favour; as a consequence those richer get higher positions and those from poor background get less paid ones if at all, in church as well in trade or military or any other sphere of work.
On thinking it over, men inheriting their father's trade is not so far off this buying of positions, since most poor in the world are limited to what knowledge their parents can provide them as heritage; and women all over the world are limited even now with everyone seeing them as reproductive functionaries and food preparing and other services providers, to be browbeaten and blackmailed and threatened into it irrespective of time, place, relationship, occasion, whatever.
Indeed the only women that escape it might be born princesses and queens regina of Europe, if any. Others may fight back, but this merely makes life unpleasant, and this is the choice offered them socially as a weapon to force them to submit - until they do submit they are constantly attacked. I have heard a supposedly educated scientist from space agency of Europe questioning sexual capacity of a very famous high profile chief of a computer firm only because he heard about her being appointed in that position, and he went worse from that point. Till date I suspect most people hold him innocent in the huge quarrel we had and of course he probably does not mention his wrongs if indeed he is aware of them, but then even if he did they would not seem wrong to most people but only humour, not to be taken seriously or pointed out the wrongs of seriously. He in fact said it was different if he made racist jokes, which he would not, and was very angry when informed it was not different at all.
His wife wanted to discuss caste system of India, and was nonplussed when pointed out that her not requiring her sons or husband to help her in the kitchen but requiring or expecting any woman around irrespective of age, including any casual visitor or invited guests or new acquaintances, was caste system.
Most men and probably most women too would think this is harsh against Barton and against someone who spent twenty years and millions of public fund to build the most famous mausoleum in the world, since men's sexual needs are held not only incontrollable but sacrosanct, with rape considered natural and of no consequence and in fact the woman's fault for being raped (why was she there, what did she were, did she not encourage it and want it and if so how does anyone prove it, what difference does it make unless it is a damage to her husband or father's honour) through most of the world even now when law is changing and some lip service to a woman's right to be not assaulted is paid at some places around the world.
But fact is, these women died of their husbands "love" for them, thoughtless as it was and driven by the physical needs of the husbands, and what difference does a tombstone or a mausoleum make to the one that is dead?
If that is not convincing, consider what a man - any man anywhere in the world - would say offered the same alternative, of repeated usage and death in youth with a handsome mausoleum as a memento to the "love". It is a no brainer - men would club anyone suggesting this to death, with no memorial.
March 10, 2011.
............
Adam Bede (1859)
A bit of a tough going for those not quite facile with old dialects of northern country England, especially from a century or so ago, this starts slow and takes time to grip one, what with the extensive description of religion and Methodists of the fledgling times. Then before one quite knows the characters grip one, with a familiar tale of temptation and lack of resolution and foresight made more than worth reading and in fact a must due to the excellent descriptions of characters and variety thereof.
As to the story, surprises await one around every corner, almost. And before one knows there is the wolf in the woods dressed up in a deceptively attractive form. (The wolf is only the temptation leading to disaster, though, and not presented here quite as a personified human as another author would present it.) And before one knows one is deep into one third, then half, and then two thirds of the tale, all the while wondering why Eliot has not been allowed the same high pedestal as Austen, Hardy, and so on. Adam Bede has the same character of a story where little happens page after page and yet one is unable to leave it behind, most of the time.
The explanation comes soon enough with the - as Maugham described it of the most popular Tolstoy work of literature - barely or not even barely disguised nature of the moral lesson presented as a story. Hardy's Tess, Tolstoy's Anna Karenina and then Eliot's poor Hetty Sorrel who is a barely mid-teen country girl with no knowledge and experience to keep her out of danger that presents itself disguised as love of a beautiful man, the lord of the land, all are innocent women that suffer consequences of their being unprotected as Tess was or not well guided as Hetty or falling in love as Anna Karenina does, and one is left to wonder if the author or the readers of those days were quite aware that these women, indeed very young women at that, were only human. They are punished, every one of them, with ruin of life and love, and death coming as the only escape for their ruined lives. Meanwhile Tess's rapist or seducer must be murdered by her as the only possible punishment he could find in the social set up, and the various other men of the stories depend on the authors for their just due, with Anna's brother habitually straying and nevertheless maintaining a social respectable position, and Arthur Donnithorne suffering on par with Hetty Sorrel (although not physically or socially but only at heart and less so socially) since Eliot would not let the guilty male go scot free.
As an aside, Eliot is rather less realistic about the time frames - Hetty's travails seem to be sprung on not only the reader but all of her family and other people as a complete surprise all of a sudden, and at that the reader is better prepared with a couple of hints but then lulled into comfort with the passing of time until the troubles suddenly pile up (a bit like the several miles long pile up of the vehicles on highway some years ago in Virginia due to paper mill and fog). This confusion of time factor leads one to wonder if Eliot is quite unaware of facts of life or was dressing those days so very aiding and abetting in hiding them from people - but no, even then, the women around Hetty being unaware for so long of the state she is in is inexplicable. And this must be the reason for the otherwise excellent work being not so very popular or held high in esteem in comparison with works of Austen.
March 6, 2011.
............
The Lifted Veil. (1859)
............
The Mill on the Floss (1860)
Human nature, the author's era, and in particular a corner of the veil over caste system of Europe lifted with the casual reference to the separate churches or chapels for the poor and the gentry - all in all, good.
Friday, February 11, 2011.
............
Amazingly this is one of the few works of literature where a film or a television serial gives more, not less, than the original work in some ways. The social contexts of the time and the general setup is described in the book by the author as much as the author saw necessary, but times change and perhaps social set up across the world in another land, another time is different. At any rate, what comes across as a very personal story of a young woman in particular and her family in general, with the society as the frame thereof, changes when one takes into account the context of the time and the society, which is brought to view far more clearly on film in the film or television series.
The central character Maggie is very endearing in her persona full of life and aspiring for a life of mind and spirit while in turmoil of heart and conscience. Eliot seems to be a follower of Aquinas, and at any rate finds it necessary to make the poor young girl give up her one chance of finding life of happiness when she and a young man are inexorably drawn in spite of all obstacles, with little quarter given to his very valid arguments about the others they are engaged to being merely cheated if these two pretended no love existed between them.
The author seems to make little of the young woman's quest for independence by on one hand making her insist she won't depend on her relatives if she can make her own living and on the other hand give far more importance to the claims of various relatives and others when weighed in against her own mind and heart.
As for others, the society then clearly had its caste system with money and power playing top roles (which one doubts has changed much) and more, society including most women (author mentions them towards the end as the wives whom the rector cannot bring to see reason or truth where a poor young woman without powerful connections when compared to others is concerned - what else is new? -) consider a young woman as not quite proper except as someone belonging to, property of, under protection of a relative with some money, prestige, power, preferably male. If the male is merely a slightly older brother, nevertheless he has the power of righteous indignation and wrath if the young woman has any emotions much less actions or thoughts that are not explicitly approved prior to having them by the said male, and same is true of other relatives. The young man in question gets far more latitude in comparison.
In short the life and society of Europe was not that different regarding the feudal structure especially regarding women from what is now protested about as the restricted version in lands other than those of richer western nations (which is not a geographical term, since it includes Australia and NZ generally) with lifestyles of plenty and so ....
August 10, 2023
Not really done. I reread Daniel Deronda with my book club and I loved it. Again.
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