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In Love with George Eliot
Who was the real George Eliot? In Love with George Eliot is a glorious debut novel which tells the compelling story of England’s greatest woman novelist as you’ve never read it before.
Marian Evans is a scandalous figure, living in sin with a married man, George Henry Lewes. She has shocked polite society, and women rarely deign to visit her. In secret, though, she has begun writing fiction under the pseudonym George Eliot. As Adam Bede’s fame grows, curiosity rises as to the identity of its mysterious writer. Gradually it becomes apparent that the moral genius Eliot is none other than the disgraced woman living with Lewes.
Now Evans’ tremendous celebrity begins. The world falls in love with her. She is the wise and great writer, sent to guide people through the increasingly secular, rudderless century, and an icon to her progressive feminist peers — with whom she is often in disagreement. Public opinion shifts. Her scandalous cohabitation is forgiven. But this idyll is not secure and cannot last. When Lewes dies, Evans finds herself in danger of shocking the world all over again.
Meanwhile, in another rudderless century, two women compete to arrive at an interpretation of Eliot as writer and as woman …
Everyone who has thrilled at being shown the world anew by George Eliot will thrill again at her presence, complex and compelling, here.
Marian Evans is a scandalous figure, living in sin with a married man, George Henry Lewes. She has shocked polite society, and women rarely deign to visit her. In secret, though, she has begun writing fiction under the pseudonym George Eliot. As Adam Bede’s fame grows, curiosity rises as to the identity of its mysterious writer. Gradually it becomes apparent that the moral genius Eliot is none other than the disgraced woman living with Lewes.
Now Evans’ tremendous celebrity begins. The world falls in love with her. She is the wise and great writer, sent to guide people through the increasingly secular, rudderless century, and an icon to her progressive feminist peers — with whom she is often in disagreement. Public opinion shifts. Her scandalous cohabitation is forgiven. But this idyll is not secure and cannot last. When Lewes dies, Evans finds herself in danger of shocking the world all over again.
Meanwhile, in another rudderless century, two women compete to arrive at an interpretation of Eliot as writer and as woman …
Everyone who has thrilled at being shown the world anew by George Eliot will thrill again at her presence, complex and compelling, here.
400 pages, Paperback
First published October 5, 2019
41 people are currently reading
782 people want to read
About the author
Kathy O’Shaughnessy
1 book15 followersKathy O’Shaughnessy has worked as Deputy Editor of the Literary Review, Arts and Books Editor of Vogue, Literary Editor of the European, and Deputy Editor of the Telegraph Arts and Books. She has done Book Choice for Channel 4, and has reviewed books for the Guardian, the TLS, the Telegraph, the Times, the Financial Times, the Independent, the Observer, New Statesman, Spectator, Evening Standard and other publications, as well as the World Service. Kathy also edited and introduced Incompatible Animals, poems in English written by the Croatian poet Drago Stambuk, and her short stories have been published by Faber in First Fictions.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 88 reviews
January 29, 2023
In Love with George Eliot! — is the perfect title for this wonderful book. I confess to a minor infatuation with Marian Evans, or to be more accurate, with the writer "George Eliot," so this book was absolutely delightful.
Most of the text is historical fiction, hewing closely to biographical details, of Marian Evans and her partnership with the married philosopher George Henry Lewes and then her late and dramatic marriage to Johnnie Cross. The historical fiction is supported with a contemporary thread, following the academic obsessions of Eliot scholars, who are attending conventions and all writing books and articles about Eliot and the people in her circle. One is even writing fiction, a novel! — which of course we are meant to conclude is the volume in our hands.
So the title refers to all of these situations: seeing Marian Evans in love, seeing others in love with her, and seeing modern writers who are still in love — or at least obsessively circling in their own ways.
When the writer Henry James met George Eliot, he said she was "magnificently ugly" and "deliciously hideous." Her inner beauty and intellect shone wonderfully bright and many people found her irresistible. She was a scandalous Victorian, and became a celebrity, and this book is a portrait of a time, a woman, a writer, an intellectual, and a completely lovable human.
Count me among those who are totally In Love with George Eliot.
Most of the text is historical fiction, hewing closely to biographical details, of Marian Evans and her partnership with the married philosopher George Henry Lewes and then her late and dramatic marriage to Johnnie Cross. The historical fiction is supported with a contemporary thread, following the academic obsessions of Eliot scholars, who are attending conventions and all writing books and articles about Eliot and the people in her circle. One is even writing fiction, a novel! — which of course we are meant to conclude is the volume in our hands.
So the title refers to all of these situations: seeing Marian Evans in love, seeing others in love with her, and seeing modern writers who are still in love — or at least obsessively circling in their own ways.
When the writer Henry James met George Eliot, he said she was "magnificently ugly" and "deliciously hideous." Her inner beauty and intellect shone wonderfully bright and many people found her irresistible. She was a scandalous Victorian, and became a celebrity, and this book is a portrait of a time, a woman, a writer, an intellectual, and a completely lovable human.
Count me among those who are totally In Love with George Eliot.
December 18, 2019
Many characters, fictional and historical, are in love with George Eliot over the course of this debut novel by a literary editor. The whole thing is a book within a book – fiction being written by Kate, an academic at London’s Queen Elizabeth College who’s preparing for two conferences on Eliot and a new co-taught course on life writing at the same time as she completes her novel, which blends biographical information and imagined scenes.
1857: Eliot is living with George Henry Lewes, her common-law husband, and working on Adam Bede, which becomes a runaway success, not least because of speculation about its anonymous author. 1880: The great author’s death leaves behind a mentally unstable widower 20 years her junior, John Walter Cross, once such a close family friend that she and Lewes called him “Nephew.”
Between these points are intriguing vignettes from Eliot’s life with her two great loves, and insight into her scandalous position in Victorian society. Her estrangement from her dear brother (the model for Tom in The Mill on the Floss) is a plangent refrain, while interactions with female friends who have accepted the norms of marriage and motherhood reveal just how transgressive her life is perceived to be.
In the historical sections O’Shaughnessy mimics Victorian prose ably, yet avoids the convoluted syntax that can make Eliot challenging. I might have liked a bit more of the contemporary story line, in which Kate and an alluring colleague make their way to Venice (the site of Eliot’s legendarily disastrous honeymoon trip with Cross), but by making this a minor thread O’Shaughnessy ensures that the spotlight remains on Eliot throughout.
Highlights: A cameo appearance by Henry James; a surprisingly sexy passage in which Cross and Eliot read Dante aloud to each other and share their first kiss.
Why Eliot? “As an artist, this was her task, to move the reader to see people in the round.”
Also recommended: 142 Strand by Rosemary Ashton, Sophie and the Sibyl by Patricia Duncker, and My Life in Middlemarch by Rebecca Mead
Originally published on my blog, Bookish Beck.
1857: Eliot is living with George Henry Lewes, her common-law husband, and working on Adam Bede, which becomes a runaway success, not least because of speculation about its anonymous author. 1880: The great author’s death leaves behind a mentally unstable widower 20 years her junior, John Walter Cross, once such a close family friend that she and Lewes called him “Nephew.”
Between these points are intriguing vignettes from Eliot’s life with her two great loves, and insight into her scandalous position in Victorian society. Her estrangement from her dear brother (the model for Tom in The Mill on the Floss) is a plangent refrain, while interactions with female friends who have accepted the norms of marriage and motherhood reveal just how transgressive her life is perceived to be.
In the historical sections O’Shaughnessy mimics Victorian prose ably, yet avoids the convoluted syntax that can make Eliot challenging. I might have liked a bit more of the contemporary story line, in which Kate and an alluring colleague make their way to Venice (the site of Eliot’s legendarily disastrous honeymoon trip with Cross), but by making this a minor thread O’Shaughnessy ensures that the spotlight remains on Eliot throughout.
Highlights: A cameo appearance by Henry James; a surprisingly sexy passage in which Cross and Eliot read Dante aloud to each other and share their first kiss.
Why Eliot? “As an artist, this was her task, to move the reader to see people in the round.”
Also recommended: 142 Strand by Rosemary Ashton, Sophie and the Sibyl by Patricia Duncker, and My Life in Middlemarch by Rebecca Mead
Originally published on my blog, Bookish Beck.
November 8, 2019
Published to coincide with the 200th anniversary of George Eliot's birth, Kathy O'Shaughnessy's debut novel In Love with George Eliot is a real pleasure to read, even if you haven't read any of Eliot's novels.
I've read them all, and also her short stories Scenes of Clerical Life (1857) (the only title, alas, reviewed here on this blog). I have lost count of how many times I've read my favourites, Middlemarch (1871-2); Silas Marner (1861); and The Mill on the Floss (1860). I liked the others too: Adam Bede (1859); Felix Holt, the Radical (1866) and Daniel Deronda (1876); I just haven't got round to re-reading them yet.
The only one I wasn't keen on was Romola (1863), and now, thanks to O'Shaughnessy's novel, I know why. But I also now know more about the guiding principles and common themes in all Eliot's books. I knew the basic outline of her biography from the introductions to the Penguin editions I've read, and you can see this too at Wikipedia, but IMO the WP summary focusses overmuch on the political aspects of Eliot's fiction. It gives entirely the wrong impression of her fiction, which is a shame if it puts some people off because the novels are often very amusing in the way that Jane Austen's are. Kathy O'Shaughnessy's intimate knowledge of Eliot from her reading of her letters and journals, and from the welter of biographies, brings a different George Eliot to light.
What I have always loved about Eliot's fiction, especially the novels set in provincial England, is her portraits of human dilemmas. People struggling with everyday life; people making heroic choices even when things go wrong and other people misunderstand; people making judgements based on gossip or societal mores instead of seeing the need to see people in the round. In this novel, O'Shaughnessy shows how thoughtful Eliot was, not in the sense of being kind to others (though she was), but in the sense that she thought deeply, whether she was in conversation with those around her or at other times in contemplation about the relationships she had. Without the benefit of modern psychological insights, Eliot was brilliantly observant of the way people behaved and their motivations for doing so. She was mostly so restrained and tactful in her responses, that when on reflection she thought she had not quite meant what she said or might be misconstrued, she dashed off letters to her friends to clarify and apologise if necessary.
There were, of course, good reasons why she was so circumspect with her friends. George Eliot's real name was Marion Evans, and though she took the name 'Mrs Lewes' she was never able to marry the love of her life. The scandal of her life with the married George Henry Lewes meant that her place in society was compromised, and relationships that mattered to her were gravely affected. She was estranged from her brother Isaac, and he saw to it that her sisters broke off contact as well. The loneliness of her early years with Lewes made her miss the companionship of women; it was typical of the hypocrisy of the era that men could visit without compromising their reputations or setting a 'bad example' to the detriment of conventional marriage, but women of her own class could not and would not be seen to associate with her.
To read the rest of my review please visit https://anzlitlovers.com/2019/11/08/i...
I've read them all, and also her short stories Scenes of Clerical Life (1857) (the only title, alas, reviewed here on this blog). I have lost count of how many times I've read my favourites, Middlemarch (1871-2); Silas Marner (1861); and The Mill on the Floss (1860). I liked the others too: Adam Bede (1859); Felix Holt, the Radical (1866) and Daniel Deronda (1876); I just haven't got round to re-reading them yet.
The only one I wasn't keen on was Romola (1863), and now, thanks to O'Shaughnessy's novel, I know why. But I also now know more about the guiding principles and common themes in all Eliot's books. I knew the basic outline of her biography from the introductions to the Penguin editions I've read, and you can see this too at Wikipedia, but IMO the WP summary focusses overmuch on the political aspects of Eliot's fiction. It gives entirely the wrong impression of her fiction, which is a shame if it puts some people off because the novels are often very amusing in the way that Jane Austen's are. Kathy O'Shaughnessy's intimate knowledge of Eliot from her reading of her letters and journals, and from the welter of biographies, brings a different George Eliot to light.
What I have always loved about Eliot's fiction, especially the novels set in provincial England, is her portraits of human dilemmas. People struggling with everyday life; people making heroic choices even when things go wrong and other people misunderstand; people making judgements based on gossip or societal mores instead of seeing the need to see people in the round. In this novel, O'Shaughnessy shows how thoughtful Eliot was, not in the sense of being kind to others (though she was), but in the sense that she thought deeply, whether she was in conversation with those around her or at other times in contemplation about the relationships she had. Without the benefit of modern psychological insights, Eliot was brilliantly observant of the way people behaved and their motivations for doing so. She was mostly so restrained and tactful in her responses, that when on reflection she thought she had not quite meant what she said or might be misconstrued, she dashed off letters to her friends to clarify and apologise if necessary.
There were, of course, good reasons why she was so circumspect with her friends. George Eliot's real name was Marion Evans, and though she took the name 'Mrs Lewes' she was never able to marry the love of her life. The scandal of her life with the married George Henry Lewes meant that her place in society was compromised, and relationships that mattered to her were gravely affected. She was estranged from her brother Isaac, and he saw to it that her sisters broke off contact as well. The loneliness of her early years with Lewes made her miss the companionship of women; it was typical of the hypocrisy of the era that men could visit without compromising their reputations or setting a 'bad example' to the detriment of conventional marriage, but women of her own class could not and would not be seen to associate with her.
To read the rest of my review please visit https://anzlitlovers.com/2019/11/08/i...
March 25, 2020
I am writing this review as an individual reader; I understand that my circumstances, and thus my perspectives, will not be common to many. Years ago, I researched and wrote a thesis on George Eliot, and one of my major resources was the collection "The George Eliot Letters", a collection into which I still dip decades later.
Consequently, I found this imagined life, primarily based around Eliot's correspondence, to offer little new or particularly insightful. I suppose that for a reader with less exposure to the minutiae of her life and her writing, this could well be an interesting pathway to understanding her. However, the problem remains, as it does with any fictionalised biography, that so much of this material is surmise and the reader must resist the temptation to take it as reality. Obviously any biography involves guesswork and some prejudice but a good biography makes the guesses apparent, whereas this genre pretends to omniscience.
The story of Eliot's life is here intertwined with a side-story of a group of Eliot academics who discuss their opinions, but also play out romances and conflicts and infidelities. Personally, I did not like this at all. I am tired of reading stories about academics and their tedious lives. I felt the side story was there to give some depth to what was really just a biography with considerable reliance on the letters. For me, it achieved nothing.
There were several more mundane matters which irritated me. My copy of the book had varying levels of incomplete page cutting at the tops of pages 145-385. I suppose I could have seen this as a quaint throwback to C19 book production, but I did not.
On page 341, the plural of "roof" was twice spelled as "rooves". What on earth?
And then, on several occasions, in the American fashion, the past tense of "fit" was written as "fit"! I am afraid I become very angry when confronted with American spellings and usages from an English author.
So, in summary, an amiable enough book but with no strong virtues, For me.
Consequently, I found this imagined life, primarily based around Eliot's correspondence, to offer little new or particularly insightful. I suppose that for a reader with less exposure to the minutiae of her life and her writing, this could well be an interesting pathway to understanding her. However, the problem remains, as it does with any fictionalised biography, that so much of this material is surmise and the reader must resist the temptation to take it as reality. Obviously any biography involves guesswork and some prejudice but a good biography makes the guesses apparent, whereas this genre pretends to omniscience.
The story of Eliot's life is here intertwined with a side-story of a group of Eliot academics who discuss their opinions, but also play out romances and conflicts and infidelities. Personally, I did not like this at all. I am tired of reading stories about academics and their tedious lives. I felt the side story was there to give some depth to what was really just a biography with considerable reliance on the letters. For me, it achieved nothing.
There were several more mundane matters which irritated me. My copy of the book had varying levels of incomplete page cutting at the tops of pages 145-385. I suppose I could have seen this as a quaint throwback to C19 book production, but I did not.
On page 341, the plural of "roof" was twice spelled as "rooves". What on earth?
And then, on several occasions, in the American fashion, the past tense of "fit" was written as "fit"! I am afraid I become very angry when confronted with American spellings and usages from an English author.
So, in summary, an amiable enough book but with no strong virtues, For me.
Read
November 30, 2020I devoured this, and it made me happy and excited. It reminded me of Toibin’s The Master: its representations of the psychology of the characters, their shifting ground, variegated moods, seemed to work in something like the same way, and with the same fineness. It's really beautifully tender, subtle, imaginative, saturated authentically (to my mind anyway) in another time and thought-world.
Tessa Hadley, author of Late in the Day
In Love with George Eliot is a clever, unconventional approach to the great novelist’s life; it is easy to imagine that Marian Evans herself would have approved of the playful thoughtfulness with which Kathy O’Shaughnessy brings the private person behind George Eliot’s public success alive.
Dr Ruth Scurr, author of John Aubrey: my own life
Classy, beautifully written and richly imagined — a novel that opens a door onto the past.
Nicci Gerrard, author of The Twilight Hour
In Love with George Eliot is a feverishly intense and beautifully rendered first novel, especially in its detail and sensitivity, that brings to life the woman and the legend.
Marie Matteson, Readings
[A] sensitive, impeccably researched and deeply pleasurable debut novel ... As the best historical novels do, it absorbs the reader to such an extent that, even if they know the outline of the story, each page is a revelation.
The Economist
In Love with George Eliot is a real pleasure to read, even if you haven’t read any of her novels.
Lisa Hill, ANZ LitLovers
Richly and sensitively described ... O’Shaughnessy does us the favour of reminding us what an underrated erotic writer Eliot is.
The Sunday Telegraph
Compelling ... a tender and haunting study.
The Financial Times
O’Shaughnessy’s writing is full of delicious words ... and brilliant descriptions. She is full of keen insights into Evans’s character ... This is an astute, skilful book.
Literary Review
An accomplished tribute to one of our greatest authors.
The Mail on Sunday
This sensitive fictionalisation … is thoroughly absorbing.
Daily Mail
She gives a new life to these long dead, overdressed people, writing of them with an attentive and loving eye, forgiving them and understanding. Her take on the central mystery of Eliot’s later life – marriage to Johnny Cross, a family friend to both her and Lewes and 20 years her junior, and on Cross’ suicide attempt on their Italian honeymoon – is painfully believable.
Helen Elliot, The Age
In this beautifully imagined novel, the rich intellectual world in which Marian lived is brought alive. FOUR STARS
Melinda Woledge, Good Reading
Crack this one open at the beach and get ready to become obsessed with the story of England’s greatest woman novelist.
Rebecca Varcoe, Frankie Magazine
O’Shaughnessy crafts in her luminous debut an evocative portrait of English author George Eliot … passion and drama … Historical fiction fans won’t want to miss this.
Publishers Weekly
O’Shaughnessy's leisurely, thoroughly researched and sympathetic debut novel imagines some key periods in the life of Marian Evans, better known as novelist George Eliot … [A] record of the complex and often fraught emotional life of a notable novelist.
Margaret Quamme, Booklist
At the beginning of her career, the words of her fiction became a kind of smoke screen for Marian Evans, whose journey from anonymous obscurity to worldwide fame under her masculine pen name is delicately charted in Kathy O’Shaughnessy’s debut novel, In Love with George Eliot. Working back and forth between the present-day world of fractious Eliot scholars and the 19th-century world of their emotionally fragile subject, O’Shaughnessy concentrates on the private ambitions and uncertainties of her characters, drawing on Eliot’s letters for inspiration.
New York Times ‘Best Books to Give This Year’
Tessa Hadley, author of Late in the Day
In Love with George Eliot is a clever, unconventional approach to the great novelist’s life; it is easy to imagine that Marian Evans herself would have approved of the playful thoughtfulness with which Kathy O’Shaughnessy brings the private person behind George Eliot’s public success alive.
Dr Ruth Scurr, author of John Aubrey: my own life
Classy, beautifully written and richly imagined — a novel that opens a door onto the past.
Nicci Gerrard, author of The Twilight Hour
In Love with George Eliot is a feverishly intense and beautifully rendered first novel, especially in its detail and sensitivity, that brings to life the woman and the legend.
Marie Matteson, Readings
[A] sensitive, impeccably researched and deeply pleasurable debut novel ... As the best historical novels do, it absorbs the reader to such an extent that, even if they know the outline of the story, each page is a revelation.
The Economist
In Love with George Eliot is a real pleasure to read, even if you haven’t read any of her novels.
Lisa Hill, ANZ LitLovers
Richly and sensitively described ... O’Shaughnessy does us the favour of reminding us what an underrated erotic writer Eliot is.
The Sunday Telegraph
Compelling ... a tender and haunting study.
The Financial Times
O’Shaughnessy’s writing is full of delicious words ... and brilliant descriptions. She is full of keen insights into Evans’s character ... This is an astute, skilful book.
Literary Review
An accomplished tribute to one of our greatest authors.
The Mail on Sunday
This sensitive fictionalisation … is thoroughly absorbing.
Daily Mail
She gives a new life to these long dead, overdressed people, writing of them with an attentive and loving eye, forgiving them and understanding. Her take on the central mystery of Eliot’s later life – marriage to Johnny Cross, a family friend to both her and Lewes and 20 years her junior, and on Cross’ suicide attempt on their Italian honeymoon – is painfully believable.
Helen Elliot, The Age
In this beautifully imagined novel, the rich intellectual world in which Marian lived is brought alive. FOUR STARS
Melinda Woledge, Good Reading
Crack this one open at the beach and get ready to become obsessed with the story of England’s greatest woman novelist.
Rebecca Varcoe, Frankie Magazine
O’Shaughnessy crafts in her luminous debut an evocative portrait of English author George Eliot … passion and drama … Historical fiction fans won’t want to miss this.
Publishers Weekly
O’Shaughnessy's leisurely, thoroughly researched and sympathetic debut novel imagines some key periods in the life of Marian Evans, better known as novelist George Eliot … [A] record of the complex and often fraught emotional life of a notable novelist.
Margaret Quamme, Booklist
At the beginning of her career, the words of her fiction became a kind of smoke screen for Marian Evans, whose journey from anonymous obscurity to worldwide fame under her masculine pen name is delicately charted in Kathy O’Shaughnessy’s debut novel, In Love with George Eliot. Working back and forth between the present-day world of fractious Eliot scholars and the 19th-century world of their emotionally fragile subject, O’Shaughnessy concentrates on the private ambitions and uncertainties of her characters, drawing on Eliot’s letters for inspiration.
New York Times ‘Best Books to Give This Year’
Read
November 30, 2020I devoured this, and it made me happy and excited. It reminded me of Toibin’s The Master: its representations of the psychology of the characters, their shifting ground, variegated moods, seemed to work in something like the same way, and with the same fineness. It's really beautifully tender, subtle, imaginative, saturated authentically (to my mind anyway) in another time and thought-world.
Tessa Hadley, author of Late in the Day
In Love with George Eliot is a clever, unconventional approach to the great novelist’s life; it is easy to imagine that Marian Evans herself would have approved of the playful thoughtfulness with which Kathy O’Shaughnessy brings the private person behind George Eliot’s public success alive.
Dr Ruth Scurr, author of John Aubrey: my own life
Classy, beautifully written and richly imagined — a novel that opens a door onto the past.
Nicci Gerrard, author of The Twilight Hour
In Love with George Eliot is a feverishly intense and beautifully rendered first novel, especially in its detail and sensitivity, that brings to life the woman and the legend.
Marie Matteson, Readings
[A] sensitive, impeccably researched and deeply pleasurable debut novel ... As the best historical novels do, it absorbs the reader to such an extent that, even if they know the outline of the story, each page is a revelation.
The Economist
In Love with George Eliot is a real pleasure to read, even if you haven’t read any of her novels.
Lisa Hill, ANZ LitLovers
Richly and sensitively described ... O’Shaughnessy does us the favour of reminding us what an underrated erotic writer Eliot is.
The Sunday Telegraph
Compelling ... a tender and haunting study.
The Financial Times
O’Shaughnessy’s writing is full of delicious words ... and brilliant descriptions. She is full of keen insights into Evans’s character ... This is an astute, skilful book.
Literary Review
An accomplished tribute to one of our greatest authors.
The Mail on Sunday
This sensitive fictionalisation … is thoroughly absorbing.
Daily Mail
She gives a new life to these long dead, overdressed people, writing of them with an attentive and loving eye, forgiving them and understanding. Her take on the central mystery of Eliot’s later life – marriage to Johnny Cross, a family friend to both her and Lewes and 20 years her junior, and on Cross’ suicide attempt on their Italian honeymoon – is painfully believable.
Helen Elliot, The Age
In this beautifully imagined novel, the rich intellectual world in which Marian lived is brought alive. FOUR STARS
Melinda Woledge, Good Reading
Crack this one open at the beach and get ready to become obsessed with the story of England’s greatest woman novelist.
Rebecca Varcoe, Frankie Magazine
O’Shaughnessy crafts in her luminous debut an evocative portrait of English author George Eliot … passion and drama … Historical fiction fans won’t want to miss this.
Publishers Weekly
O’Shaughnessy's leisurely, thoroughly researched and sympathetic debut novel imagines some key periods in the life of Marian Evans, better known as novelist George Eliot … [A] record of the complex and often fraught emotional life of a notable novelist.
Margaret Quamme, Booklist
At the beginning of her career, the words of her fiction became a kind of smoke screen for Marian Evans, whose journey from anonymous obscurity to worldwide fame under her masculine pen name is delicately charted in Kathy O’Shaughnessy’s debut novel, In Love with George Eliot. Working back and forth between the present-day world of fractious Eliot scholars and the 19th-century world of their emotionally fragile subject, O’Shaughnessy concentrates on the private ambitions and uncertainties of her characters, drawing on Eliot’s letters for inspiration.
New York Times ‘Best Books to Give This Year’
Tessa Hadley, author of Late in the Day
In Love with George Eliot is a clever, unconventional approach to the great novelist’s life; it is easy to imagine that Marian Evans herself would have approved of the playful thoughtfulness with which Kathy O’Shaughnessy brings the private person behind George Eliot’s public success alive.
Dr Ruth Scurr, author of John Aubrey: my own life
Classy, beautifully written and richly imagined — a novel that opens a door onto the past.
Nicci Gerrard, author of The Twilight Hour
In Love with George Eliot is a feverishly intense and beautifully rendered first novel, especially in its detail and sensitivity, that brings to life the woman and the legend.
Marie Matteson, Readings
[A] sensitive, impeccably researched and deeply pleasurable debut novel ... As the best historical novels do, it absorbs the reader to such an extent that, even if they know the outline of the story, each page is a revelation.
The Economist
In Love with George Eliot is a real pleasure to read, even if you haven’t read any of her novels.
Lisa Hill, ANZ LitLovers
Richly and sensitively described ... O’Shaughnessy does us the favour of reminding us what an underrated erotic writer Eliot is.
The Sunday Telegraph
Compelling ... a tender and haunting study.
The Financial Times
O’Shaughnessy’s writing is full of delicious words ... and brilliant descriptions. She is full of keen insights into Evans’s character ... This is an astute, skilful book.
Literary Review
An accomplished tribute to one of our greatest authors.
The Mail on Sunday
This sensitive fictionalisation … is thoroughly absorbing.
Daily Mail
She gives a new life to these long dead, overdressed people, writing of them with an attentive and loving eye, forgiving them and understanding. Her take on the central mystery of Eliot’s later life – marriage to Johnny Cross, a family friend to both her and Lewes and 20 years her junior, and on Cross’ suicide attempt on their Italian honeymoon – is painfully believable.
Helen Elliot, The Age
In this beautifully imagined novel, the rich intellectual world in which Marian lived is brought alive. FOUR STARS
Melinda Woledge, Good Reading
Crack this one open at the beach and get ready to become obsessed with the story of England’s greatest woman novelist.
Rebecca Varcoe, Frankie Magazine
O’Shaughnessy crafts in her luminous debut an evocative portrait of English author George Eliot … passion and drama … Historical fiction fans won’t want to miss this.
Publishers Weekly
O’Shaughnessy's leisurely, thoroughly researched and sympathetic debut novel imagines some key periods in the life of Marian Evans, better known as novelist George Eliot … [A] record of the complex and often fraught emotional life of a notable novelist.
Margaret Quamme, Booklist
At the beginning of her career, the words of her fiction became a kind of smoke screen for Marian Evans, whose journey from anonymous obscurity to worldwide fame under her masculine pen name is delicately charted in Kathy O’Shaughnessy’s debut novel, In Love with George Eliot. Working back and forth between the present-day world of fractious Eliot scholars and the 19th-century world of their emotionally fragile subject, O’Shaughnessy concentrates on the private ambitions and uncertainties of her characters, drawing on Eliot’s letters for inspiration.
New York Times ‘Best Books to Give This Year’
May 19, 2025
'In Love with George Eliot' brings the life and loves of Mary Ann (Marian) Evans aka George Eliot to life.
Soon after I began listening to the book, I did an online search on George Eliot to compare this historical fiction book with the life details of the author. The author sticks close to all the facts and enhances it further with her interpretation of the scenes, situations and conversations that must have played out in the author's unconventional (and scandalous) yet successful life in relation to her: work, beliefs, relationship with friends, family & peers, romantic relationship with the married George Henry Lewes and very much later marriage to John Walter Cross, a banker and friend twenty years her junior.
Running parallel to this thread is a contemporary one in which different writers and scholars prepare to attend and speak at a conference on George Eliot in Venice, with one writer named Kate even writing a novel.
George Henry Lewes and especially George Eliot found immense financial stability in their respective writing careers. At the time of her death, George Eliot's investment portfolio amounted to £30,000!
This is a slow book to get through but the author's wonderful writing and the beautiful and soothing narration by Shiromi Arserio makes it worth the read.
Soon after I began listening to the book, I did an online search on George Eliot to compare this historical fiction book with the life details of the author. The author sticks close to all the facts and enhances it further with her interpretation of the scenes, situations and conversations that must have played out in the author's unconventional (and scandalous) yet successful life in relation to her: work, beliefs, relationship with friends, family & peers, romantic relationship with the married George Henry Lewes and very much later marriage to John Walter Cross, a banker and friend twenty years her junior.
Running parallel to this thread is a contemporary one in which different writers and scholars prepare to attend and speak at a conference on George Eliot in Venice, with one writer named Kate even writing a novel.
George Henry Lewes and especially George Eliot found immense financial stability in their respective writing careers. At the time of her death, George Eliot's investment portfolio amounted to £30,000!
This is a slow book to get through but the author's wonderful writing and the beautiful and soothing narration by Shiromi Arserio makes it worth the read.
December 30, 2019
One of the most contradictory and even scandalous Victorians, George Eliot, is still being perceived mostly through the image which more or less had been established in her own times: a great author, a genius, the best novelist in the English language, an intellectual. Her human features, however, remain unrecognized, altered by gossip and more often than not simply ignored or denied. ‘In love with George Eliot’ is Kathy O’Shaughnessy’s tribute to the great novelist’s bicentenary (22 November 1819). As the title suggests, the book is mostly about the time when Marian Evans became George Eliot and wrote all her wonderful literary masterpieces – from Adam Bede to Daniel Deronda. Nonetheless, this is not an ordinary biography or a piece of literary history. It is a novel incorporating fact and fiction to offer a much more personal approach to Marian Evans Lewes, the human being, rather than the novelist. As the author herself shares in an interview, it is a love letter from her to Marian, but also to George Lewes without whom she wouldn’t have been complete. ((1) https://youtu.be/Qv7gyFBSDws podcast and video interview, Nalini Haynes talks to Kathy O’Shaughnessy)
‘In love with George Eliot’ is a novel with two plotlines, divided in five parts. The Victorian storyline (Marian’s, set between the early 1850s and her death in 1880) is narrated in a manner similar to Eliot’s – an omniscient narrator who gets close to the character’s mind and emotions, whereas the contemporary storyline is narrated in the first person singular by the protagonist Kate with quite noticeable autobiographical references to O’Shaughnessy herself. Even though the Victorian story prevails, the two plotlines are connected and transmit into one another – the manner of writing is quite similar to A. S. Byatt’s in Possession, where the contemporaries live in the shadows of their Victorian predecessors in terms of emotional and human openness. Even the love triangles, or more exactly – rectangles in both plotlines of the book, are similar: Agnes is unfaithful to George Lewes with his best friend Thornton, so the disappointed husband finds love and comfort with Marian; Ann is unfaithful to Hans with his colleague Devlin, so he goes to Kate. Lewes and Marian, Hans and Kate could probably be read as another set of Randolf Ash – Christabel LaMotte / Roland Michell and Maud Bailey. However, unlike Byatt’s novel, ‘In love with George Eliot’ is more personal and focused mostly on the humanity behind the public image of Eliot.
Mary Ann Evans or Marian as she chooses to be called is anything but a conventional woman, let alone Victorian. Her exceptional thirst for knowledge is only comparable to her craving for love. After some painful and unsuccessful experience she manages to find her soulmate and kindred spirit, the married George Lewes, for whom she dares sacrifice her social status and become a pariah in the Victorian society. O’Shaughnessy lifts the curtain to show the intimacy of their relationship, depicted as an inspiring love story but also supported by other people’s statements and observations.
All the letters, notes and diary entries quoted in the Victorian plotline are genuine – an enormous effort and a significant research of the author who is by all means academically familiar with all the Eliot data (a huge and constantly growing amount of academic writing, archives, memoirs… practically endless) and deserves admiration. The Victorian era is recreated with its most remarkable intellectuals and authors who are present in the book as being part of Marian’s limited circle of friends and acquaintances. There are the Brays (Charles and Cara), her oldest friends along with Sara Hennel, who later becomes jealous of her success. Another open-minded Victorian couple, Richard and Maria Congreve, offer their support in times of trouble and so does Barbara Bodichon. Of course, there are those who hurt her, intentionally or not, such as Herbert Spencer and John Chapman. Henry James is also present with his famous quotation regarding the unconventional Victorian author: ‘She is a feat of ugliness’. That infamous ‘ugliness’ is probably the core of Marian’s ambition to prove herself the best in everything she does. Her success comes at a price she pays regularly, but for her new admirers it seems a miracle or a kind of fairy tale. Even her most intellectual women friend Edith Simcox wonders: ‘How had she done it, earned her own heaven so perfectly? Her books, her lover, her hospitable home and admiring friends?’ However Simcox cannot convince Marian to announce herself a feminist since the novelist strongly believes that talent has nothing to do with gender: ‘ In my view, fiction should only be written if the writer has talent. So much work is produced by people who should not produce – whether women or men.’
Being even more intelligent and talented than most of her acclaimed contemporaries, Marian Evans never tries to suppress her femininity. For her feelings are just as important as the mind: ‘Ruskin opens the mind. Read Ruskin, my dear Maria. This is how life is lived. Through feeling.’ Moreover, she constantly sacrifices herself in the name of her loved ones and is deeply hurt every time when they let her down.
What touched me most as a reader is the vivid depiction of the grief Marian feels after Lewes’ death. It is so excruciatingly painful and tangible. Her sorrow is what makes her decision to marry Johnny Cross sensible and non other that Lewes’ own son Charles understands it perfectly well: ‘Charles came the following evening straight after seeing Johnny. He had wanted to see Marian immediately. He was happy for her. The Pater wouldn’t have minded either – he didn’t have a jealous bone in his body. Marian had never been so fond of Charles. She in turn tried to explain herself to him. ‘I couldn’t have written more books,’ she said, ‘if I hadn’t been human.’ And later she adds: ‘I am so tired of being put on pedestal, and expected to vent wisdom.’
‘In love with George Eliot’ is a novel for people who already are in love with the famous writer, but it could also make you fall in love with her even deeper.
‘In love with George Eliot’ is a novel with two plotlines, divided in five parts. The Victorian storyline (Marian’s, set between the early 1850s and her death in 1880) is narrated in a manner similar to Eliot’s – an omniscient narrator who gets close to the character’s mind and emotions, whereas the contemporary storyline is narrated in the first person singular by the protagonist Kate with quite noticeable autobiographical references to O’Shaughnessy herself. Even though the Victorian story prevails, the two plotlines are connected and transmit into one another – the manner of writing is quite similar to A. S. Byatt’s in Possession, where the contemporaries live in the shadows of their Victorian predecessors in terms of emotional and human openness. Even the love triangles, or more exactly – rectangles in both plotlines of the book, are similar: Agnes is unfaithful to George Lewes with his best friend Thornton, so the disappointed husband finds love and comfort with Marian; Ann is unfaithful to Hans with his colleague Devlin, so he goes to Kate. Lewes and Marian, Hans and Kate could probably be read as another set of Randolf Ash – Christabel LaMotte / Roland Michell and Maud Bailey. However, unlike Byatt’s novel, ‘In love with George Eliot’ is more personal and focused mostly on the humanity behind the public image of Eliot.
Mary Ann Evans or Marian as she chooses to be called is anything but a conventional woman, let alone Victorian. Her exceptional thirst for knowledge is only comparable to her craving for love. After some painful and unsuccessful experience she manages to find her soulmate and kindred spirit, the married George Lewes, for whom she dares sacrifice her social status and become a pariah in the Victorian society. O’Shaughnessy lifts the curtain to show the intimacy of their relationship, depicted as an inspiring love story but also supported by other people’s statements and observations.
All the letters, notes and diary entries quoted in the Victorian plotline are genuine – an enormous effort and a significant research of the author who is by all means academically familiar with all the Eliot data (a huge and constantly growing amount of academic writing, archives, memoirs… practically endless) and deserves admiration. The Victorian era is recreated with its most remarkable intellectuals and authors who are present in the book as being part of Marian’s limited circle of friends and acquaintances. There are the Brays (Charles and Cara), her oldest friends along with Sara Hennel, who later becomes jealous of her success. Another open-minded Victorian couple, Richard and Maria Congreve, offer their support in times of trouble and so does Barbara Bodichon. Of course, there are those who hurt her, intentionally or not, such as Herbert Spencer and John Chapman. Henry James is also present with his famous quotation regarding the unconventional Victorian author: ‘She is a feat of ugliness’. That infamous ‘ugliness’ is probably the core of Marian’s ambition to prove herself the best in everything she does. Her success comes at a price she pays regularly, but for her new admirers it seems a miracle or a kind of fairy tale. Even her most intellectual women friend Edith Simcox wonders: ‘How had she done it, earned her own heaven so perfectly? Her books, her lover, her hospitable home and admiring friends?’ However Simcox cannot convince Marian to announce herself a feminist since the novelist strongly believes that talent has nothing to do with gender: ‘ In my view, fiction should only be written if the writer has talent. So much work is produced by people who should not produce – whether women or men.’
Being even more intelligent and talented than most of her acclaimed contemporaries, Marian Evans never tries to suppress her femininity. For her feelings are just as important as the mind: ‘Ruskin opens the mind. Read Ruskin, my dear Maria. This is how life is lived. Through feeling.’ Moreover, she constantly sacrifices herself in the name of her loved ones and is deeply hurt every time when they let her down.
What touched me most as a reader is the vivid depiction of the grief Marian feels after Lewes’ death. It is so excruciatingly painful and tangible. Her sorrow is what makes her decision to marry Johnny Cross sensible and non other that Lewes’ own son Charles understands it perfectly well: ‘Charles came the following evening straight after seeing Johnny. He had wanted to see Marian immediately. He was happy for her. The Pater wouldn’t have minded either – he didn’t have a jealous bone in his body. Marian had never been so fond of Charles. She in turn tried to explain herself to him. ‘I couldn’t have written more books,’ she said, ‘if I hadn’t been human.’ And later she adds: ‘I am so tired of being put on pedestal, and expected to vent wisdom.’
‘In love with George Eliot’ is a novel for people who already are in love with the famous writer, but it could also make you fall in love with her even deeper.
January 9, 2020
Actually a little weird. This story of George Eliot is so extremely intense, I went from great interest to whoa, stand back. The additional modern day story of a developing relationship was just an annoying intrusion. The experience left my liking for the original GE novels unchanged.
February 22, 2023
"And suddenly I remember. I did too - have such perfect confidence in her. It was in my teens, my first boyfriend had left me... Nothing made me feel better....But on the floor in my sleeping bag I pulled out George Eliot, 'Middlemarch'. And it was she, and only she, who comforted me. Her voice told me that she knew what it was to suffer and go wrong".
I really enjoyed this novel, which brought Marian Evans to life and has made me want to return to her books again.
I really enjoyed this novel, which brought Marian Evans to life and has made me want to return to her books again.
May 24, 2020
Everyone is in love with George Eliot. This novel, set in two time periods, is filled with her admirers. She was extraordinary for her time and for all time; brilliant, insightful, and very, very ugly.
I bring this up because this makes her even more remarkable in a time when women's sweet and modest appearance was vital for their survival, Marian Evans tossed it all upside down. She was appreciated for her intellect and kindness, but as was so common in those times her attachment to a man gave her a certain credibility.
Ah, but what an attachment it was. George Lewes was already married and couldn't divorce (he had recognized one of his wife's children by his best friend as his own and thus legally was considered to have condoned the partnership) so they pledged to each other and lived joyfully together for twenty-four years. Their relationship was deep, loving, and supportive. It caused Marian (whom he called "Polly") the loss of her family and made many people cut her off, but he balanced her deep emotions with his lively manner and they lived in harmony, supporting each other's work. When he died, Marian married a handsome family friend 20 years her junior. This really should have tipped society over the edge but no! She was married! She was welcomed back into her own family fold and friends she hadn't seen in decades came calling.
We don't realize now the height of her fame. People came to the house to literally kiss her feet. Victorians were entranced by the psychological depth if her characters and the strength of her stories. They could not get enough. Although she was outed as a woman following the unprecedented success of her first book, it didn't seem to matter.
This is an immensely readable and fulfilling novel about a truly remarkable woman. There's a modern story that's not quite as compelling but does bring up
modern revisionism--if she were truly radical, she would have embraced the lesbian relationships craved by many of her followers, she would have been more active in the social justice movement (although her novels often shone light on inequalities) , but, yet, everyone is entranced by George Eliot, her ability to laser in on what was going on in her characters' hearts.
"In Love with George Eliot" is a pleasure. Happy 200th birthday, Polly.'
~~Candace Siegle, Greedy Reader
I bring this up because this makes her even more remarkable in a time when women's sweet and modest appearance was vital for their survival, Marian Evans tossed it all upside down. She was appreciated for her intellect and kindness, but as was so common in those times her attachment to a man gave her a certain credibility.
Ah, but what an attachment it was. George Lewes was already married and couldn't divorce (he had recognized one of his wife's children by his best friend as his own and thus legally was considered to have condoned the partnership) so they pledged to each other and lived joyfully together for twenty-four years. Their relationship was deep, loving, and supportive. It caused Marian (whom he called "Polly") the loss of her family and made many people cut her off, but he balanced her deep emotions with his lively manner and they lived in harmony, supporting each other's work. When he died, Marian married a handsome family friend 20 years her junior. This really should have tipped society over the edge but no! She was married! She was welcomed back into her own family fold and friends she hadn't seen in decades came calling.
We don't realize now the height of her fame. People came to the house to literally kiss her feet. Victorians were entranced by the psychological depth if her characters and the strength of her stories. They could not get enough. Although she was outed as a woman following the unprecedented success of her first book, it didn't seem to matter.
This is an immensely readable and fulfilling novel about a truly remarkable woman. There's a modern story that's not quite as compelling but does bring up
modern revisionism--if she were truly radical, she would have embraced the lesbian relationships craved by many of her followers, she would have been more active in the social justice movement (although her novels often shone light on inequalities) , but, yet, everyone is entranced by George Eliot, her ability to laser in on what was going on in her characters' hearts.
"In Love with George Eliot" is a pleasure. Happy 200th birthday, Polly.'
~~Candace Siegle, Greedy Reader
November 23, 2020
4.5 Stars! This book is so moving, heartfelt, heart-wrenching, and really interesting. Whenever I picked up "In Love with George Eliot", I was whisked back in time to Victorian England, gained insight about Ms. Eliot as a person in addition to learning about her life and times.
This is Kathy O'Shaughnessy's debut novel, and what an incredible debut it is! Her writing style is incredibly vivid and visceral, and I can only imagine the amount of meticulous research that must have been done by Ms. O'Shaughnessy to bring this book to life. It is so clear how incredibly passionate she is about what she is writing, and her love and respect for Ms. Eliot truly jumps off the page in such a beautiful way. She gracefully intertwines history with historical fiction. The way in which Ms. O'Shaughnessy weaves real letters, newspaper articles,and etc. while bringing historical figures to life as her characters elegantly mirror each other, as the reader you are right there in the room watching everything occur.
This book takes place in two different times: during George Eliot's life, as well as one more in the present surrounding putting on a conference about George Eliot. I so enjoyed the timeline in the past, and even though it was tough to read at times due to sad events that occur, etc, there were so many moments filled with love and joy as well. As for the more modern timeline, while I do think that the novel flows brilliantly between the two and there are obvious connections, I did feel that it disrupted the narrative of the past a little at times. However, this did not hinder my enjoyment of the story in any way.
If you enjoy historical fiction, I highly recommend this book! It is so moving, and I truly feel like it is a book for literature lovers. Many other literature greats are also either mentioned and / or make appearances in the book...you will just have to read to see who!
Thank you so much to Scribe Publications for sending me a physical review copy, and to Scribe Publications and Edelweiss + for the electronic review copy, it was amazing. All opinions expressed in this review are my own.
This is Kathy O'Shaughnessy's debut novel, and what an incredible debut it is! Her writing style is incredibly vivid and visceral, and I can only imagine the amount of meticulous research that must have been done by Ms. O'Shaughnessy to bring this book to life. It is so clear how incredibly passionate she is about what she is writing, and her love and respect for Ms. Eliot truly jumps off the page in such a beautiful way. She gracefully intertwines history with historical fiction. The way in which Ms. O'Shaughnessy weaves real letters, newspaper articles,and etc. while bringing historical figures to life as her characters elegantly mirror each other, as the reader you are right there in the room watching everything occur.
This book takes place in two different times: during George Eliot's life, as well as one more in the present surrounding putting on a conference about George Eliot. I so enjoyed the timeline in the past, and even though it was tough to read at times due to sad events that occur, etc, there were so many moments filled with love and joy as well. As for the more modern timeline, while I do think that the novel flows brilliantly between the two and there are obvious connections, I did feel that it disrupted the narrative of the past a little at times. However, this did not hinder my enjoyment of the story in any way.
If you enjoy historical fiction, I highly recommend this book! It is so moving, and I truly feel like it is a book for literature lovers. Many other literature greats are also either mentioned and / or make appearances in the book...you will just have to read to see who!
Thank you so much to Scribe Publications for sending me a physical review copy, and to Scribe Publications and Edelweiss + for the electronic review copy, it was amazing. All opinions expressed in this review are my own.
January 28, 2021
absolutely loved the cover the first time i saw it in the bookstore and was intrigued by the story as well. i have never read george eliot and knew nothing of her, except that her novels are well renowned.
this novel was promising with the life and romance of george eliot entangled with a young woman writing her own novel on the author.
the first let down of the book was the writing style... i couldn't understand what the author was hinting at in so many scenes and i was just reading really bizarre interactions and relationships between characters that left me clueless and bored.
the second was the portrayal of the author which was... not that interesting or compelling, neither as an acclaimed depressed author, nor as a modern romantic woman.
the third and final was the modern romance story, which has already been done and was truly, poorly thought and written.
this book is exactly what january has been, a fresh and beautiful hope with a gorgeous enticing cover but slowly reveals its true self with an endless story which makes you want to finish it as soon as possible.
this novel was promising with the life and romance of george eliot entangled with a young woman writing her own novel on the author.
the first let down of the book was the writing style... i couldn't understand what the author was hinting at in so many scenes and i was just reading really bizarre interactions and relationships between characters that left me clueless and bored.
the second was the portrayal of the author which was... not that interesting or compelling, neither as an acclaimed depressed author, nor as a modern romantic woman.
the third and final was the modern romance story, which has already been done and was truly, poorly thought and written.
this book is exactly what january has been, a fresh and beautiful hope with a gorgeous enticing cover but slowly reveals its true self with an endless story which makes you want to finish it as soon as possible.
January 20, 2020
I purchased this book because of a raving review in economist and I should say it was spot on - I couldn’t put it down. I’ve heard of George Eliot, but haven’t read any of her works or biographies about her, so this was my first introduction to her life and works. Can’t wait to read Middlemarch now...
I think it’s a very brave choice to try to write a book about anyone in this style, it felt very personal, as if the writer was a close confidant of Eliot.I felt like I was eavesdropping on real conversations, relationships and friendships. It’s clear that a ton of research had to be done to be able to achieve this effect. The author painted a very compelling portrait of Eliot, a woman we could all relate to in one way or another. However I must say I don’t see her as a feminist so many women make her out to be, I think she had an intense kind of intellect, which made her brave to make selfish choices, choices that made her happy and for that she deserves admiration.
I think it’s a very brave choice to try to write a book about anyone in this style, it felt very personal, as if the writer was a close confidant of Eliot.I felt like I was eavesdropping on real conversations, relationships and friendships. It’s clear that a ton of research had to be done to be able to achieve this effect. The author painted a very compelling portrait of Eliot, a woman we could all relate to in one way or another. However I must say I don’t see her as a feminist so many women make her out to be, I think she had an intense kind of intellect, which made her brave to make selfish choices, choices that made her happy and for that she deserves admiration.
January 17, 2020
I was thrilled to hear of this book and it seems to have great potential but for 3 flaws:
- the inter woven stories of past and present is nothing new for an historical fictional ‘biography’ but there was not enough weight on the NOW to make the modern day characters of any interest or to even understand them
- In the story of Marian too many characters popped in and out of the narrative without context or a chance to develop and no sooner had I worked out who they were they disappeared again!
- there were weird gaps in the story when such as Lewes suddenly becoming ill; or Johnny’s strange decline which were not really explained, even Marian’s death
- the inter woven stories of past and present is nothing new for an historical fictional ‘biography’ but there was not enough weight on the NOW to make the modern day characters of any interest or to even understand them
- In the story of Marian too many characters popped in and out of the narrative without context or a chance to develop and no sooner had I worked out who they were they disappeared again!
- there were weird gaps in the story when such as Lewes suddenly becoming ill; or Johnny’s strange decline which were not really explained, even Marian’s death
July 5, 2020
This started promisingly enough. The switching between Victorian and contemporary periods reminded me a lot of Persuasion. By Part 2 I found my enthusiasm waning and it became a bit of a slog to the end I'm afraid.
January 18, 2020
An absolute pleasure to read and a wonderful way to start my reading year. I would have finished it much sooner except I found that I was savouring it, not wanting to reach the end.
October 30, 2020
I'm in love with George Eliot! Highly addictive read and portrayed Eliot as a sensitive individual
April 13, 2020
An amazing book
This was a bold concept to marry the story of George Eliot’s life with that of her biographer’s. It works brilliantly. I was very moved. Highly recommended!
This was a bold concept to marry the story of George Eliot’s life with that of her biographer’s. It works brilliantly. I was very moved. Highly recommended!
April 1, 2021
In Love with George Eliot: A Novel by Kathy O’Shaughnessy is perhaps the first fictional biography of Mary-Ann (Marian) Evans, the most famous novelist of Victorian England (most famous then, perhaps not now). There are many biographies of George Eliot; well over twenty are listed in O’Shaughnessy’s selected biography. I have not read any of them. This daring fiction of her life certainly had me intrigued and held my attention to the end. Perhaps the first biography was written by her husband, John Cross, who was her second life partner, married to her a year and a half after the love of her life, George Henry Lewes, died. Cross was twenty years younger than Marian, and apparently little is known about this brief marriage. Marian died only six months after they wedded.
She certainly had a complex life, from her humble beginnings as a miller’s daughter to becoming a celebrity and a sage, sought after in England and abroad by the literati, scholars, writers and artists. When she began living with Lewes, he had had an open marriage with his wife and was not able to divorce her. At first, they lived on the Continent to avoid the shunning and snobbery of London society (which reminded me of Anna Karenina, that famous, tragic literary heroine who was excommunicated by Moscow society when she left her husband and child and lived with her lover, Count Vronksy). Marian had already begun writing novels under the pseudonym, George Eliot. When the fame of Adam Bede, her first major novel, began to grow, her identity became known. Soon, the shades of scandal were dispelled by her success, which continued to grow.
Her complex life is matched, in this portrait of her, by her complex personality. Deeply learned in philosophy, the classics, the arts, and more, accomplished in several languages, a deep thinker, agnostic, humane, passionate, compassionate, loyal, she was prone to fits of melancholy and self-criticism, beset by crippling headaches, vulnerable to criticism. Yet her complexity and fragility was balanced and sustained by her devoted partner, Lewes, who was himself a complex, witty, extroverted, accomplished philosopher and critic, and amateur physiologist. As the couples’ lifestyle was enriched by Eliot’s literary success, they were able to live in luxury and travel abroad, and their home became the mecca for the many admirers of Eliot’s writing and thinking. Yet Lewes is not jealous of her fame and success, and seems to have strong enough sense of self to be able to ride out her moods, give her space, and solace and affection when she needs it.
All this, and much more, is intricately revealed in a narrative that often quotes from letters from, to, and about Marian, and is based on immense research into all the literature that has grown around this remarkable literary life. The narrative has a second layer, a modern narrative threaded through it, a triangle in academic London — a young woman, Kate, who is writing a biographical fiction of Eliot, her colleague Ann who is a critic of Eliot’s feminism, and her husband, Hans, a scholar whose specialty is personal writing in the 19th century. I say a triangle, because, by the end of book, Han has left Ann and is living with Kate. This thread is thin and is not fully developed, and some reviews I’ve read say the book would have been better without it. It is interesting in its own right but its promise is not fullfilled; the story lacks substance and therefore tension. It could be a book in its own right. But here, it is overshadowed by the main story and a distraction from it.
Does the main narrative work? Among the tests of a good book, for me, are whether I think about it when I’m not reading it, and whether I miss it when I’ve finished it. I can say yes to both these. I was tempted to start reading it again when I finished it. I”ll postpone that for a while, perhaps after I’ve read some of Eliot’s early work and revisited Middlemarch. In Love with George Eliot is beautifully written, with crisp, elegant prose, convincing dialogue, and many lyrical, finely nuanced descriptions. For instance, when John Cross and his mother visit George and Marian in Rome, he is struck first by Marian’s ugliness; he is embarrassed and overwhelmed by her greatness and his own nothingness.
‘So you’re Johnny,’ she was saying, with a most peculiar leap into informality: amd still with his earlier shyness, because he was nothing, absolutely nothing, he hesitated before lifting his head, though again what held him back he couldn’t say. But then he did look up, and the eyes were looking at him and seeing entirely his shyness: had comprehended all of him, this he know in less than a second: and did not judge him, simply understood. The eyes were greyish and quite luminous, and they were regarding him with a tender warmth, almost, it seemed, before the fact.
And now he found his voice.
Some of the threads of the main story I found less convincing. For instance, Marian’s friendships with several women and men; one in particular, Edith Simcox, a writer, feminist and activist, is passionately in love with Marian. Although this is unrequited, Marian accepts her caresses, to the point of Edith kissing her feet, often with Lewes watching on. I confess I found this creepy. No doubt it did happen. But it is a scene repeated several times, and my discomfort with Marian’s acceptance was not released until finally, after Lewes has died and Edith plucks up courage to make an open avowal to Marian, and pleads with her to tell her the truth, Marian replies that
‘The love of men and women for each other must always be more and better than any other.…
‘I have never, all my life, cared very much for women.… not in the essential intimate way. I hope I make myself clear.…
‘I have a painful susceptibility to encourage a certain — approach in others. — As a person I need — these things.’
Not before time, I thought. I think that in these passages, the author is being true to her understanding of Marian’s character, based on all her research, and my discomfort is with the character rather than the writing. And with Lewes, for tolerating and even encouraging these advances, as though he got some gratuitous pleasure from watching the erotic display.
Lastly, I find the final chapters, dealing with the love and marriage of Cross and Marian, unsatisfying. True, they were only wed for six months before Marian died. Also, apparently little is known about Cross’s life and the reasons for his failed suicide attempt in Venice, after they married. The details of their intimate emotional and sexual life are suggested here, but his sudden turn against Marian and delusional outbursts against her are not developed enough to be understandable. We are left unclear as to what went wrong, though there is a faint suggestion that he found sex with her too confronting and disturbing… perhaps he was gay? Another story waiting to be told.
Time to draw this lengthy review to an end! I think this is a very ambitious and accomplished novel, the author’s first (she is a much-published reviewer and literary editor). I hope she goes on to write more literary biographies. I am very grateful for the gift of an intimate, detailed picture of a great writer’s mature life, and I will certainly return to her novels with renewed interest and respect.
She certainly had a complex life, from her humble beginnings as a miller’s daughter to becoming a celebrity and a sage, sought after in England and abroad by the literati, scholars, writers and artists. When she began living with Lewes, he had had an open marriage with his wife and was not able to divorce her. At first, they lived on the Continent to avoid the shunning and snobbery of London society (which reminded me of Anna Karenina, that famous, tragic literary heroine who was excommunicated by Moscow society when she left her husband and child and lived with her lover, Count Vronksy). Marian had already begun writing novels under the pseudonym, George Eliot. When the fame of Adam Bede, her first major novel, began to grow, her identity became known. Soon, the shades of scandal were dispelled by her success, which continued to grow.
Her complex life is matched, in this portrait of her, by her complex personality. Deeply learned in philosophy, the classics, the arts, and more, accomplished in several languages, a deep thinker, agnostic, humane, passionate, compassionate, loyal, she was prone to fits of melancholy and self-criticism, beset by crippling headaches, vulnerable to criticism. Yet her complexity and fragility was balanced and sustained by her devoted partner, Lewes, who was himself a complex, witty, extroverted, accomplished philosopher and critic, and amateur physiologist. As the couples’ lifestyle was enriched by Eliot’s literary success, they were able to live in luxury and travel abroad, and their home became the mecca for the many admirers of Eliot’s writing and thinking. Yet Lewes is not jealous of her fame and success, and seems to have strong enough sense of self to be able to ride out her moods, give her space, and solace and affection when she needs it.
All this, and much more, is intricately revealed in a narrative that often quotes from letters from, to, and about Marian, and is based on immense research into all the literature that has grown around this remarkable literary life. The narrative has a second layer, a modern narrative threaded through it, a triangle in academic London — a young woman, Kate, who is writing a biographical fiction of Eliot, her colleague Ann who is a critic of Eliot’s feminism, and her husband, Hans, a scholar whose specialty is personal writing in the 19th century. I say a triangle, because, by the end of book, Han has left Ann and is living with Kate. This thread is thin and is not fully developed, and some reviews I’ve read say the book would have been better without it. It is interesting in its own right but its promise is not fullfilled; the story lacks substance and therefore tension. It could be a book in its own right. But here, it is overshadowed by the main story and a distraction from it.
Does the main narrative work? Among the tests of a good book, for me, are whether I think about it when I’m not reading it, and whether I miss it when I’ve finished it. I can say yes to both these. I was tempted to start reading it again when I finished it. I”ll postpone that for a while, perhaps after I’ve read some of Eliot’s early work and revisited Middlemarch. In Love with George Eliot is beautifully written, with crisp, elegant prose, convincing dialogue, and many lyrical, finely nuanced descriptions. For instance, when John Cross and his mother visit George and Marian in Rome, he is struck first by Marian’s ugliness; he is embarrassed and overwhelmed by her greatness and his own nothingness.
‘So you’re Johnny,’ she was saying, with a most peculiar leap into informality: amd still with his earlier shyness, because he was nothing, absolutely nothing, he hesitated before lifting his head, though again what held him back he couldn’t say. But then he did look up, and the eyes were looking at him and seeing entirely his shyness: had comprehended all of him, this he know in less than a second: and did not judge him, simply understood. The eyes were greyish and quite luminous, and they were regarding him with a tender warmth, almost, it seemed, before the fact.
And now he found his voice.
Some of the threads of the main story I found less convincing. For instance, Marian’s friendships with several women and men; one in particular, Edith Simcox, a writer, feminist and activist, is passionately in love with Marian. Although this is unrequited, Marian accepts her caresses, to the point of Edith kissing her feet, often with Lewes watching on. I confess I found this creepy. No doubt it did happen. But it is a scene repeated several times, and my discomfort with Marian’s acceptance was not released until finally, after Lewes has died and Edith plucks up courage to make an open avowal to Marian, and pleads with her to tell her the truth, Marian replies that
‘The love of men and women for each other must always be more and better than any other.…
‘I have never, all my life, cared very much for women.… not in the essential intimate way. I hope I make myself clear.…
‘I have a painful susceptibility to encourage a certain — approach in others. — As a person I need — these things.’
Not before time, I thought. I think that in these passages, the author is being true to her understanding of Marian’s character, based on all her research, and my discomfort is with the character rather than the writing. And with Lewes, for tolerating and even encouraging these advances, as though he got some gratuitous pleasure from watching the erotic display.
Lastly, I find the final chapters, dealing with the love and marriage of Cross and Marian, unsatisfying. True, they were only wed for six months before Marian died. Also, apparently little is known about Cross’s life and the reasons for his failed suicide attempt in Venice, after they married. The details of their intimate emotional and sexual life are suggested here, but his sudden turn against Marian and delusional outbursts against her are not developed enough to be understandable. We are left unclear as to what went wrong, though there is a faint suggestion that he found sex with her too confronting and disturbing… perhaps he was gay? Another story waiting to be told.
Time to draw this lengthy review to an end! I think this is a very ambitious and accomplished novel, the author’s first (she is a much-published reviewer and literary editor). I hope she goes on to write more literary biographies. I am very grateful for the gift of an intimate, detailed picture of a great writer’s mature life, and I will certainly return to her novels with renewed interest and respect.
January 24, 2020
4 and half stars
Kathy O'Shaughnessy has written an utterly delightful and immersive story about the extraordinary Marian Lewes, otherwise known as George Eliot. The book follows Marian from the early days of her unconventional 'marriage' to George Lewes through to her writing days, fame, second marriage and eventual death.
In Love With George Eliot not only refers to the people that surrounded and feted Marian throughout her lifetime but also three modern characters who love her work and are fascinated by her story. O'Shaughnessy herself, as well as her modern-day inventions, Kate, Ann and Han are just as immersed in Eliot's life story as we are. In a few brief chapters, inserted amongst the main story about Eliot, these three organise an Eliot conference in contemporary London and Venice, as they explore their own ethical quandaries. I wasn't completely sure that we need these chapters, but they irked me less as we went along.
As a fiction writer, O'Shaughnessy is able to enter into areas considered no-go to a regular biographer. She is able to get inside Marian's head to speculate and wonder. She can imagine conversations and occasionally put people in the room who weren't really there. But it's not all supposition and imagination, the story is littered with direct quotes from Marian's letters and diaries as well as those from others. The research is there, as is the reverence and the curiosity.
Full review here - http://bronasbooks.blogspot.com/2020/...
Kathy O'Shaughnessy has written an utterly delightful and immersive story about the extraordinary Marian Lewes, otherwise known as George Eliot. The book follows Marian from the early days of her unconventional 'marriage' to George Lewes through to her writing days, fame, second marriage and eventual death.
In Love With George Eliot not only refers to the people that surrounded and feted Marian throughout her lifetime but also three modern characters who love her work and are fascinated by her story. O'Shaughnessy herself, as well as her modern-day inventions, Kate, Ann and Han are just as immersed in Eliot's life story as we are. In a few brief chapters, inserted amongst the main story about Eliot, these three organise an Eliot conference in contemporary London and Venice, as they explore their own ethical quandaries. I wasn't completely sure that we need these chapters, but they irked me less as we went along.
As a fiction writer, O'Shaughnessy is able to enter into areas considered no-go to a regular biographer. She is able to get inside Marian's head to speculate and wonder. She can imagine conversations and occasionally put people in the room who weren't really there. But it's not all supposition and imagination, the story is littered with direct quotes from Marian's letters and diaries as well as those from others. The research is there, as is the reverence and the curiosity.
Full review here - http://bronasbooks.blogspot.com/2020/...
December 12, 2020
*I received a copy of this book through LibraryThing Early Reviewers.*
I've enjoyed George Eliot's novels, so it was interesting to see the novelist herself become the main character in this novel, which chronicles her romantic life as her fame as a writer grows throughout the 19th century. Intertwined with a contemporary story of scholars examining her work, this book was a strangely compulsive read - at times, I thought for certain I wouldn't like it and yet it drew me back in, not unlike the novels of George Eliot herself. I'd highly recommend this book to those who enjoy Eliot's fiction and 19th-century British literature.
I've enjoyed George Eliot's novels, so it was interesting to see the novelist herself become the main character in this novel, which chronicles her romantic life as her fame as a writer grows throughout the 19th century. Intertwined with a contemporary story of scholars examining her work, this book was a strangely compulsive read - at times, I thought for certain I wouldn't like it and yet it drew me back in, not unlike the novels of George Eliot herself. I'd highly recommend this book to those who enjoy Eliot's fiction and 19th-century British literature.
February 10, 2020
There was much about this novel that I really loved. While I had read many of George Eliot’s novels, I did not know much about her or her life. O’Shaugnessy creatively and cleverly weaves a tale that would be interesting as a pure work of fiction, yet is based on considerable research. The character of ‘George Eliot’ as revealed in this novel is complex, interesting and compelling. She has a formidable intellect but is also very vulnerable. The portrait of English society as seen though Eliot’s eyes is one of social change and turbulence, but also rigidly class-based, and of course limiting for women of ambition.
My only qualification is the purpose of the corresponding narrative set in the present that features young Eliot scholars and their relationships. I was irritated by the interruption to the main narrative, and couldn’t really see the point. I’m not sure that it added much to the overall novel. I would be interested to read what others thought of the minor narrative.
Maree
My only qualification is the purpose of the corresponding narrative set in the present that features young Eliot scholars and their relationships. I was irritated by the interruption to the main narrative, and couldn’t really see the point. I’m not sure that it added much to the overall novel. I would be interested to read what others thought of the minor narrative.
Maree
August 9, 2020
This book is written as a tribute to Marian Evans (known to the world as the novelist George Eliot). It is structured with Marian Evan's story being the main narrative while the other strand is contemporary with two women each preparing papers on Eliot for a conference. I must say that from the outset I didn't think this approach worked. I ended up skipping the contemporary sections completely. That way I was able to enjoy finding out about Evan's life, her writing and the men and women who loved her (and those she loved in return).
A number of her novels are ones I have valued all my adult life but I knew next to nothing about her life. The author used her research and primary material such as Evan's letters effectively. So I enjoyed what I read of the book and felt I had learned a lot and would take more from her novels when and if I read them again.
A number of her novels are ones I have valued all my adult life but I knew next to nothing about her life. The author used her research and primary material such as Evan's letters effectively. So I enjoyed what I read of the book and felt I had learned a lot and would take more from her novels when and if I read them again.
February 11, 2020
I read this book because George Eliot is one of my favourite 19th-century authors. It's an interesting premise - a novel about George Eliot's life (primarily the story of her relationship with Lewes and subsequently with Johnny Cross) - coupled with a present-day narrative concerning academics focussing on George Eliot from a post-modern perspective. I enjoyed the book but there were two aspects that didn't work for me. Firstly, I found it hard to have empathy for George Eliot in the dramatized portion (which was the majority of the book) - she came across as egotistical (despite the author telling us how empathetic she was as a writer and a person) and sometimes downright odd - which maybe she was, but it made me want to understand her psychology more. Secondly, I felt the back story had a lot of promise (for example, I would have liked to have heard the modern characters discuss their impressions of Eliot as both a person and a writer) but ultimately it turned into what was a kind of ordinary love story. Having said all that, I am definitely going to be re-reading Middlemarch soon.
December 8, 2019
The middle section of this book was far too long. It focussed on the refined feelings of GE and once established it became rather repetitive. The main themes of George Eliot’s life were well covered, and the pace picked up towards the rather distressing end of her life.
May 4, 2020
Not sure why I did!
February 16, 2021
A writer with many needs, mainly for love, is forced to hide her real name, her authorship and her own real love for a married man. A contemporary academic struggles with her own relationships. A series of characters walk through the rooms of a couple known for their stimulating conversation. This is George Eliot’s story, the story of a real woman called Marian Evans, in love with a married man, disgraced in the eyes of society, deeply wounded by the effective loss of her family, but discovering the strength to become the author of the sublime Middlemarch. Once ignored by polite society, her fame means that she is sought out by writers, artists and those desperate to attach themselves to one of the greatest authors. This is not the story of writing best sellers, even though she achieved that, but of the love of a woman who researched relentlessly, who sought approval, who loved and lived with a man despite all the criticism, who loved her friends, her house and so much, but remains something of an enigma. This is a complex book, as befits a complex person, and traces the sad withdrawal from society of a frequently hesitant women, her joy when friends supported her, her overwhelming love for George Lewes which extended to his sons. It is the story of a life in which passions are deeply felt, there is strength to shock, and it introduces a variety of characters such as Johnny Cross and the writer Edith Simcox. A memorable book of impressive depth, it provides a real insight into a much examined but still shadowy life.
The book opens with a Prologue set in 1851, when a young, impressionable Marian lives in the house of a Mr Chapman, publisher, who represents so much to her. Their relationship becomes physical as his voracious behaviour includes her for a brief time before she is dismissed, blamed and yet still ambitious for a literary career. In the twenty first century Kate and Ann examine a diary which can open up their own academic careers, as Kate especially wants, needs to find the truth. The novel begins in 1857, when Marian and Lewes come together in a relationship which cannot legally be marriage, but in every other way is a life long love. It comes at a cost, especially to Marian, as it is seen as a scandal, she loses acquaintances, but more seriously for her, Isaac, a beloved brother, refuses any communication with her. Seeking out temporary and permanent homes, Marian and Lewes seek to establish themselves as a couple, walking, writing, researching. Lewes fears for her obsessions, as she seems determined to immense herself in the obscure learning and languages which she wants to capture in her writing. With his loving care and encouragement she produces the best sellers, The Mill on the Floss, Adam Bede and other novels, against his shielding of her from certain reviews. Despite their unconventional relationship in the eyes of society, her adoption of the name George Eliot keeps eager readers in the dark about her identity. As they come to terms with a son’s illness, they also attract a group of admirers who include the artists and writers of the day, such Henry James, as well as those drawn by Marian’s personality such as Edith, who tries to capture her attraction in a passionately written diary.
This is in some respects a somber story, of a woman who loved deeply but whose loves were deemed shocking. It is the story a woman whose writings excited admiration and brought her fame that she struggled to deal with throughout her life. It is full of the little details that bring Marian and those around her. A big read, it succeeds in giving the impression of a writer coming to terms with life and love in a unique way.
The book opens with a Prologue set in 1851, when a young, impressionable Marian lives in the house of a Mr Chapman, publisher, who represents so much to her. Their relationship becomes physical as his voracious behaviour includes her for a brief time before she is dismissed, blamed and yet still ambitious for a literary career. In the twenty first century Kate and Ann examine a diary which can open up their own academic careers, as Kate especially wants, needs to find the truth. The novel begins in 1857, when Marian and Lewes come together in a relationship which cannot legally be marriage, but in every other way is a life long love. It comes at a cost, especially to Marian, as it is seen as a scandal, she loses acquaintances, but more seriously for her, Isaac, a beloved brother, refuses any communication with her. Seeking out temporary and permanent homes, Marian and Lewes seek to establish themselves as a couple, walking, writing, researching. Lewes fears for her obsessions, as she seems determined to immense herself in the obscure learning and languages which she wants to capture in her writing. With his loving care and encouragement she produces the best sellers, The Mill on the Floss, Adam Bede and other novels, against his shielding of her from certain reviews. Despite their unconventional relationship in the eyes of society, her adoption of the name George Eliot keeps eager readers in the dark about her identity. As they come to terms with a son’s illness, they also attract a group of admirers who include the artists and writers of the day, such Henry James, as well as those drawn by Marian’s personality such as Edith, who tries to capture her attraction in a passionately written diary.
This is in some respects a somber story, of a woman who loved deeply but whose loves were deemed shocking. It is the story a woman whose writings excited admiration and brought her fame that she struggled to deal with throughout her life. It is full of the little details that bring Marian and those around her. A big read, it succeeds in giving the impression of a writer coming to terms with life and love in a unique way.
July 21, 2023
For my full review: https://girlwithherheadinabook.co.uk/...
I read Middlemarch when I was pregnant with my first child, feeling that it was an important job to get done before parenthood arrived and my intellectual life would presumably come to an end. Fortunately, I've managed to keep up my book-fiend status in the intervening years but at the time it was a genuine concern. I had read Eliot's work before. I am even one of the apparently few people to thoroughly enjoy Silas Marner. Still, it was reading Middlemarch which first made me fall in love with George Eliot. There is something about Eliot's narrative voice which always seems to speak so personally to the reader. There can be little surprise that she attracted such devotion. In this novel, O'Shaughnessy tries to reach an interpretation of who was the woman behind the myth.
Opening with Marian Evans' first attempt to live independently in the home of John Chapman, O'Shaughnessy charts the author's most significant relationships. But this is no common piece of bio-fiction. Highly self-aware, it criss-crosses with a contemporary plot strand which sees two female academics competing to write a new interpretation of the famous author. One academic is called 'Kate' and is attempting to write a novel about George Eliot based on 'based on fact – biography, letters, diaries' while the other plans to write a feminist attack on Eliot for being insufficiently radical.
I had only really been aware of the broad strokes of Eliot's life. I knew that she had 'lived in sin' with the married George Henry Lewes for twenty-five years until the latter's death after which she married the much younger John Cross. I had never really considered what this actually meant in practical terms. O'Shaughnessy vividly describes the loneliness of a life outside of respectable society. There is such hypocrisy that men could openly visit the Lewes household while women must stay away to guard their reputations. I try to imagine a life starved of female conversation and the idea feels like a barren wasteland. Perhaps little wonder that she was not an ardent feminist.
But more than that, I was struck by the thread of her grief at being cut asunder from her siblings. Her beloved brother Isaac disowned her and encouraged their sisters to do likewise. The sorrow at this loss echoes through The Mill on the Floss where she immortalises Isaac as Tom. Her love for her family can also be found through Middlemarch which is widely seen as an homage to her father. O'Shaughnessy charts Eliot's ascent as celebrated author from anonymous beginnings and we see her pride in her success but yet behind it all there is Mary Ann Evans who longs deeply to be loved.
Mary Ann Evans, also known as Marian Lewes and George Eliot
In the beginning, the identity of George Eliot is a secret held securely between Marian and Lewes. Over time though, her literary fame gradually leaks out. Like her counterpart on the page, O'Shaughnessy makes heavy use of fact in her narrative. The dialogue is peppered with quotations from letters, such as Henry James' unkind description of Marian as 'magnificently ugly, deliciously hideous'. At other points, Marian's internal musings seem more like O'Shaughnessy's own reflections on her work.
As novelist, O'Shaughnessy is able to wander in places where she could not set foot as an academic. Where scholars might ponder as to the nature of Evans' relationship with John Chapman, In Love with George Eliot states confidently that they had sex. On the conundrum of Evans' late in life marriage, attendees at a conference may state that John Cross was clearly gay, but O'Shaughnessy underlines that the truth of the matter cannot be known by us. In the best possible way, In Love with George Eliot reminded me of Possession. We may pore over every line that these people wrote but we can never know the inner workings of their hearts.
It is interesting to consider Eliot in contrast to the other great authors within English literature. Within her own lifetime, she had a number of passionate devotees. Edith Simcox sat at her feet and called her 'Mother'. Maria Congreve is also adoring. Then those who showed their admiration in a more professional context. This is all quite a contrast to Jane Austen who lived a spinster life at home or the Brontë governess and vicar daughters. Marian Evans had an unashamedly intellectual life. While I am aware that other interpretations of Evans' life with Lewes do exist, O'Shaughnessy is emphatic about their contentment together. For all that Marian rejected traditional domesticity, she certainly liked to be called 'Mrs Lewes'.
As a reader, I was far more interested in Marian Evans than I was in the backbiting academics who studied her. O'Shaughnessy granted a back story to the warm familiar voice that has become familiar to me from Eliot's fiction. The loving support she found with Lewes is captured with such realism, then the lurching grief as it becomes clear that he is dying. Her loneliness in her not-quite-widowhood is also vividly described. But there is such heartbreaking sorrow in the humiliation of her marriage to Cross. It seems here like such a human action to reach out for promised affection in the wake of her grief. John Cross' infamous suicide attempt during their honeymoon feels doubly agonising in this context. Indeed, for all O'Shaughnessy's attempts to explain it - heatstroke, the pressure of his new social status as husband to a famous author - it still remains a mystery.
George Henry Lewes
In Love With George Eliot considers what it means to be both author and human. Marian Evans knows that to marry again will disappoint the public who have built a narrative around her love affair with the now deceased Lewes but yet she cannot bring herself to live in celibacy for the rest of her days. Where her public persona George Eliot was able to sit on a pedestal and rain down her wisdom and warmth, in private Marian was a fallible human who stumbled and fell down in public. Yet it is O'Shaughnessy's portrayal of this utter vulnerability which brings Marian to life so vividly - and it is this which makes us fall in love with her all over again.
Part way through reading this book, I felt my usual twinge of regret whenever I start to enjoy a book that I have borrowed from the library. It is a hangover from childhood when my mother informally banned me from buying pre-read books. It is as if even as an adult there is some prohibition from purchasing something I have already borrowed. However, fate intervened in the form of my toddler, who I discovered carefully peeling the opening pages out of the book. Cringing, I explained the matter to the librarians who responded with incredible understanding. Not only did they not fine me but they graciously allowed me to purchase the book at a reduced price to save it from the recycling bin. In an indirect way, my daughter has gifted me the book to keep. That being said, I have been keeping paperbacks carefully out of her reach ever since.
In Love with George Eliot has lingered in my mind since completing it. There is a sad symmetry in her successful but unofficial union with Lewes and then unsuccessful but official marriage to Cross. While the modern day love story is not as compelling, by stepping into present day literary criticism, O'Shaughnessy lets in a whole kaleidoscope of viewpoints on Eliot the writer and woman. More than anything though, the novel felt like a tug at my sleeve to read more Eliot or at least to finally tackle Adam Bede. We are best not to go chasing too far after this marvellous and mercurial woman. Instead, we are best to seek her where she wanted to be found - on the page.
I read Middlemarch when I was pregnant with my first child, feeling that it was an important job to get done before parenthood arrived and my intellectual life would presumably come to an end. Fortunately, I've managed to keep up my book-fiend status in the intervening years but at the time it was a genuine concern. I had read Eliot's work before. I am even one of the apparently few people to thoroughly enjoy Silas Marner. Still, it was reading Middlemarch which first made me fall in love with George Eliot. There is something about Eliot's narrative voice which always seems to speak so personally to the reader. There can be little surprise that she attracted such devotion. In this novel, O'Shaughnessy tries to reach an interpretation of who was the woman behind the myth.
Opening with Marian Evans' first attempt to live independently in the home of John Chapman, O'Shaughnessy charts the author's most significant relationships. But this is no common piece of bio-fiction. Highly self-aware, it criss-crosses with a contemporary plot strand which sees two female academics competing to write a new interpretation of the famous author. One academic is called 'Kate' and is attempting to write a novel about George Eliot based on 'based on fact – biography, letters, diaries' while the other plans to write a feminist attack on Eliot for being insufficiently radical.
I had only really been aware of the broad strokes of Eliot's life. I knew that she had 'lived in sin' with the married George Henry Lewes for twenty-five years until the latter's death after which she married the much younger John Cross. I had never really considered what this actually meant in practical terms. O'Shaughnessy vividly describes the loneliness of a life outside of respectable society. There is such hypocrisy that men could openly visit the Lewes household while women must stay away to guard their reputations. I try to imagine a life starved of female conversation and the idea feels like a barren wasteland. Perhaps little wonder that she was not an ardent feminist.
But more than that, I was struck by the thread of her grief at being cut asunder from her siblings. Her beloved brother Isaac disowned her and encouraged their sisters to do likewise. The sorrow at this loss echoes through The Mill on the Floss where she immortalises Isaac as Tom. Her love for her family can also be found through Middlemarch which is widely seen as an homage to her father. O'Shaughnessy charts Eliot's ascent as celebrated author from anonymous beginnings and we see her pride in her success but yet behind it all there is Mary Ann Evans who longs deeply to be loved.
Mary Ann Evans, also known as Marian Lewes and George Eliot
In the beginning, the identity of George Eliot is a secret held securely between Marian and Lewes. Over time though, her literary fame gradually leaks out. Like her counterpart on the page, O'Shaughnessy makes heavy use of fact in her narrative. The dialogue is peppered with quotations from letters, such as Henry James' unkind description of Marian as 'magnificently ugly, deliciously hideous'. At other points, Marian's internal musings seem more like O'Shaughnessy's own reflections on her work.
As novelist, O'Shaughnessy is able to wander in places where she could not set foot as an academic. Where scholars might ponder as to the nature of Evans' relationship with John Chapman, In Love with George Eliot states confidently that they had sex. On the conundrum of Evans' late in life marriage, attendees at a conference may state that John Cross was clearly gay, but O'Shaughnessy underlines that the truth of the matter cannot be known by us. In the best possible way, In Love with George Eliot reminded me of Possession. We may pore over every line that these people wrote but we can never know the inner workings of their hearts.
It is interesting to consider Eliot in contrast to the other great authors within English literature. Within her own lifetime, she had a number of passionate devotees. Edith Simcox sat at her feet and called her 'Mother'. Maria Congreve is also adoring. Then those who showed their admiration in a more professional context. This is all quite a contrast to Jane Austen who lived a spinster life at home or the Brontë governess and vicar daughters. Marian Evans had an unashamedly intellectual life. While I am aware that other interpretations of Evans' life with Lewes do exist, O'Shaughnessy is emphatic about their contentment together. For all that Marian rejected traditional domesticity, she certainly liked to be called 'Mrs Lewes'.
As a reader, I was far more interested in Marian Evans than I was in the backbiting academics who studied her. O'Shaughnessy granted a back story to the warm familiar voice that has become familiar to me from Eliot's fiction. The loving support she found with Lewes is captured with such realism, then the lurching grief as it becomes clear that he is dying. Her loneliness in her not-quite-widowhood is also vividly described. But there is such heartbreaking sorrow in the humiliation of her marriage to Cross. It seems here like such a human action to reach out for promised affection in the wake of her grief. John Cross' infamous suicide attempt during their honeymoon feels doubly agonising in this context. Indeed, for all O'Shaughnessy's attempts to explain it - heatstroke, the pressure of his new social status as husband to a famous author - it still remains a mystery.
George Henry Lewes
In Love With George Eliot considers what it means to be both author and human. Marian Evans knows that to marry again will disappoint the public who have built a narrative around her love affair with the now deceased Lewes but yet she cannot bring herself to live in celibacy for the rest of her days. Where her public persona George Eliot was able to sit on a pedestal and rain down her wisdom and warmth, in private Marian was a fallible human who stumbled and fell down in public. Yet it is O'Shaughnessy's portrayal of this utter vulnerability which brings Marian to life so vividly - and it is this which makes us fall in love with her all over again.
Part way through reading this book, I felt my usual twinge of regret whenever I start to enjoy a book that I have borrowed from the library. It is a hangover from childhood when my mother informally banned me from buying pre-read books. It is as if even as an adult there is some prohibition from purchasing something I have already borrowed. However, fate intervened in the form of my toddler, who I discovered carefully peeling the opening pages out of the book. Cringing, I explained the matter to the librarians who responded with incredible understanding. Not only did they not fine me but they graciously allowed me to purchase the book at a reduced price to save it from the recycling bin. In an indirect way, my daughter has gifted me the book to keep. That being said, I have been keeping paperbacks carefully out of her reach ever since.
In Love with George Eliot has lingered in my mind since completing it. There is a sad symmetry in her successful but unofficial union with Lewes and then unsuccessful but official marriage to Cross. While the modern day love story is not as compelling, by stepping into present day literary criticism, O'Shaughnessy lets in a whole kaleidoscope of viewpoints on Eliot the writer and woman. More than anything though, the novel felt like a tug at my sleeve to read more Eliot or at least to finally tackle Adam Bede. We are best not to go chasing too far after this marvellous and mercurial woman. Instead, we are best to seek her where she wanted to be found - on the page.
May 3, 2020
‘The train had shuddered to a halt.’
In this novel, Kathy O’Shaughnessy imagines Marian Evans, the woman most of us know best as the novelist George Eliot. Who was this woman? This great Victorian novelist who wrote some of the best novels of her era.
In this novel, and in real life, Marian Evans was a scandalous figure. She lived, without the benefit of lawful matrimony, with George Henry Lewes. She lived in sin: an affront to polite society. How much, I wonder, did this shunning have an impact on her writing?
As I turned the pages, I was transported into the world imagined by Ms O’Shaughnessy. A world enhanced by quotes from Marian Evans’s letters and diaries. A world which encompasses her life through her relationship with George Lewes, her writing, her fame and her second marriage.
Interspersed between the chapters set within Marian’s life are present-day chapters in which Kate, Ann and Hans are working on interpreting Marian Evans as both a writer and a woman. It is an interesting dual journey: an imagined life being lived; a lived life researched. A novelist can do this where a biographer cannot.
I grew up with George Eliot books in my home, but where I was encouraged to research the lives of other Victorian novelists, George Eliot was not discussed. I can’t remember when I first learned George Eliot was a pseudonym: it would have been after I first read ‘The Mill on The Floss’.
I picked up this novel after a couple of friends recommended it, and I am glad I did. The bare biographical facts of Marian Evans’s life have never been enough to draw me further into her fiction, but this novel has me wanting to read more. Ms O’Shaughnessy has succeeded in breathing life into the woman Marian Evans, the novelist George Eliot, in making me curious about her work.
Jennifer Cameron-Smith
In this novel, Kathy O’Shaughnessy imagines Marian Evans, the woman most of us know best as the novelist George Eliot. Who was this woman? This great Victorian novelist who wrote some of the best novels of her era.
In this novel, and in real life, Marian Evans was a scandalous figure. She lived, without the benefit of lawful matrimony, with George Henry Lewes. She lived in sin: an affront to polite society. How much, I wonder, did this shunning have an impact on her writing?
As I turned the pages, I was transported into the world imagined by Ms O’Shaughnessy. A world enhanced by quotes from Marian Evans’s letters and diaries. A world which encompasses her life through her relationship with George Lewes, her writing, her fame and her second marriage.
Interspersed between the chapters set within Marian’s life are present-day chapters in which Kate, Ann and Hans are working on interpreting Marian Evans as both a writer and a woman. It is an interesting dual journey: an imagined life being lived; a lived life researched. A novelist can do this where a biographer cannot.
I grew up with George Eliot books in my home, but where I was encouraged to research the lives of other Victorian novelists, George Eliot was not discussed. I can’t remember when I first learned George Eliot was a pseudonym: it would have been after I first read ‘The Mill on The Floss’.
I picked up this novel after a couple of friends recommended it, and I am glad I did. The bare biographical facts of Marian Evans’s life have never been enough to draw me further into her fiction, but this novel has me wanting to read more. Ms O’Shaughnessy has succeeded in breathing life into the woman Marian Evans, the novelist George Eliot, in making me curious about her work.
Jennifer Cameron-Smith
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