Classics and the Western Canon discussion

We'll try one folder for both George Eliot herself and for the background of the novel, since I think they're intertwined. If things get too mixed up or convoluted, I'll split these out into two topics, but let's start with one.

The Oxford Companion to George Eliot, citing to Eliot's letters [v. 312, 314], comments that "The origins of the opening scene of the novel around the roulette table at Leubronn can be traced back to the visit George Eliot and G.H. Lewes made to the German spa of Bad Homburg in September 1872, where she wrote the Finale to Middlemarch. There she caught sight of a young Englishwoman, 'Miss Leigh, Byron's greatniece,' gambling compulsively in the casino, her fresh young face standing out from the ugly and stupid ones around her in a setting for which 'Hell' seemed to be the only appropriate name."

Everyman wrote: "...There she caught sight of a young Englishwoman, 'Miss Leigh, Byron's greatniece,' gambling compulsively in the casino..."

How apropos it sounds, related to the great Lord Byron. :)