#felix holt the radical

[philosophybits]

An election is coming. Universal peace is declared, and the foxes have a sincere interest in prolonging the lives of the poultry.

George Eliot, Felix Holt, the Radical

#philosophy #quotes #George Eliot #Felix Holt the Radical #elections #lies #politics

[aliteraryprincess]

Esther found it impossible to read in these days; her life was a book which she seemed herself to be constructing--trying to make character clear before her, and looking into the ways of destiny.

George Eliot, Felix Holt, the Radical

#booklr #book quotes #george eliot #felix holt #felix holt the radical #books

[quotation--marks]

There was a great deal of tarnished folding and dinginess on the walls and furniture of this smaller room, but the pictures above the bookcases were all of a cheerful kind: portraits in pastel of pearly-skinned ladies with hair-powder, blue ribbons, and low-bodices; a splendid portrait in oils of a Transome in the gorgeous dress of the Restoration; another of a Transome in his boyhood, with his hand on the neck of a small pony; and a large Flemish battle-piece, where war seemed only a picturesque blue-and-red accident in a vast sunny expanse of plain and sky. 

George Eliot, Felix Holt, The Radical

#felix holt the radical #george eliot #1866 #1860s #19th century #english literature #queue pierce my soul

[catmint1]

An election is coming. Universal peace is declared and the foxes have a sincere interest in prolonging the lives of the poultry.

George Eliot, Felix Holt, the Radical

#quotes #george evans #felix holt the radical #politics #elections #hypocrisy #political humor #mary ann evans #nom de plume #foxes #poultry #text

[ardor-mohr]

"To get an idea of someone's misery, you have only to take a look at their pleasures."

— George Eliot, Felix Holt, the Radical (1866)

[beyourselfchulanmaria]

成為你本來想成為的人，永不嫌太遲。 It is never too late to be what you might have been.

─ George Eliot (1819–1880) 喬治‧艾略特，英國十九世紀的女作家，出生於英國沃里克郡的納尼頓。

Mary Ann Evans ; alternatively Mary Anne or Marian, known by her pen name George Eliot, was an English novelist, poet, journalist, translator and one of the leading writers of the Victorian era. She wrote seven novels: Adam Bede (1859), The Mill on the Floss (1860), Silas Marner (1861), Romola (1862–63), Felix Holt, the Radical (1866), Middlemarch (1871–72) and Daniel Deronda (1876). Like Charles Dickens and Thomas Hardy, she emerged from provincial England; most of her works are set there. She is known for their realism, psychological insight, sense of place and detailed depiction of the countryside. George Eliot documentary 2007.

1862年，���略特開始撰寫《米德鎮的春天》，不久因故停筆，次年她結合一些分散的情節，重新架構，之後於1871~1872年完成。1874年出版單卷本後，書中大量分析主角心理的寫法引起文壇人士的注目，並獲得肯定與讚揚。

這本書寫實的描述維多利亞社會的婚姻觀念和女性角色的轉變，被評論家認為是英國寫實主義文學的代表作之一，讓她在英國文學界乃至世界文學界中都佔有一席之地。

著作有《艾摩斯．巴頓》（Amos Barton）、《亞當．柏德》（Adam Bede）、《佛羅斯河畔上的磨坊》（The Mill on the Floss）、《織工馬南傳》（Silas Marner）、《丹尼爾．德隆達》（Daniel Deronda ）、《教區生活場》（Scenes of Clerical Life）等。

George Eliot documentary 👍

#Youtube

[venicepearl]

Mary Ann Evans (22 November 1819 – 22 December 1880), known by her pen name George Eliot, was an English novelist, poet, journalist, translator, and one of the leading writers of the Victorian era. She wrote seven novels: Adam Bede (1859), The Mill on the Floss (1860), Silas Marner (1861), Romola (1862–63), Felix Holt, the Radical (1866), Middlemarch (1871–72) and Daniel Deronda (1876). Like Charles Dickens and Thomas Hardy, she emerged from provincial England; most of her works are set there. Her works are known for their realism, psychological insight, sense of place and detailed depiction of the countryside.

Middlemarch was described by the novelist Virginia Woolf as "one of the few English novels written for grown-up people" and by Martin Amis and Julian Barnes as the greatest novel in the English language.

#Mary Ann Evans #George Eliot #women in history #women in literature #XIX century #people #portrait #paintings #art #arte

[1864-66readingproject]

This is a sideblog for my own sort of personal reading project for the next couple of years. Based on the Reading Like a Victorian website, I have picked six/seven books published serially during 1864-1866 and will 'follow along' throughout 2024-2026, probably also reading some of the other publications from those years in their correct 'serial moment.'

See below the cut for the works I'll be reading and how I'll be tagging, etc.

Why 1864-66?

It lines up with my more general reading goals (at some point in 2024 I hope to move from a focus on literature from 1837-1859 to a focus on literature from 1860-1879)

It's the two-year period on RLV with the most novels I haven't already read (which have librivox recordings available - I have a chronic illness and have to spend a lot of my non-working time lying down, so the vast majority of my 'reading' is in audio form.)

The books I'll be reading serially are:

Luttrell of Arran by Charles Lever in 15 monthly parts, Dec 1863 to Feb 1865 (I didn't decide I was going to include this one in time to begin in Dec 2023, so read 2 parts in Jan 2024, and will otherwise follow schedule until Feb 2025) [This one is the only one not on librivox - I'm using a text-to-speech app instead]

The Doctor's Wife by Mary Elizabeth Braddon in 12 monthly parts, Jan to Dec 1864 (Jan to Dec 2024)

Our Mutual Friend by Charles Dickens in 19 monthly parts (the last month having approx twice the normal number of chapters, as a sort of double-installment), May 1864 to Nov 1865 (May 2024 to Nov 2025)

Wives and Daughters by Elizabeth Gaskell in 18 monthly parts, Aug 1864 to Jan 1866 (Aug 2024 to Jan 2026)

Armadale by Wilkie Collins in 20 monthly parts, Nov 1864 to May 1866 (Nov 2024 to May 2026)

The Belton Estate by Anthony Trollope in 16 twice-monthly parts, May 1865 to Jan 1866 (May 2025 to Jan 2026)

Cradock Nowell: A Tale of the New Forest by R.D. Blackmore in 16 monthly parts, May 1865 to Aug 1866 (May 2025 to Aug 2026

The 'other' works from 1864 to 1866 I hope to read at the corresponding 'serial moment' are:

Henry Dunbar, the Story of an Outcast by Mary Elizabeth Braddon, published as a 3 volume novel in May 1864 following previous serialisation (May 2024)

Brother Jacob by George Eliot, a short story published in a magazine in July 1864 (July 2024)

Enoch Arden by Alfred, Lord Tennyson, a (narrative?) poem published November 1864 (Nov 2024)

Alice's Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll, children's story published in one volume Nov 1865 (Nov 2025)

Felix Holt, the Radical by George Eliot, a three-volume novel published in August 1866 (Aug 2026)

I'll also be 'binge' reading other works (mainly Victorian, initially focusing on the period 1837-1859, then moving on to the 1860s, then on to the 1870s), so I'm not going to be *strictly* staying in the 'serial moment'... but it will be an interesting project for me nonetheless.

Tagging:

The reason I'm doing this on a sideblog rather than my main is that I want to post fairly unfiltered thoughts, and not to spend much time dithering over a post; therefore please be aware that this blog is highly likely to post untagged spoilers for the works, and probably untagged triggers.

For the most part, I will also not be using the standard tags for the works, as I don't want to clog up the main tags. I'll be using alternative tags like so:

#LoA (Luttrell of Arran)

#TDW (The Doctor's Wife)

#OMF (Our Mutual Friend)

#W&D (Wives and Daughters)

#Arma (Armadale)

#TBE (The Belton Estate)

#CN (Cradock Nowell)

#HD (Henry Dunbar)

#EA (Enoch Arden)

#AiW (Alice's Adventures in Wonderland)

#FH (Felix Holt)

I may also tag with the month & year (e.g. #Jan 1864) and serialised part (e.g. #part 1). When I tag characters, I think I will generally do first name & work initials (e.g. for Bella Wilfer from Our Mutual Friend: #bella OMF) unless I want the post to go in the main tag for that character.

Things I hope to pay particular attention to:

Serialisation: serialised parts, how the part-breaks are utilised (or not), how characters who have been out of the narrative for a few months are recalled to mind (or not), etc

The characters of Cynthia Kirkpatrick (Wives and Daughters) and Bella Wilfer (Our Mutual Friend)... W&D and OMF are the only two books of the above that I've read before, and I don't think it would really have occurred to me to compare them as they are so different in setting and tone, but actually - once I began thinking about it - I realised that both of them explore, in different ways, the psychological effect of financial insecurity on lower-middle class young women, and how that affects their approach to life and the choices they make and so on, so l think that will be an interesting thing to consider as I read. I will also consider if characters in any of the other works also explore similar ideas.

Social class as it relates to romantic storylines (again, I think there are some possible parallels to be drawn between W&D and OMF at least)

Class more generally, and all the different things that contribute to class and perceived class (wealth, posessions, income, occupation, education, birth & family, company & connections, 'manner', 'respectability', etc)

Women and reputation

Women in sensation plots...

Sensation plots more generally... In particular, I want to see if I can figure out why I've never seen anyone categorise OMF as a Sensation novel, despite it being from the right time period and including a lot of the hallmarks of the Sensation genre, including questions of identity, deception, crime, scheming, moral dilemmas, etc. I'm hoping that reading it alongside a few Sensation novels (Cradock Nowell is apparently a sensation novel, as are Armadale and both Braddon novels) and a few novels from authors associated with non-sensation literature (Gaskell, Trollope and Eliot), will help me figure out what I'm missing... [Actually, between writing the above and posting, I found this from the review of OMF by E.S. Dallas, published in The Times 29 Nov 1865: "The story, of course, we are not going to tell. It is very ingenious, and the plot is put together with an elaboration which we scarcely expect to find in a novel published in parts. All we shall say of it is, that those readers who pant for what is called "sensation" may feast in it to their heart's content on sensation; and that those who care more for quiet pictures and studies of character will also find that the author has provided for them. Mr. Dickens's range is wide, [...]"]]

Crime and morality

Violence

The role of the urban and the rural

Wives and Daughters contains a woman who becomes the wife of a doctor, and based on the title, I rather assume The Doctor's Wife does too... this could be a very shallow parallel but I guess I'll find out!

The last installment of W&D... I'm wondering if (by that time) being used to the 'rhythm' of the novel's serial publication will shed any sort of light on how things might have played out, beyond what is explicitly given...

Possible queer readings, esp of Our Mutual Friend

Other things worth mentioning:

The illustration used in my header and icon is by Marcus Stone, for the original serialisation of Our Mutual Friend.

I will also be attempting to do some relevant academic reading around some of the themes, etc, but 1) I want to avoid spoilers for the works I haven't already read, and 2) I don't have a lot of time/energy due to being both chronically ill and employed, so I don't know how successful I'll be at that.

#pinned post #blog admin #project tag

[georgeeliotworld]

Felix Holt, 1866. I thoroughly enjoyed this big, rich, “baggy monster “ of a novel. It takes some time to get the story set up, and the pace in the first half is admittedly slow, but I enjoyed the opportunity to track down Eliot’s historical, literary, religious, and legal references in my annotated Penguin edition and do some reading about historical events of the time. In contrast, the second half is eventful and dramatic on a more personal level and very fast paced. The pervading storyline is the electoral contest between progressives advocating to make voting and representation more equitable and the resistant conservative forces on the eve of the Reform Act of 1832. Another involves the complex history of Transome family whose heir, Harold Transome, breaks with Tory family tradition and runs for office as a Radical. The inheritance of the Transome estate is a labyrinthine and dramatic legal subplot. There is also a love triangle: affluent and genteel Harold Transome and poor, idealistically progressive Felix Holt, vie for the love of Esther Lyon, daughter of a poor Dissenting minister. Finally there is Esther Lyon’s thought provoking coming of age story. I loved Eliot’s ever beautiful prose, the views of the different strata of society, and how she interweaves individual and historical events. I recommend it!

Spoilers Alert:

I finished volume 1. It lays out the cast: The Transomes, a Tory family whose heir, Harold has returned home from many years abroad and much to his mother’s disappointment has declared himself a Radical candidate for office. The Debarrys, another Tory family whose heir, Philip is a Tory candidate. There’s also the Dissenter Rev. Rufus Lyon and his daughter Esther and finally their acquaintance Felix Holt, a supporter of the Radical cause. Class division between the conservative Torys vs the liberal Whigs and Radicals is obviously a major theme, see opposing views expressed by the conservative and liberal newspapers, pp 108-109. The divisions can also be seen in church affiliation: conservatives with C of E and liberals with the dissenting church generally. Even the hotels had their political allegiances, p204 !

In book two there is a burgeoning closeness between Esther Lyons and Felix Holt along with her maturation. She grows from self centeredness and superficial interests to an increasing appreciation for her father and aspiration to the idealism of Felix Holt. We also learn the true history of Esther Lyon which sets off an inheritance legal drama. This drama is initiated by Mr. Jermyns, a conniving lawyer, for his personal gain and complicated by the competing interests of Mr. Johnson, his underling and Mr. Christian, the servant of Mr. Philip Debarry. Finally, there is an alcohol fueled riot on Election Day in which Felix Holt is wrongly imprisoned for serious crimes.

In volume 3, the Transome inheritance drama comes to a head. Esther is torn between the sensibility of accepting Harold Transome and her more passionate feelings towards Felix. Felix Holt’s trial plays out, and Harold Transome’s unexpected history comes to light.

Memorable excerpts:

There is much pain that is quite noiseless; and vibrations that make human agonies are often a mere whisper in the roar of hurrying existence. There are glances of hatred that stab and raise no cry of murder; robberies that leave man or woman for ever beggared of peace and joy, yet kept secret by the sufferer – committed to no sound except that of low moans in the night, seen in no writing except that made on the face by the slow months of suppressed anguish and early morning tears. Many an inherited sorrow that has marred a life has been breathed in no human ear.

Why do they build churches and endow them that their sons may get paid well for preaching a Saviour, and making themselves as little like Him as can be? If I want to believe in Jesus Christ, I must shut my eyes for fear I should see a parson. And what’s a bishop? A bishop is a parson dressed up, who sits in the house of lords to help and throw out reform bills. And because it’s hard to get anything in the shape of a man to dress himself up like that, and to do such work, they give him a palace for it, and plenty of thousands a year. And then they cry out - “The church is in danger,” - “the poor man’s church.” and why is it the poor man’s church? Because he can have a seat for nothing. I think it is for nothing; for it would be hard to tell what he gets by it. If the poor man had a vote in the matter, I think he’d choose a different sort of a church to what that is. But do you think the aristocrats will ever alter it, if the belly doesn’t pinch them? Not they. It’s part of their monopoly. They’ll supply us with our religion like everything else, and get a profit on it. They’ll give us plenty of heaven. We may have land there. That’s the sort of religion they like – a religion that gives us working men heaven, and nothing else. But we’ll offer to change with ‘em. Will give them back some of their heaven, and take it out in something for us and our children in this world. p290

To be right in great memorable moments, is perhaps the thing we need most desire for ourselves. p309

Examples of Victorian parlance: “Enlarge not your grief by more than warrantable grounds.”In modern parlance: Don’t worry too much at this point.😁

“let’s go to my study and consider this writing further.“ In modern parlance: let’s go to my study and read it again.😁

Under the stimulus of small many-mixed motives like these (men like Jermyn, Christian, & Johnson), a great deal of business has been done in the world by well-clad and in 1833, clean-shaven men, whose names are on charity-lists, and who do not know that they are base.“ p359

And ‘tis a strange truth that only in the agony of parting we look into the depths of love. p428

If there’s anything our people want convincing of, it is, that there’s some dignity and happiness for a man other than changing his station. p435

To be continued…

#george eliot #felix holt

[philosophybits]

I'm proof against that word failure. I've seen behind it. The only failure a man ought to fear is failure of cleaving to the purpose he sees to be best.

George Eliot, Felix Holt, the Radical

#philosophy #quotes #George Eliot #Felix Holt the Radical #life #failure #fear #determination #values

[aliteraryprincess]

#booklr #george eliot #middlemarch #daniel deronda #the mill on the floss #adam bede #silas marner #romola #felix holt the radical #scenes of clerical life

[victoriansuggestion]

suffer from nervous pains

#Felix Holt the Radical #George Eliot #Death and Disease

[quotation--marks]

Esther felt that she had prefixed an impossible ‘if’ to that result. But now she had known Felix,  her conception of what a happy love must be had become like a dissolving view, in which the once-clear images were gradually melting into new forms and new colours. The favourite Byronic heroes were beginning to look something like last night’s decorations seen in the sober dawn. So far does a little leaven spread within us - so incalculable is the effect of one personality on another. Behind all Esther’s thoughts, like an unacknowledged yet constraining presence, there was the sense, that if Felix Holt were to love her, her life would be exalted into something quite new - into a sort of difficult blessedness, such as one may imagine in beings who are conscious of painfully growing into the possession of higher powers.

George Eliot, Felix Holt, The Radical

#felix holt the radical #george eliot #1866 #1860s #19th century #english literature #queue pierce my soul

[symphonyoflovenet]

…life is like our game at whist…I don’t enjoy the game much, but I like to play my cards well, and see what will be the end of it…

George Eliot, Felix Holt, The Radical

#George Eliot #lit #literature #quotes #quote #text #felix holt #the radical #life #game #inspiration #whist

[relatablepoetryandquotes]

“I’m proof against that word failure. I’ve seen behind it. The only failure a man ought to fear is failure of cleaving to the purpose he sees to be best.” - George Eliot, Felix Holt, the Radical

#books #quotes #philosophy #wisdom #psychology

[wahkantakoda]

"Opinion is the lowest form of human knowledge; it requires no accountability, no understanding. The highest form of knowledge is empathy, for it requires us to suspend our egos and live in another’s world. It requires profound, purpose-larger-than-the-self kind of understanding..." Mary Ann Evans, known by her pen name George Eliot, she was an English novelist, poet, journalist, translator and one of the leading writers of the Victorian era. She wrote seven novels: Adam Bede, The Mill on the Floss, Silas Marner, Romola, Felix Holt, the Radical, Middlemarch and Daniel Deronda. Born: November 22, 1819, Nuneaton, United Kingdom Died: December 22, 1880, Chelsea, London, United Kingdom