The Quest for Anonymity: The Novels of George EliotIn a new treatment of Eliot's booklength fiction, Alley argues that from the very moment she adopted a male pseudonym through to the major epic and tragic novels of her later life, the transcendence of fame was her major consideration. Focusing on one novel in each chapter, the study shows how the plights of Eliot's heroines and heroes do not end in frustration but in an affirmation of anonymous achievement, "the growing good of the world." For Eliot, heroism emerges through disclosure, rather than grandly executed action, and since the revelation requires discerning effort on the part of those watching, both observer and observed are celebrated. |
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Page 20
... given empire and fame as exter- nal reward and incentive . Eliot thus sets her obscure characters a hard task , and , as Elizabeth Ermarth concludes in her recent study , " To find the anonymity of the effort depressing implies a taste ...
... given empire and fame as exter- nal reward and incentive . Eliot thus sets her obscure characters a hard task , and , as Elizabeth Ermarth concludes in her recent study , " To find the anonymity of the effort depressing implies a taste ...
Page 127
... given achieve the greatest personal sense of fulfillment . In between we find Dorothea , who , approaching the roar on the other side of silence and driven by a " keen memory of her own life " ( ch . 76 , 823 ) , achieves through hard ...
... given achieve the greatest personal sense of fulfillment . In between we find Dorothea , who , approaching the roar on the other side of silence and driven by a " keen memory of her own life " ( ch . 76 , 823 ) , achieves through hard ...
Page 153
... given the novel's tragic and Miltonic epitaph , but be- cause Gwendolen is the unnamed heroine behind it , she receives the greater glory . And again she parallels her narrator . As the narrator of the novel is subsumed in the final ...
... given the novel's tragic and Miltonic epitaph , but be- cause Gwendolen is the unnamed heroine behind it , she receives the greater glory . And again she parallels her narrator . As the narrator of the novel is subsumed in the final ...
Contents
Acknowledgments | 9 |
Scenes of Clerical Life and the Art of Indirect | 27 |
Heroic Perception in Adam Bede | 40 |
Copyright | |
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achieve action Adam Bede allusion Amos Barton androgynous anonymous hero anonymous heroism Antigone Ariadne artist Bardo becomes better Casaubon chapter 17 character classical Colonus context critics Daniel Deronda dlemarch Dorothea dramatic Eppie Esther F. R. Leavis Farebrother father Felix Holt female fiction final Floss Garth George Eliot Gilfil Gillian Beer Greek Gwendolen Harleth healing Hetty human ideal intellectual Irwine Irwine's Jennifer Uglow Klesmer literary living Lydgate Lydgate's Lyon Maggie Maggie's male masculine memory Middlemarch Mill Milton mind Mirah mock-heroic moral Mordecai narrative narrator novel obscure Oedipus Ogg's once past and present perceive perhaps Piero Piero di Cosimo portrait prestige Prometheus protagonist quest reader reaffirmed heroic voice road to Emmaus role Romola Rufus Scenes of Clerical seems sense serves Silas Marner Silas's soul speaks story suggest sympathy tenderness tion Tom's tragedy tragic transcend Transome Tryan Tulliver vision woman Woolf writes