The Oxford Handbook of George Eliot

by Atkinson, Juliette; Cohn, Elisha

• ISBN13: 9780192856593
• ISBN10: 0192856596
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2025-06-13
• Publisher: Oxford University Press

Summary

George Eliot repeatedly stressed the aesthetic and ethical importance of viewing subjects from different perspectives: The Oxford Handbook of George Eliot presents fifty-two perspectives on this major nineteenth-century writer. Together, the chapters provide the most wide-ranging collection of essays on Eliot's life and works published to date. While providing fresh perspectives on the important themes running through Eliot's works, the volume is distinctive in placing a concern with literary form at its heart. Part I questions longstanding conceptions of Eliot as a figure isolated by scandal by exploring her personal and intellectual relationships with her contemporaries. Part II focuses on Eliot's close engagement with earlier poets, dramatists, and novelists, as well as with painting, sculpture, and music, and in so doing probes Eliot's interest in the nature of influence itself. Part III explores the full range of Eliot's unpublished and published works: chapters on each of the novels make a renewed case for the centrality of Eliot's works to current scholarly debates about nineteenth-century literature; other chapters offer ways into texts that have either been neglected (such as the novellas and poetry) or more often mined for biographical and historical contexts than given a close reading (such as the notebooks, manuscripts, letters, and journals). Part IV gives close scrutiny to those aspects of literary form which characterise Eliot's writing, particularly her preoccupation with genre and her handling of voice, both that of her narrators and her characters. Part V assesses the complexity of Eliot's legacy for later writers, concluding with five shorter essays which tackle the nature and impact of the enduring cultural status of Middlemarch as a (often declared the) 'great English novel'.

Author Biography

Juliette Atkinson, University College London,Elisha Cohn, Cornell University

Juliette Atkinson studied at UCL and the University of Oxford. Since 2009 she has worked at UCL, where she is now Professor of English. Her research focuses on three main areas: nineteenth-century fiction (especially the work of George Eliot, two of whose novels she has edited for the Oxford World's Classics series), life-writing (she has published on the Victorian preoccupation with 'obscure' lives) and transnational literary works, and Anglo-French exchanges in particular. She is also an editor (Victorian-present) for The Review of English Studies.

Elisha Cohn received her PhD from the Johns Hopkins University. Since 2011, she has worked in the Department of Literatures in English at Cornell University, where she is currently Associate Professor. Her research and teaching focuses on theory of the novel from the nineteenth century to present; literature and science; and affect theory. She is the author of Still Life: Suspended Development in the Victorian Novel (OUP, 2016) and essays in Victorian Studies, Victorian Literature and Culture, Contemporary Literature, and elsewhere.

Table of Contents

Introduction, Juliette Atkinson and Elisha CohnPart I: Life and Networks1. George Eliot's Life-Writing, Philip Davis2. George Eliot among Evangelicals, Dissenters, and Freethinkers, Sebastian Lecourt3. Marian Evans, 'George Eliot' and Nineteenth-Century Media Communities, Fionnuala Dillane4. George Eliot among Philosophers and Scientists, Supritha Rajan5. George Eliot and Contemporary Writers, Elsie Michie6. George Eliot Abroad, Nancy HenryPart II: Influences7. George Eliot and the Classics, Isobel Hurst8. George Eliot and Early Modern Practical Divinity, Anthony Ossa-Richardson9. George Eliot, Dante, and Milton, Alison Milbank10. George Eliot and Shakespeare, Gail Marshall11. George Eliot and Eighteenth-Century and Romantic fiction, Charlotte Roberts12. George Eliot and Wordsworth, Thomas Owens13. George Eliot and Goethe, Linda K. Hughes14. George Eliot and French Literature, John Rignall15. George Eliot and the Visual Arts, Deborah Epstein Nord16. George Eliot and Music, Shannon DrauckerPart III: Works17. George Eliot's Notebooks, Ruth Abbott18. George Eliot's Manuscripts, Kathryn Sutherland19. George Eliot's Letters, Rosemarie Bodenheimer20. George Eliot's Journals, Juliette Atkinson21. George Eliot's Essays, Matthew Sussman22. George Eliot's Translations, Clare Carlisle23. George Eliot's Poetry, Stefanie Markovits24. Scenes of Clerical Life: Genre and the Genealogy of George Eliot s Realism, Audrey Jaffe25. 'The Lifted Veil', 'Brother Jacob', and Short Form, Anna Neill26. Adam Bede and Work, Summer J. Star27. The Mill on the Floss and Intimacy, Cristina Griffin28. Silas Marner and Affect, Elisha Cohn29. Romola and Presentism, David Sweeney Coombs30. Felix Holt and the Politics of Middle England, Ruth Livesey31. The Intersectional Spanish Gypsy, Gerard Cohen-Vrignaud32. Distantly Reading Middlemarch, Gage McWeeny33. Daniel Deronda and the Forms of Belonging, Jessica R. Valdez34. George Eliot's Late Style: Impressions of Theophrastus Such, Kent PuckettPart IV: Form35. Revisiting George Eliot's Realism, Ayelet Ben-Yishai36. Tragedy, Comedy, and George Eliot, Matthew Kaiser37. George Eliot and Theatricality, Carolyn Williams38. George Eliot's Omniscient Narrator, Jesse Rosenthal39. George Eliot's Dialogue, Jonathan Farina40. George Eliot and Character, Yi-Ping Ong41. George Eliot's Rhythms, John Plotz42. George Eliot's Grammar, Daniel Tyler43. George Eliot and Metaphor, Devin Griffiths44. Aphorisms and Maxims in George Eliot, Isabella Brooks-WardPart V: Afterlives45. George Eliot's Modern Forms, Aaron Rosenberg46. Locating the Gendered Reception of George Eliot, 1880-1930, Alison Booth47. George Eliot's East Asian Afterlives, Olivia Moy and Sungmey Lee48. Perspectives on Middlemarch: Middlemarch and Contemporary Fiction, Howard Jacobson49. Perspectives on Middlemarch: Middlemarch and the Value of the Humanities, Dinah Birch50. Perspectives on Middlemarch: Middlemarch as World Literature, Caroline Levine51. Perspectives on Middlemarch: The Philosophical Art/Work of Middlemarch, Nancy Yousef52. Perspectives on Middlemarch: Two Middlemarch Sentences, Robert Douglas-Fairhurst