Greetings! Favorite novel?

Hello to all!

This is the place to introduce yourself—tell us how you discovered George Eliot, what draws you to her works, what novels of hers you've read, which is/are your favorite(s), etc.

Thanks for the invitation, ncgraham. I don't have much time for more groups but I couldn't resist.

Favorite Eliot is, of course, Middlemarch. I haven't read any Eliot for quite a while though, perhaps since the last reread of Middlemarch or a reading of The Lifted Veil, which I wasn't all that enthralled with.

oh I disagree. The Lifted Veil anticipates many of the standard Pomo tricks and handles the themes of premonition and narrative provenance with great aplomb.

but before we get mired in controversy, let me stick to the point.

Thanks for the invite. Super idea for a group!

My favourite is of course, Middlemarch, which is probably the best 19th century novel in the language - the other serious contender being Bleak House.

Another favourite of mine is the little known The Impressions of Theophrastus Such, which is a small masterpiece. Her last book.

I used to have a copy of all her essays and some of her journalism, but I lent it out and, of course, never got it back.

Does anyone know of a good modern bio of MAE?

If you find one, Murr, let me know! I have a combined bio and study of her works, but it's very very old and not at all easy to find.

Hmmm, I know very little about The Impressions of Theophrastus Such, but I see that you've posted a review. Will have to read that when I get some free time.

I'm not entirely certain if I can choose a favorite Eliot novel; I love both Middlemarch and Silas Marner. Besides those two, I've also read Daniel Deronda, The Mill on the Floss, and, most recently, Scenes of Clerical Life. Looking forward to discovering what I have left.

Feel free to open threads for other, more specific discussions. Maybe we could even get up a group read one of these days!

>3 QuentinTom: Well, I'm glad someone has something interesting to say on The Lifted Veil (and I hope I'm not mixing it up with another thin Virago I was reading just before or after...).

I certainly agree with your declaration of Middlemarch being the best 19th century novel in English.

New biography? Not off the top of my head. At least not a proper biography. I'm not a big reader of biographies. I prefer reading Lit Crit with a shorter biography or biographicial materials - it's just what I enjoy. But, when I'm really into an author, I love reading her/his letters or journals though.

>4 ncgraham: perhaps you should have a Message Board thread? I find they are good for general comments ...etc.

Off to check if I have any Eliot duplicates that might be useful to someone (I doubt it, but one never knows...I seem to have 4 copies of Jane Eyre)

You think we need one separate from this? I thought this could just be a general thread, but I suppose that could be a bit disorienting if there are both "new people" coming in and introducing themselves, and all of us discussing general things in-depth.

I had thought of creating separate threads for each of the novels, along with one for adaptations, etc., but there aren't many of us now so that might be going a bit overboard.

>7 ncgraham: well, just a suggestion. Now that I really notice the thread, I see you have "Greetings!" at the beginning, so that should work. You just want to have an easily recognizable starting place (and probably a place for miscellaneous chit chat at some point).

One used to be able to go to an author's page and see the members with high number of books by that author. I don't know if you still can, but, if so, it's a great place to start - by inviting people who seem to have a lot of Eliot's books. I did this when I started the Oates and Atwood groups. Ignore any suggestions you don't find helpful, please:-)

Some of you that I invited I found by going through those who favorited Eliot, actually. But I might try inviting more - and using the method you suggested, too. Thanks!

I have to go with Middlemarch... naturally, like most others. But I haven't actually read any other Eliot other than Daniel Deronda.

Like almost everyone else, my vote has to be for Middlemarch. It's not that her other novels aren't also excellent, just that Middlemarch seems to combine everything that is great about all of them and then add a large dollop of its own peculiar genius.

#3 For biogs, tomcatMurr, I can recommend George Eliot: the Last Victorian by Kathryn Hughes.

Just joined your little group. I threatened to start a 'fan club' group on L.T., as I was hazed on the Virago group for quite liking The Lifted Veil when we did it as a group read. It really was too funny. Everyone else pretty much did not. I think that to really appreciate The Lifted Veil one must have some sort of working knowledge of the mind and how it works; of depression, etc. I thought it a pretty awesome bit of work.

But anyway, back to the threat; sqdancer piped up and said there already was one and would I care to join it.................well, duh!..of course, I would like to join the group.

And.....as it happens, I have two Eliot duplicates if anyone has a need or is interested. They are:
Middlemarch and
The Mill on the Floss.
If anyone is interested, please let me know and I will ship it/them off to you. I also have them posted over on the Virago Duplicate thread and not a body had jumped. LOL!~!
I just cannot imagine that they would not read her.

My favorite of Eliot's is like unto everyone else's: Middlemarch, but it has been so very long since I have read it.
belva

Lovely to have you aboard, belva!

Funny you mention The Lifted Veil ... I think we may be having our own little reading group of it here this coming month, led by the estimable TomcatMurr.

Yea ncgraham.
Thank you for the welcome and I would love to do a re-read of The Lifted Veil in a safe environment. LOL!~! I will be watching for it.

I am listening to the dramatization of Middlemarch on the BBC right now and am finding it excellent. The book rendered entirely in dialogue - no substitute for actually reading it oneself but as there is so little time and so much to read it does help I must admit.

I have a confession to make. I have not read Middlemarch, although it is sitting right here crying for attention. Silas Marner was my intro to Eliot. I loved it -- in fact have read it twice. Then I read Romola, and that is one helluva novel. If you are interested in Florence circa 1492, Romola steeps the reader in the time and place and the people. It is filled with historic figures and the book almost reads like a history. Now, this may not be much of a recommendation for some, but it was right up my street. One of these days, I want to read it again. But not before I tackle Middlemarch.

Finally, I have to mention that I am the proud owner of A Writer's Notebook, 1854-1859, and Uncollected Writings (touchstone not working but you can see it here and my review if you are interested). The notebook is utterly amazing. She has included quotations in five languages, in all of which she was fluent. I feel almost like I've read her diaries -- literary at least -- and have gotten a tiny glimpse of the inner workings of her process.

With this limited exposure, I am in total and complete awe of this woman. I hope this thread thrives. Just now discovered it.

Suzanne, you are popping up everywhere in all the right places! :)

You will love Middlemarch.

Thanks for that, Rena. I'm just realizing that I wasn't actually invited. Not sure how I stumbled in here. Didn't even ask for a password! ;-)

BTW, have any of you read Romola? Just curious if y'all liked it. I didn't actually say, but I guess, based on two books, it's my fave. *Reserving all rights to change my mind*

I haven't yet. Want to though!

#18 You don't have to be invited - just launch into whatever looks interesting. Welome to the thread/group/site etc!

Hello to all. I also joined recently, as I am a great admirer of Mary Ann Evans although I haven't re-read any of her work for a while (but feel that a lot of it is imprinted on my brain).

I haven't read Romola in a long time, although, like a lot of her work, some of it made a very painful and lasting impression on me -- don't want to go into plot details in case of spoilers! I also liked The Lifted Veil very much and found it full of strange depths.

I wonder if I'm alone in enjoying Brother Jacob? ...

#20 - Thanks, Booksloth! Actually, I was making an abstruse little joke in reference to another thread -- which may actually be too abstruse even for those who were there to remember it. But bottom line, I'm delighted to have found this group!

#21 - Sorry you have painful associations with Romola. It's such a rich tapestry of a novel with so many interesting and varied characters and interactions. Some critics felt that Eliot was overlaying Victorian values on the Renaissance, but from what I've read about the Renaissance, I believe that is a short-sighted interpretation. It would appear to me that human nature never changes from place to place, era to era.

My mother was a great admirer of George Eliot. When I was a very young reader, no more than 6 or 7, I read the spines of the books on her arm's-reach bookcase and was filled with wonder at the sight of one with a woman's picture and a man's name.

Things are so black and white when you're that young, of course; I was mystified and didn't understand my mother's explanation, much less begin to comprehend why this writer chose a false name and pretended it was hers when she wrote books. But the question and answer made me aware, as a very young girl, of authorship, of secret authorship and pseudonyms, and of the possibility of an assumed sexual identity and gender ambiguity. Other kids of my generation were perhaps having similar questions about seeing Mary Martin in the role of Peter Pan. I confess that the idea troubled me for some time as a youngster, even though it never bothered me to play the part of King Arthur in our neighborhood make-believe games.

It was also my first exposure to the notion that it was somehow safer or simply better to be male, which was true in those unenlightened days of the 1950s.

When I got older I borrowed my mother's Daniel Deronda, and I've read Silas Marner twice, but for some reason I stopped there until last year, when I read The Mill on the Floss. I did see a BBC miniseries version of Middlemarch but have never read it. I now have her tattered 1926 edition of Middlemarch in my TBR stack.

After my mother died, I acquired all her George Eliot books, including this one: George Eliot and Her Heroines, by Abba Goold Woolson (Macmillan, 1886), which opens with these words:

"The five years which have elapsed since the death of George Eliot have sufficed to acquaint the public with the leading facts of her quiet, uneventful career, and to set forth, to some extent, the nature of those peculiar views which she held touching questions of ethics and philosophy, and the manner in which she applied these to the conduct of her life."

Here is what I have read by and of George Eliot:

733. Adam Bede, by George Eliot (read 20 May 1963)
800. The Mill on the Floss by George Eliot (read 11 Apr 1965)
801. Middlemarch by George Eliot (28 Apr 1965)
802. Silas Marner by George Eliot (read 1 May 1965)
1361. George Eliot: A Biography, by Gordon S. Haight (read 15 Oct 1975)
1362. Romola, by George Eliot (read 25 Oct 1975)
2319. Felix Holt by George Eliot (read 25 Aug 1990)
2609. George Eliot, by Alan W. Bellringer (read 25 May 1994)
3079. Daniel Deronda, by George Eliot (read 27 May 1998)
4861. Scenes of Clerical Life I (The Sad Fortunes of the Rev. Amos Barton and; Mr. Gilfil's Love-Story) by George Eliot (read 14 Sep 2011)
4862. Scenes of Clerical Life II (Janet's Repentance) and The Lifted Veil, by George Eliot (read 17 Sep 2011)

Contrary to everybody else on this board, easily the book I was most moved by and my favorite Eliot work is The Mill on the Floss. It blew me away when i read it and I have never forgotten my reaction to it.

My first George Eliot was Silas Marner when I was 13 or 14 and I've come back to it several times since. My daughter is 13 now - it would be interesting to hear her reaction to it, at one generation's and one language group's remove.

The Mill on the Floss - I first read the Penguin edition with teh Introduction by A.S. Byatt is also a wonderful book, seemingly a more simple tale of rural life, but I think every bit as good as Middlemarch or Daniel Deronda.

I haven't read Felix Holt or Romola yet.

My favourite novel is Middlemarch, not just of Eliot's novels, but probably beats every other novel I've read.

Purely in terms of favourite rather than what may be "best", I'd select Wilson Harris' great West Indian novella Palace of the Peacock as a close second, followed perhaps by Mervyn Peake's Gormenghast Trilogy, for the stunning beauty of its prose!

I have to disagree with PaulDalton that The Mill on the Floss is as good as Middlemarch. While it is a wonderful novel, I don't think it has the same insight or cognitive power as Middlemarch. For me Middlemarch was far more intellectually demanding (and rewarding) than the Mill. Also, the Mill didn't move me to anything like the same degree as Middlemarch. The discovery of the bodies of Maggie and Tom found clasping each other was just a little bit too silly and melodramatic for my taste: "The boat reappeared, but brother and sister had gone down in an embrace never to be parted...". Hmmm. I think I hear violins in the distance.

I thoroughly enjoyed Silas Marner. I haven't read Daniel Deronda yet and look forward to it.