Showing results by author "George Eliot" in All Categories

George Eliot's first full-length novel Adam Bede is a profound rendering of 19th century English pastoral life. This timeless story of seduction and betrayal follows the virtuous carpenter Adam Bede, whose world is soon disrupted when the all-too-beautiful Hetty betrays him for another villager. Her actions precipitate a turmoil of tragic events that shake the very foundations of their serene rural community.

Middlemarch is considered one of the masterpieces of English fiction. Published in 1874, it is the seventh and penultimate novel by George Eliot. It pursues a number of underlying themes, including the status of women, the nature of marriage, idealism and self-interest, religion and hypocrisy, political reform, and education.

Considered one of the great English novels, George Eliot's Middlemarch, A Study of Provincial Life follows myriad characters and their lives in the eponymous town, Middlemarch, in the 1800s. Utilizing a realistic style, Eliot considers issues such as religion, education, and the status of women—to name just a few.

In this essay, originally published anonymously in The Westminster Review (1856), George Eliot examines the state of women’s fiction in her time. She lamentingly argues that absurd and banal novels, written by well-to-do women of her time, do great disservice for the overall appreciation of women’s intellectual capacities within society.

Unfairly accused of stealing money from his community’s church, Silas Marner has become bitter and misanthropic - and wealthy. One New Year’s Eve, however, he rescues a small child from the snowstorm outside and his life changes forever. A deeply moving exploration of loneliness and redemption, Silas Marner is a beloved and timeless classic. Dame Judi Dench brings its humanity to life with unmatchable warmth and elegance.

Brought to you by Penguin. Brought up at Dorlcote Mill, Maggie Tulliver worships her brother, Tom, and is desperate to win the approval of her parents, but her passionate, wayward nature and her fierce intelligence bring her into constant conflict with her family. As she reaches adulthood, the clash between their expectations and her desires is painfully played out as she finds herself torn between her relationships with three very different men: her proud and stubborn brother, a close friend who is also the son of her family's worst enemy, and a charismatic but dangerous suitor.

Here is a tale straight from the fireside. We are compelled to follow the humble and mysterious figure of the linen weaver Silas Marner, on his journey from solitude and exile to the warmth and joy of family life. His path is a strange one; when he loses his hoard of hard-earned coins all seems to be lost, but in place of the golden guineas come the golden curls of a child - and from desolate misery comes triumphant joy.

Gwendolen Harleth gambles her happiness when she marries a sadistic aristocrat for his money. Beautiful, neurotic, and self-centered, Gwendolen is trapped in an increasingly destructive relationship, and only her chance encounter with the idealistic Deronda seems to offer the hope of a brighter future. Deronda is searching for a vocation, and in embracing the Jewish cause he finds one that is both visionary and life-changing.

Originally released as vinyl records, these expertly abridged and remastered stories are now available to download for the first time. What was it like to love, live, and rebel in Britain during the 19th and 20th centuries? These beloved British novels offer three dramatically different but universally recognisable experiences. Read by three luminaries of the stage and screen: Dame Judi Dench, Sir Ian McKellen, and Sir John Gielgud.

What did it mean to be a woman in the Georgian and Victorian periods? These beloved novels offer three dramatically different, but universally recognisable, experiences. . Whether it is the drama of sisterhood, the trials and tribulations of romantic encounters, or the struggles of being a writer in a male world, each story holds just as much resonance for the female experience as they did on first publication.

The Mill on the Floss is a novel by George Eliot (Mary Ann Evans), which was first published in 1860. The book chronicles the lives of Tom and Maggie Tulliver, who are siblings growing up at Dorlcote Mill situated at the junction of the River Floss and the River Ripple. Maggie is the main character, and the story begins when she is nine years old, 13 years into her parents' marriage. The most important threads concern her relationship with her brother and her romantic relationships with Philip Wakem and Stephen Guest.

One of the great novels of nineteenth-century England, Middlemarch is concerned with the blighted marriage of a young idealistic woman, but also presents a vivid portrait of England during the 1830s.

Daniel Deronda is a clever and generous young man who has yet to find his true direction in life, much to the dismay of Sir Hugo, who has helped raise him. While in Germany, Daniel meets the attractive and headstrong Gwendolen, who's lost a fortune at the roulette table that her family cannot afford to lose, before returning to England. Back in London, Daniel rescues a singer Mirah from drowning herself, then begins to find purpose in helping her search for her family.

’If life had no love in it, what else was there for Maggie?’ Tragic and moving, The Mill on the Floss is a novel of grand passions and tormented lives. As the rebellious Maggie's fiery spirit and imaginative nature bring her into bitter conflict with her narrow provincial family, most painfully with her beloved brother Tom, their fates are played out on an epic scale. George Eliot drew on her own frustrated rural upbringing to create one of the great novels of childhood, and one of literature's most unforgettable heroines.

Middlemarch is a novel by the English author Mary Anne Evans, who wrote as George Eliot. It first appeared in eight installments in 1871 and 1872. Set in Middlemarch, a fictional English Midland town, from 1829 to 1832, it follows distinct, intersecting stories with many characters. Issues include the status of women, the nature of marriage, idealism, self-interest, religion, hypocrisy, political reform, and education. Despite comic elements, Middlemarch uses realism to encompass historical events.

From the rumblings of provincial England in Silas Marner and Cranford to a wild and dangerous journey across the Holy Lands in Ivanhoe, these classic novels of the Georgian and Victorian period are as relevant and important today as they ever have been.

Here is George Eliot's last and undeniably great novel, which tells the story of young Daniel Deronda and his fateful relationship with the astonishing Gwendolen Harleth. At heart a love story, this passionate, enthralling, full-cast production is packed with all the ingredients to make a splendid dramatisation: unforgettable characters, mystery, betrayal and sacrifice.

This 1859 novella by George Eliot takes a rather dramatic departure from her usual realistic fiction. Now canonized along with other great works of Victorian horror literature, The Lifted Veil plays with the theme of extrasensory perception. It discusses the power of fate in our everyday lives and even flirts with the possibilities of life after death. 

Romola is the fourth novel from the great Victorian novelist George Eliot and her first historical novel. Published in 1862 - 63, it is set in Florence at the end of the fifteenth century and events during the Italian Renaissance, and includes in its plot several notable figures from Florentine history. The story is of a girl's devotion to her blind father, her marriage to and betrayal by a young Greek and ultimate life of self-sacrifice.

Wrongly accused of theft and exiled from a religious community many years before, the embittered weaver Silas Marner lives alone in Raveloe, living only for work and his precious hoard of money. But when his money is stolen and an orphaned child finds her way into his house, Silas is given the chance to transform his life. His fate, and that of the little girl he adopts, is entwined with Godfrey Cass, son of the village Squire, who, like Silas, is trapped by his past.