Includes bibliographical references (pages 312-326) and index.
Contents:
Part I. Life and Afterlife. George Eliot's life / Kathryn Hughes ; Publishers and publication / Joanne Shattock ; Editions of George Eliot's work / Joanne Shattock ; Genre / Nancy Henry ; The biographical tradition / Margaret Harris ; Afterlife / Margaret Harris. -- Part II. Critical Fortunes. Critical responses: to 1900 / Juliette Atkinson ; Critical responses: 1900-1970 / Juliette Atkinson ; Critical responses: 1970-present / Juliette Atkinson. -- Part III. Cultural and Social Contexts. Class / Ruth Livesey ; Dress / Clair Hughes ; Education / Elizabeth Gargano ; Etiquette / Judith Flanders ; Families and kinship / Josie Billington ; Gender and the woman question / Kyriaki Hadjiafxendi ; Historiography / Joanne Wilkes ; Industry and technology / Richard Menke ; Interiors / Judith Flanders ; Landscape / John Rignall ; Language / Melissa Raines ; Law / Kieran Dolin ; Metropolitanism / John Rignall ; Money / Dermot Coleman ; Music / Delia Da Sousa ; Philosophy / Moira Gatens ; Politics / Robert Dingley ; Race / Alicia Carroll ; Religion / Oliver Lovesey ; Romanticism / Joanne Wilkes ; Rural life / Carol Martin ; The science of the mind / Pauline Nestor ; Secularism / Michael Rectenwald ; Theatre / Lynn Voskuil ; Transport / Ruth Livesey ; Travel and tourism / Judith Johnston ; Visual arts / LeoneĢe Ormond.
Summary:
"George Eliot has always challenged her readers. Prodigiously learned, alive to the massive social changes of her time, defiant of many Victorian orthodoxies, she is at once chronicler and analyst, novelist of nostalgia and monumental thinker. In her great novel Middlemarch she writes of 'that tempting range of relevancies called the universe'. This volume identifies a range of 'relevancies' that form the various contexts -- of her time, and of our own -- pertinent to understanding and in the fullest sense appreciating George Eliot. The dimensions of her achievement are illuminated by cogent essays on particular facets of the many contexts -- historical, intellectual, political, social, cultural -- that inform her work. In addition there are discussions of her critical history and legacy, as well as of the material conditions of production and distribution of her work. Here is George Eliot in the twenty-first century."--Publisher's website.
This resource is supported by the Institute of Museum and Library Services under the provisions of the Library Services and Technology Act as administered by State Library of Iowa.