George Eliot: Family History (Book)

This examination of George Eliot's art begins with an appreciation of the rich, difficult family dynamic out of which it was forged. The book studies her contemporaries, including her second cousin, her husband and her closest friend from her early womanhood to explore the process by which George Eliot's early recollections of her family, neighbours and the Warwickshire landscape became the basis not just for her fiction but also for her philosophic conservatism. The past, and memory of that past, was the cornerstone on which Eliot believed any chance of social or political progress must securely rest. This set brings together valuable sources, including manuscript material from letters and diaries, which give insights into these crucial influences. An introduction places the material in its literary and historical context.