#georgeeliot — Public Fediverse posts
Live and recent posts from across the Fediverse tagged #georgeeliot, aggregated by home.social.
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In the last few years, I’ve been steadily reading my way through some of the classics I have never got round to before. At present, I’m four or five chapters into George Eliot’s Daniel Deronda, and I have to say that this Gwendolyn is a nasty piece of work. I am getting right fed up with her! #Reading #Books #GeorgeEliot #DanielDeronda
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Interesting read about George Eliot's The Lifted Veil. https://theconversation.com/george-eliot-is-best-known-for-middlemarch-but-she-also-wrote-an-early-work-of-science-fiction-269379
#GeorgeEliot #TheLiftedVeil #SciFi #Books -
“The growing good of the world is partly dependent on unhistoric acts”*…
Coventry from the East, oil on canvas, ca. 1830. Artist unknownThe (remarkable) George Scialabba on how Middlemarch, “perhaps the greatest repository of moral beauty in English literature,” “teaches us to live faithfully a hidden life”…
… “Moral beauty” is an arresting phrase. Typically, goodness is commended for its effects rather than for its aspect. Perhaps the scarcity nowadays of such lofty sacred eloquence as Edwards’s, the drabness of much preaching and religious writing compared with earlier periods, when sermons were literary performances and widely published, is part of the general verbal aridity of our age, brought on by the ubiquitous toxic blooms of commercial speech that convert our innermost thoughts into advertising jingles. This is by no means only a loss for believers; the religious imagination is a vital part of a living culture. Ceding it – like so much of contemporary culture – to formula and cliché gradually but inexorably hollows us out.
There are, no doubt, plenty of resources within Christian and other religious traditions from which to relearn heartfelt eloquence. But I’d like to propose a secular exemplar: perhaps the greatest repository of moral beauty in English literature, the voice of the narrator in George Eliot’s Middlemarch.
George Eliot (1819–1880) was born Marian [often cited as Mary Ann] Evans to an estate manager and his wife in Warwickshire. She was extremely plain, and though this was in some ways unfortunate for her, it was fortunate for posterity: her family considered her unmarriageable, so she received more of an education than most girls at the time. Though painfully rebuffed by her first crush, the then-famous (now largely forgotten) social theorist Herbert Spencer, she eventually found an ideal partner, the writer and editor George Lewes, who worshipped her. Her formal education was patchy, but her intellectual appetites were voracious. When she began as a literary freelancer – writing under a masculine name – she was brilliantly successful. Though a nonbeliever, she was always keenly interested in and sympathetic toward religion, and early in her career translated into English two of the most influential Christian books of the nineteenth century: The Life of Jesus by David Friedrich Strauss and The Essence of Christianity by Ludwig Feuerbach. In her late thirties, she began writing novels, producing several masterpieces: Adam Bede, The Mill on the Floss, Felix Holt, Middlemarch, and Daniel Deronda.
Virginia Woolf called Middlemarch “one of the few English novels written for grown-up people.” That may have been, as much as anything, a dig at enormously popular novelists like Walter Scott, Charles Dickens, and H. G. Wells; after all, Jane Austen’s, Thomas Hardy’s, and D. H. Lawrence’s novels are arguably grown-up fare. Middlemarch, though, is a book to grow up with: an ideal moral education for a college student (as in my case, and that of thousands of others) or young adult. Eliot’s running commentary explains, admonishes, predicts, praises, rebukes, and excuses with a wit so gentle and a charity so unfailing that her voice might be said to float like a butterfly and rouse her readers not with a sting but with a light, affectionate nudge…
[Scialabba unpacks the elegantly-embodied moral geometry of Middlemarch…]
… For the most part, though, in Middlemarch as in life, character is destiny. Perhaps a more accurate formula would be: character refined by suffering is destiny. Fred’s thoughtlessness must be tempered by the very real prospect of losing Mary. Dorothea’s disregard of the traditional meanings of marriage, making of it instead a pure, disembodied discipleship, teaches her a grudging respect for common sense and a necessary measure of distrust for her enthusiasms.
If there is a master insight in Middlemarch, a touchstone of the novel’s moral wisdom, it is this:
If we had a keen vision and feeling of all ordinary human life, it would be like hearing the grass grow and the squirrel’s heart beat, and we should die of that roar which lies on the other side of silence. As it is, the quickest of us walk about well wadded with stupidity.
The most important thing in this famous passage is not the tremendous metaphor – “the roar which lies on the other side of silence” – but the word “stupidity.” In Eliot’s moral philosophy, our original sin is not malice or any other positive evil but our deafness and short-sightedness about the needs and feelings of others. Unwadding our ears – a gradual process, if we are not to be overwhelmed by that roar – can only be the result of chastening experience. Our own pain teaches us to notice the pain of others.
At the novel’s close, Casaubon has died, and Dorothea has married Ladislaw. They live in London, where he is taking a small but energetic part in the ferment of English political reform in the 1830s. Tenderly appraising Dorothea’s once-shining hopes, Eliot draws a moral that fits everyone in the novel – and out of it:
Her full nature … spent itself in channels which had no great name on the earth. But the effect of her being on those around her was incalculably diffusive: for the growing good of the world is partly dependent on unhistoric acts; and that things are not so ill with you and me as they might have been, is half owing to the number who lived faithfully a hidden life, and rest in unvisited tombs.
“To live faithfully a hidden life” is a beautiful ideal, a conception of holiness, sacred or secular, that is all the finer because it is accessible to every human soul.
A norishing read for our times: “The Moral Beauty of Middlemarch,” from @plough.bsky.social.
Bonus from the archives: Scialabba on the Determinism – Free Will debate
* George Eliot, Middlemarch
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As we value virtue, we might recall that it was on this date in 1860 that Eliot completed her second novel, The Mill on the Floss, and dedicated it to her “beloved husband, George Henry Lewes.”
#culture #GeorgeEliot #GeorgeHenryLewes #GOOD #history #literature #MarianEvans #MaryAnnEvans #moralBeauty #morality #philosophy #TheMillOnTheFloss -
It is good to be helpful and kindly, but don't give yourself to be melted into candle grease for the benefit of the tallow trade.
-- George Eliot⬆ #Wisdom #Quotes #GeorgeEliot #Kindness
⬇ #Photography #Panorama #TheMaze #Dollhouse #Canyonlands #Utah
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It is good to be helpful and kindly, but don't give yourself to be melted into candle grease for the benefit of the tallow trade.
-- George Eliot⬆ #Wisdom #Quotes #GeorgeEliot #Kindness
⬇ #Photography #Panorama #TheMaze #Dollhouse #Canyonlands #Utah
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It is good to be helpful and kindly, but don't give yourself to be melted into candle grease for the benefit of the tallow trade.
-- George Eliot⬆ #Wisdom #Quotes #GeorgeEliot #Kindness
⬇ #Photography #Panorama #TheMaze #Dollhouse #Canyonlands #Utah
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It is good to be helpful and kindly, but don't give yourself to be melted into candle grease for the benefit of the tallow trade.
-- George Eliot⬆ #Wisdom #Quotes #GeorgeEliot #Kindness
⬇ #Photography #Panorama #TheMaze #Dollhouse #Canyonlands #Utah
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#GeorgeEliot was buried #OTD 1880 in Highgate's Eastern Cemetery. Crowds braved the weather to pay their respects. On her grave are words from one of her poems: "Of those immortal dead who live again/ In minds made better by their presence." Heartening to think that many of us would agree! More here (some interesting attendees): https://victorianweb.org/sculpture/funerary/208.html
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#GeorgeEliot / Marian Evans essays reviewed. #Bookstodon https://wp.me/sezD85-essy
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My review of a selection of #GeorgeEliot items 'Silly Novels by Lady Novelists and other essays' from @renardpress.com
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/143401659-silly-novels-by-lady-novelists-and-other-essays -
There is no feeling, except the extremes of fear and grief, that does not find relief in music.
-- George Eliot⬆ #Wisdom #Quotes #GeorgeEliot #Emotions #Music
⬇ #Photography #Panorama #Panopainting #Seashells #Everglades #Florida
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#JaneAusten's wicked parody 'Plan of a Novel' (1816) compared with #GeorgeEliot's critique 'Silly Novels by Lady Novelists' (1856). #ReadingAusten2025 #Bookstodon https://wp.me/sezD85-silly
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Great book! 👍 Here's the hardback over art.
Note to the curious... the first few pages are a very jocular but accurate depiction of Ada's origin, upbringing, and influences (a great way to learn her story). The remainder is a mash-up of historical figures like #GeorgeEliot, #steampunk fantasy (all on the mark), & early #information_science.
It is a wild and rewarding ride!
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There is no feeling, except the extremes of fear and grief, that does not find relief in music.
-- George Eliot⬆ #Wisdom #Quotes #GeorgeEliot #Emotions #Music
⬇ #Photography #Panorama #Sunset #Kayaks #Everglades #Florida
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Serious thinkers about ethics and lives worth living should spend less time on the trolley problem and more on "Middlemarch".
#Ethics #Philosophy #MoralPhilosophy #Literature #TrolleyProblem #Middlemarch #GeorgeEliot #Books
Dr Lydgate and Rosamond
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Thinking about doing #MiddlemarchMarch (reading Middlemarch in March). ISO good reading guides/companions or resources.
#bookstodon #middlemarch #georgeEliot -
"Naturally, there was a shrinking of courage as misfortune ceased to be a mere announcement, and began to disclose itself as a grievous tyrannical inmate. ”
Excerpt From
Daniel Deronda
George EliotRereading/reviewing parts of Daniel Deronda..
#danielderonda #georgeeliot #books #bookstodon -
“Make up your mind to a brief disappointment. Life is full of them. We have all got to be broken in; and this is a mild beginning for you.”
Excerpt From
Daniel Deronda
George EliotReviewing, rereading some parts/notes on Daniel Deronda.
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St. Mary's, Wirksworth, May 2024.
#photography #ukphotographer #nikon #topographics #uktopographic #documentingplaces #documentingbritain #thought_landscape #noicemag #thisaintartschool #mood_in_frame #monochrome #bnw #bnw_capture #blackandwhitephotography #blackandwhiteuniverse #derbyshire #wirksworth #georgeeliot #adambede #victorianliterature #literaryheritage #stmarys #church
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Elizabeth Evans' House, Wirksworth, May 2024.
#photography #ukphotographer #nikon #topographics #uktopographic #documentingplaces #documentingbritain #thought_landscape #mood_in_frame #noicemag #thisaintartschool #moodynature #monochrome #bnw #bnw_capture #blackandwhitephotography #blackandwhiteuniverse #derbyshire #wirksworth #georgeeliot #adambede #victorianliterature #literaryheritage
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Elizabeth Evans' House, Wirksworth, May 2024.
#photography #ukphotographer #nikon #topographics #uktopographic #documentingplaces #documentingbritain #thought_landscape #noicemag #thisaintartschool #moodynature #monochrome #bnw #bnw_capture #blackandwhitephotography #blackandwhiteuniverse #derbyshire #wirksworth #georgeeliot #adambede #victorianliterature #literaryheritage
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Finished; rereading bits. This epigraph feels rather timely:
“Let thy chief terror be of thine own soul:
There, ’mid the throng of hurrying desires
That trample on the dead to seize their spoil,
Lurks vengeance, footless, irresistible
As exhalations laden with slow death,
And o’er the fairest troop of captured joys
Breathes pallid pestilence.”Excerpt From
Daniel Deronda
George Eliot & Terence Cave#trumpinauguration #maga #trumpism #danielderonda #georgeeliot #books #bookstodon
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1. "There comes a terrible moment to many souls when the great movements of the world, the larger destinies of mankind, which have lain aloof in newspapers and other neglected reading, enter like an earthquake into their own lives –
Excerpt From
Daniel Deronda
George Eliot -
“For what is love itself, for the one we love best? – an enfolding of immeasurable cares which yet are better than any joys outside our love.”
Excerpt From
Daniel Deronda
George Eliot -
“In reading unwelcome news, instead of hearing it, there is the advantage that one avoids a hasty expression of impatience which may afterwards be repented of. ”
Excerpt From
Daniel Deronda
George Eliot -
“Clever persons who have nothing else to sell can often put a good price on their absence”
Excerpt From
Daniel Deronda
George Eliot
#danielderonda #georgeeliot #books #bookstodon -
“So pregnant is the divine hope of moral recovery with the energy that fulfils it. So potent in us is the infused action of another soul, before which we bow in complete love.”
Excerpt From
Daniel Deronda
George Eliot -
“Per pietà non dirmi addio”
“For pity’s sake, do not say goodbye to me.”
Excerpt From
Daniel Deronda
George Eliot -
Questa montagna è tale,
Che sempre al cominciar di sotto è grave,
E quanto uom più va su e men fa male.
– DANTE: Il PurgatorioPurgatorio, IV. 88–90: ‘This mountain is so formed that it is always wearisome when one begins the ascent, but becomes easier the higher one climbs.'
Dante Alighieri (1265-1321) - Illustration by Gustave Dore (1832-1883))
#dante #divinecomedy #purgatory #virgil #gustavedore #ladivinacommedia #theAscent #dantealighieri #DanielDeronda #georgeEliot #books #bookstodon
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Questa montagna è tale,
Che sempre al cominciar di sotto è grave,
E quanto uom più va su e men fa male.
– DANTE: Il PurgatorioPurgatorio, IV. 88–90: ‘This mountain is so formed that it is always wearisome when one begins the ascent, but becomes easier the higher one climbs.'
Dante Alighieri (1265-1321) - Illustration by Gustave Dore (1832-1883))
#dante #divinecomedy #purgatory #virgil #gustavedore #ladivinacommedia #theAscent #dantealighieri #DanielDeronda #georgeEliot #books #bookstodon
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Questa montagna è tale,
Che sempre al cominciar di sotto è grave,
E quanto uom più va su e men fa male.
– DANTE: Il PurgatorioPurgatorio, IV. 88–90: ‘This mountain is so formed that it is always wearisome when one begins the ascent, but becomes easier the higher one climbs.'
Dante Alighieri (1265-1321) - Illustration by Gustave Dore (1832-1883))
#dante #divinecomedy #purgatory #virgil #gustavedore #ladivinacommedia #theAscent #dantealighieri #DanielDeronda #georgeEliot #books #bookstodon
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Questa montagna è tale,
Che sempre al cominciar di sotto è grave,
E quanto uom più va su e men fa male.
– DANTE: Il PurgatorioPurgatorio, IV. 88–90: ‘This mountain is so formed that it is always wearisome when one begins the ascent, but becomes easier the higher one climbs.'
Dante Alighieri (1265-1321) - Illustration by Gustave Dore (1832-1883))
#dante #divinecomedy #purgatory #virgil #gustavedore #ladivinacommedia #theAscent #dantealighieri #DanielDeronda #georgeEliot #books #bookstodon
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Questa montagna è tale,
Che sempre al cominciar di sotto è grave,
E quanto uom più va su e men fa male.
– DANTE: Il PurgatorioPurgatorio, IV. 88–90: ‘This mountain is so formed that it is always wearisome when one begins the ascent, but becomes easier the higher one climbs.'
Dante Alighieri (1265-1321) - Illustration by Gustave Dore (1832-1883))
#dante #divinecomedy #purgatory #virgil #gustavedore #ladivinacommedia #theAscent #dantealighieri #DanielDeronda #georgeEliot #books #bookstodon
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“Failure will not be ignoble, but it would be ignoble for me not to try.”
Excerpt From
Daniel Deronda
George Eliot -
‘Luck is a fickle girl
who doesn’t like lingering in any one place;
she strokes your hair back from your brow,
kisses you quickly and flits away.Lady Misfortune, by contrast,
presses you tightly to her loving heart;
she says she’s not in a hurry,
sits down beside your bed and knits.’Heinrich Heine (1797-1856)
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“Those who have been indulged by fortune and have always thought of calamity as what happens to others, feel a blind incredulous rage at the reversal of their lot, and half believe that their wild cries will alter the course of the storm.”
Excerpt From
Daniel Deronda
George Eliot -
“Let us bind love with duty; for duty is the love of law; and law is the nature of the Eternal.”
Excerpt From
Daniel Deronda
George Eliot -
“I count myself in nothing else so happy
As in a soul remembering my good friends.
– SHAKESPEARE”Excerpt From
Daniel Deronda
George Eliot#danielderonda #georgeeliot #books #bookstodon
And #chatGPT notes on the context and meaning of this epigraph.
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Last one for now:
“We must find our duties in what comes to us, not in what we imagine might have been.”
Excerpt From
Daniel Deronda
George Eliot -
"Within ourselves our evil will is momentous, and sooner or later it works its way outside us – it may be in the vitiation that breeds evil acts, but also it may be in the self-abhorrence that stings us into better striving.”
Excerpt From
Daniel Deronda
George Eliot -
“There were no words of comfort that did not carry some sacrilege. If he had opened his lips to speak, he could only have echoed, ‘It can never be altered – it remains unaltered, to alter other things.”
Excerpt From
Daniel Deronda
George Eliot -
Okay. we are *finally* getting near the end of the book (couple hundred pages left) -- main characters are starting to be off-ed.
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“A man out of temper does not wait for proofs before feeling towards all things animate and inanimate as if they were in a conspiracy against him, but at once thrashes his horse or kicks his dog in consequence.”
Excerpt From
Daniel Deronda
George Eliot -
Not entirely inappropriate for today, vote certification day, Jan 6 2025..
“And the intensest form of hatred is that rooted in fear, which compels to silence and drives vehemence into a constructive vindictiveness, an imaginary annihilation of the detested object, something like the hidden rites of vengeance with which the persecuted have made a dark vent for their rage, and soothed their suffering into dumbness.”Excerpt From
Daniel Deronda
George Eliot -
“In the irritable, fluctuating stages of despair, gleams of hope came in the form of some possible accident. To dwell on the benignity of accident was a refuge from worse temptation.”
Excerpt From
Daniel Deronda
George Eliot -
“My Hope wanders among the orchard-blossoms, feels the warm snow falling on it through the sunshine, and is in doubt of nothing; but, catching sight of Certainty in the distance, sees an ugly Janus*-faced deity, with a dubious wink on the hither side of him, and turns quickly away. ”
Excerpt From
Daniel Deronda
George Eliot*Facing both ways: Janus was the Roman god of doorways
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“Ever in his soul
That larger justice which makes gratitude
Triumphed above resentment. ’Tis the mark
Of regal natures, with the wider life,
And fuller capability of joy: –
Not wits exultant in the strongest lens
To show you goodness vanished into pulp
Never worth ‘thank you’ – they’re the devil’s friars,
Vowed to be poor as he in love and trust,
Yet must go begging of a world that keeps
Some human property.”Excerpt
Daniel Deronda
George Eliot -
"...But I never did like anything fanatical. I suppose I heard a little too much preaching in my youth, and lost my palate for it.”
Excerpt From
Daniel Deronda
George Eliot -
‘Non ti difende
Nessun de’ tuoi? L’armi, qua I’ armi: io solo
Combatterò, procomberò sol io'Do none of thy children defend thee? Arms! bring me arms! alone I will fight, alone I will fall.
Excerpt From
Daniel Deronda
George Eliot
