Customer Reviews

George Eliot: A Life

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Marian Evans ("George Eliot") comes alive in this biography. With one of the most brilliant analytical and creative minds of the 19th Century she overcame personal feelings of insecurity about her abilities, accomplishments, social situation and even personal appearance, to write books that were both profound, admired and successful. It helped that she had the constant encouragement of her publisher and the support she received in a decades- long relationship with George Lewes (who was legally unable to divorce his unfaithful wife.) Ashton gives a thoroughly digested chronological account of her activities, including travels and relations with family and friends, notably focusing on the writing and publication of each major work, with critical discussion of each. Some minor players in her story might have been more fully introduced but, after the initial chapter on the very early years, Ashton carried me with her all the way to the end.

R. James Tobin

I love the novels of George Eliot and am fascinated by her life, but was appalled to have to struggle to read this biography, which was dry and boring. I tried three times and still only got halfway through it. Now I'm off to find another biography of George Eliot that captures the essence of Eliot in tone and style as well as fact. Such a highly talented and insightful author who lived so daringly and unconventionally in Victorian times certainly deserves a biographer capable of making such an engaging life engaging to read. This one does not.