George Eliot, Early and Late

Abstract

This review essay assesses two recently published studies that examine the public image of George Eliot early and late in her career: Fionnuala Dillane’s Before George Eliot: Marian Evans and the Periodical Press and Kathleen McCormack’s George Eliot in Society: Travels Abroad and Sundays at the Priory. These books are linked thematically by their interest in Eliot’s attempt to shape her public image. Dillane argues that, early in her career, Marian Evans was limited in the control she had in this area, as journalistic constraints, coupled with a reticence for being interviewed, made it difficult for her to influence public opinion. McCormack demonstrates how, in the last decade of her life, Evans was able to use her travels and the salons that she and George Henry Lewes held at their home to become known to a wide circle of literary figures and intellectuals. McCormack’s study is especially important because it changes impressions of her created by earlier scholarship, especially Gordon Haight’s biography, and demonstrates that, far from being a social outcast, in her last years Evans was immersed in society and used her social connections to shape her public image.