Classics > George Eliot Classics

Advantages: Good Language and Description
Disadvantages: Condescending and Slow

...emotional and spiritual journey of Silas Marner, a weaver, from when he gets excommunicated from his "narrow religious sect" called Lantern Yard to his outcast-like behaviour as a miser in the village of Raveloe set in "Merry England", he loses all of his money and then essentially the community takes pity on him; accepts him in, and he finds Eppie, an unwanted baby of the Squire's son, nurtures her and brings her up and becomes "spiritually fulfilled". ...
...of the jokes can be fairly amusing and there can be no doubt about Eliot's skill in writing. Silas Marner is awful because who really cares about some weird man that bad stuff happens to, Eliot utterly fails to provoke any pathos for this man so don't buy this book ... Read review

Advantages: Not your average sickly-sweet Victorian novel. Has passion!
Disadvantages: Long!

...when describing the locals of Middlemarch points to the fact that Eliot requires intellectuals to act as the protagonists in her epic in order that her writing does not entirely descend into irony and condescension. Therefore, since Eliot seems not to be writing about the society of Middlemarch itself, the novel coheres, on the theme of marriage, and it is here that the disparate points of the plot converge, and here where the real strengths of Eliot's ...
...genuinely interesting and feisty girl. I am convinced that this novel is NOT irrelevant, but instead was seminal in its presentation of issues relating to women's rights. This novel is REAL - Eliot wanted to escape flaccid sentimentalism. It's a long read, but worth it. None of the Austen-trash, no real cliches, very gritty and exciting. ... Read review

Advantages: Beautifully constructed and elegant, funny and endearing!
Disadvantages: standard Victorian wordiness, appears to take a while to get going

...into real Victorian lives, follows the fate of the Tulliver family - the resident of the Mill on the River Floss. A lazily, long portrayal of childhood is rudely ended by swift, sharp changes, from whence point the story flows fast and with unrelenting fury. The first few pages of this book did not really grab me when I read it for the first time, in fact that's probably true of most of the book. It seemed somehow predictable, conventional which ...
...me away. I realised that the reason it had seemed familiar or predictable, was that it was literally perfect - every event that occurs makes tear-inducing, perfect sense. The characters are so eerily real, and Maggie in particular of course could be straight out of the 21st Century - which makes her confinement in her own era so maddening that the book is unforgettable, immense. An absolute must read, a treasure I cried with laughter, frustration, ... Read review

Advantages: Not too long, dramatic ending
Disadvantages: Controversial ending?

...controversial themes through the relationship of the two main characters. George: a sharp, quick-witted character and his best friend Lennie: a large, strong but dumb character who unintentionally often gets them into trouble. Set in America during the Depression it highlights the true struggle men went through to try and find work. Through their journey - the readers is given an insight into many problems the men faced: poverty, lonlieness, prejudice ... Read review

Advantages: interesting use of form and narrative; brilliant character detail and pace.
Disadvantages: Long....

Clarissa 'The longest novel in the european language'. A statement that is about as qualiatative as 'Britain's loudest band'. This is how most people will know of Clarissa. Which is a shame for two reasons: the length of the damn thing is what perhaps justifiably puts people off reading it; moreover, the novel truly deserves to be considered one of the finest in the English language, regardless of its length. I won't distil the plot as the other ...
...that. Also I want to focus instead on the intricacies of the novel and why Dr Samuel Johnson considered it to be 'the first book in the world for the knowledge it displays of the human heart'. One thisn that is important to remember when reading Clarissa is that, like most novels of its time, it was written in serial form. The detail and pace of character development and events in the novel are therefore perhaps more akin to that of a season of ... Read review