Mrs. Higgins, who was an elderly widow, 'well left', reflected with complacency that Mrs. Parrot's observation was no more than just, and that Mrs. Jennings very likely belonged to a family which had had no funerals to speak of." First editions, complete as issued. A handsomely bound library set comprising all of Eliot's novels, two short stories, one poetry collection, one volume of her posthumously collected essays, and the three-volume biography by her husband J. W. Cross. One of the major novelists of the 19th century and a leading practitioner of fictional realism, George Eliot (1819-1880) was "the most extensively anthologized novelist among her contemporaries. Her writing evinces a strong belief in progress, which for her meant the gradual improvement of the world through difficult, often imperceptible human effort, sometimes characterised as meliorism. Her biographer Kathryn Hughes calls her the 'last Victorian' because she thought it possible to face the crises of her time without 'shattering in shards'" (Orlando). From 1868 through 1879, bookbinder Samuel Tout (1841-1902) operated in Nassau Street in Soho, London. He then worked in a bindery in Whitechapel with William Coward, continuing on his own after 1880. Tout was also a member of the early staff of Karslake's Hampstead Bindery, which opened in Charing Cross in 1898. Baker & Ross A3.2, A4.1; A5.1.a1, A6.1.a, A7.2, A8.1, A10.1.a, A11.1.a, A12.1.a, E1.1.a, E3.1.a, E11.1. Orlando: Women's Writing in the British Isles from the Beginnings to the Present, Cambridge University Press, online database. 12 works in 29 volumes, octavo (192 x 129 mm). Late 19th-century dark brown half morocco by Tout, spines with raised bands, gilt lettering and decoration in compartments, double gilt rules to boards, marbled sides and endpapers, top edges gilt, red silk book markers. Mill on the Floss bound without half-titles, vol. IV of Middlemarch bound without fly-title, vol. III of Daniel Deronda bound without errata and vol. IV without advertisement leaf. Occasional light rubbing to extremities, a few corners gently bumped, a little loss of leather to headcaps of four vols., contents mildly toned, internally clean. A very good set indeed, well-margined and bright. Hardy, Barbara. The Novels of George Eliot. London: Athlone Press, 1963. Hardy’s splendid critical work remains the best introduction to Eliot’s fiction.

After Tchaikovsky's death, a brief scenario for Acts II and III of an opera on Mr Gilfil's Love Story was discovered amongst his papers [4]: I received this from Blog A Penguin in return for which we had to post a review on the Penguin blog (which is now defunct, I think). It was easy because I loved this book and it made me wonder why I waste my time reading some contemporary stuff - most of which never warrants re-reading like the classics do. After those first years in which little girls are petted like puppies and kittens, there comes a time when it seems less obvious what they can be good for, especially when, like Caterina, they give no particular promise of cleverness or beauty; and it is not surprising that in that uninteresting period there was no particular plan formed as to her future position. She could always help Mrs. Sharp, supposing she were fit for nothing else, as she grew up; but now, this rare gift of song endeared her to Lady Cheverel, who loved music above all things, and it associated her at once with the pleasures of the drawing-room. Insensibly she came to be regarded as one of the family, and the servants began to understand that Miss Sarti was to be a lady after all."

Summary

Mr Gilfil's Love‐Story’ is the tale of a man whose nature has been warped by a tragic love experience. Maynard Gilfil was parson at Shepperton before the days of Amos Barton. He had been the ward of Sir Christopher Cheverel and his domestic chaplain, and had fallen deeply in love with Caterina Sastri (Tina), the daughter of an Italian singer, whom the Cheverels had adopted. But the shallow Capt. Anthony Wybrow, the heir of Sir Christopher, won Tina's heart; then, at his uncle's bidding, threw her over for the rich Miss Assher. The strain drove Tina to the verge of lunacy. All this Gilfil had watched with sorrow and unabated love. Tina rallied for a time under his devoted care and finally married him, but died in a few months, leaving Gilfil like a tree lopped of its best branches.

When discussing the first story of Scenes of Clerical Life, ‘The Sad Fortunes of the Reverend Amos Barton’, I will not refrain from revealing aspects of the plot, although I will not discuss details of the most salient moments. For the last two stories, I will avoid spoilers when discussing their plots. One of the most notable ways in which ‘Scenes of Clerical Life’ influenced Eliot’s later writing is in its portrayal of complex, flawed characters. The collection’s protagonists are not perfect heroes or heroines, but rather individuals struggling with their own weaknesses and shortcomings. This nuanced approach to character development would become a hallmark of Eliot’s writing, and her later novels are filled with similarly complex and multifaceted characters.But it is with men as with trees: if you lop off their finest branches, into which they were pouring their young life-juice, the wounds will be healed over with some rough boss, some odd excrescence; and what might have been a grand tree expanding into liberal shade, is but a whimsical misshapen trunk.

George Eliot’s first fiction, Scenes of Clerical Life, comprises three scenes, or sketches, of individual clergy in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth century English Midlands: “The Sad Fortunes of the Reverend Amos Barton,” “Mr. Gilfil’s Love Story,” and “Janet’s Repentance.” Each story explores one clergyman’s struggles with the hypocrisy of society, the demands of institutional religion, the challenges of provincial life, the nature of true love, and the meaning of true religion. I'm so wrapped up with the Victorians, not least through reading this book, that I wrote a blog about it: The Sad Fortunes of the Reverend Amos Barton” is the first story in George Eliot’s “Scenes of Clerical Life.” It tells the story of a poor and inexperienced clergyman who struggles to make ends meet and gain the respect of his parishioners. Amos Barton is a sympathetic character, but his flaws and mistakes ultimately lead to his downfall.

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The emotions, I have observed, are but slightly influenced by arithmetical considerations: the mother, when her sweet lisping little ones have all been taken from her one after another, and she is hanging over her last dead babe, finds small consolation in the fact that the tiny dimpled corpse is but one of a necessary average, and that a thousand other babes brought into the world at the same time are doing well, and are likely to live; and if you stood beside that mother—if you knew her pang and shared it—it is probable you would be equally unable to see a ground of complacency in statistics. We are poor plants buoyed up by the air-vessels of our own conceit: alas for us, if we get a few pinches that empty us of that windy self-subsistence.” The Sad Fortunes of the Reverend Amos Barton” opens twenty-five years before Amos Barton appears in the village of Milby at Shepperton Church. In that earlier time, the church itself was stately and beautiful, and the Sabbath services were conducted according to an older liturgy and hymns sung to the accompaniment of stringed instruments rather than an organ. By the time Amos Barton arrives, the church building and the liturgy have become more modern, reflecting the struggles between the various reform movements of the Anglican Church in the mid-nineteenth century.

Moreover, by the time Eliot published Scenes of Clerical Life, the Anglican Church was facing challenges on all sides. The Tractarian, or Oxford, movement of the 1830’s sought to reform the Anglican Church along Catholic lines. This High Church movement emphasized the power and authority of the bishops. The Low Church, or Evangelical, movement, on the other hand, tried to move the Anglican Church in a more Protestant direction, challenging the power of the bishops and asserting the authority of individual believers.a b c d e f Uglow, Nathan (10 October 2002). "Scenes of Clerical Life". The Literary Dictionary Company Ltd . Retrieved 28 October 2008. Religion also plays a role in the lives of the other characters, including the wealthy landowner, Sir Christopher Cheverel, and his daughter, Miss Kate. They are members of the Church of England, but their faith is more of a social obligation than a personal conviction. If stable character is based upon a coherent view of the world, then the clergyman protagonists of Scenes of Clerical Life, living in English provincial society during the first half of the nineteenth century, are at risk. They all embody radical discontinuities in communities which are themselves seriously divided. These gaps are ultimately bridged not by religious faith in any orthodox sense but by faith redirected to certain human continuities. The cost, however, is high: new life only emerges from pain, suffering, and death. That final discontinuity has to be experienced in each case before coherence in character and community can be achieved. These are George Eliot's most theological stories, engaged as they are in questioning, displacing, and then recovering the language of biblical hermeneutics for her own humanistic purposes. Another character, Mr. Gilfil, is a kind-hearted vicar who is beloved by his parishioners. He is deeply committed to his faith and finds comfort in his religious beliefs, especially in times of personal tragedy. However, his faith is tested when he falls in love with a woman who is already married. This debut novel by George Eliot (Marian Evans) — actually three novellas — was written in 1857, sometimes referred to as the Age of Religious Novels. Anthony Trollope wrote Barchester Towers in the same year. "Janet's Repentance" has unusual themes for a Victorian novel: domestic abuse and a female alcoholic.