The Marriage Question
George Eliot's Double Life
by Clare Carlisle
This title was previously available on NetGalley and is now archived.
Send NetGalley books directly to your Kindle or Kindle app
1
To read on a Kindle or Kindle app, please add kindle@netgalley.com as an approved email address to receive files in your Amazon account. Click here for step-by-step instructions.
2
Also find your Kindle email address within your Amazon account, and enter it here.
Pub Date Aug 15 2023 | Archive Date Sep 30 2023
Description
Named one of the ten Best Reviewed Nonfiction Books of 2023 by Literary Hub
A startling new portrait of George Eliot, the beloved novelist and a rare philosophical mind who explored the complexities of marriage.
In her mid-thirties, Marian Evans transformed herself into George Eliot—an author celebrated for her genius as soon as she published her debut novel. During those years she also found her life partner, George Lewes—writer, philosopher, and married father of three. After “eloping” to Berlin in 1854, they lived together for twenty-four years: Eliot asked people to call her "Mrs Lewes" and dedicated each novel to her "Husband." Though they could not legally marry, she felt herself initiated into the "great experience" of marriage—"this double life, which helps me to feel and think with double strength." The relationship scandalized her contemporaries yet she grew immeasurably within it. Living at once inside and outside marriage, Eliot could experience this form of life—so familiar yet also so perplexing—from both sides.
In The Marriage Question, Clare Carlisle reveals Eliot to be not only a great artist but also a brilliant philosopher who probes the tensions and complexities of a shared life. Through the immense ambition and dark marriage plots of her novels, we see Eliot wrestling—in art and in life—with themes of desire and sacrifice, motherhood and creativity, trust and disillusion, destiny and chance. Carlisle's searching new biography explores how marriage questions grow and change, and joins Eliot in her struggle to marry thought and feeling.
Includes black-and-white images
A Note From the Publisher
Advance Praise
"Magisterial . . . a book that triumphantly enlarges our understanding of [Eliot], and of her time." —Kathy O’Shaughnessy, Financial Times (UK)
"A highly illuminating portrait of the acclaimed writer's evolution as a novelist and a wife . . . Fans of literary history will savor this book. Carlisle's empathetic exploration of a unique relationship provides a clear lens through which to view Eliot's life and work." —Kirkus Reviews
"Finally, Eliot has got the biographer she deserves, namely an ardent and eloquent feminist philosopher who shows us how and why Eliot's books, rightly read, are as philosophically profound as any treatise written by a man." —Stuart Jeffries, The Observer (UK)
"Thrilling . . . Frankly brilliant . . . In her introduction to The Marriage Question, Carlisle speaks of wanting to employ biography as philosophical inquiry and here she succeeds magnificently. With great skill and delicacy she has filleted details from Eliot’s own life, read closely into her wonderful novels and, most importantly, considered the wider philosophical background in which she was operating." —Kathryn Hughes, The Guardian (UK)
"A richly considered study that brings one close to the heart and mind of a great writer and a wise soul." —Rupert Christiansen, The Telegraph (UK)
"Like her subject, Carlisle conveys the fruits of her studies and reflection with a light, sometimes even lyrical touch." —Jacqueline Banerjee, The Times Literary Supplement (UK)
"Clare Carlisle's The Marriage Question is the best book I've read on George Eliot." —John Carey, Sunday Times (UK)
Available Editions
| EDITION | Other Format |
| ISBN | 9780374600457 |
| PRICE | $30.00 (USD) |
| PAGES | 400 |
Available on NetGalley
Featured Reviews
Julie M, Reviewer
This book is written with insight and flair. The extent of Carlisle’s research is astonishing and I learned many new things and interesting things about George Eliot from reading it. There is empathy and feeling in the text and a number of thoughtful philosophical ideas are raised which I enjoyed wrestling with.
It is clear that Carlisle wanted to get to grips with the real Mary Ann Evans and in doing so has provided the reader with a wealth of insights. The author of one of my favourite books, Adam Bede, has long been an unknown quantity in many ways to her readers. Whilst there are still questions to be answered, Carlisle has gone a considerable way in revealing the thoughts, motives and attitudes of Mary Ann Evans. I agreed with many of Carlisle’s suggestions and thoroughly enjoyed the extensive biographical detail.
I would certainly recommend this book to readers of George Eliot but Carlisle has also written a book that encourages those who have not enjoyed the delicate and deft authorship of Eliot to do so.
Readers who liked this book also liked:
Marc Wanamaker and Steven Bingen
Arts & Photography, History, Nonfiction (Adult)
Janet Skeslien Charles
General Fiction (Adult), Historical Fiction, Women's Fiction
