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A review by e_flah
Felix Holt, the Radical by George Eliot
4.0
Felix Holt: The Radical was assigned reading for my British History course and I didn't expect to like it as much as I did. My only other experience with Victorian novels prior to Eliot's came from select Jane Austen novels. Needless to say, Eliot has a very different writing style than Austen.
I loved how sympathetic Eliot's characters were. I felt for all of them -- even those like Harold that I loved to hate -- and in a book with as many minor characters as Felix Holt , that feels like quite the accomplishment.
This book does a wonderful job capturing what life was like in England during the 1830s. It was one thing to learn about the sequence of events surrounding the First Reform Act in class, but reading Eliot (who wrote Felix Holt in the time leading up to the Second Reform Act) makes history feel more poignant than I would've thought possible. While a book about politics, Felix Holt manages to meaningfully touch upon many other topics as well. I'm glad I gave Eliot a chance.
I loved how sympathetic Eliot's characters were. I felt for all of them -- even those like Harold that I loved to hate -- and in a book with as many minor characters as Felix Holt , that feels like quite the accomplishment.
This book does a wonderful job capturing what life was like in England during the 1830s. It was one thing to learn about the sequence of events surrounding the First Reform Act in class, but reading Eliot (who wrote Felix Holt in the time leading up to the Second Reform Act) makes history feel more poignant than I would've thought possible. While a book about politics, Felix Holt manages to meaningfully touch upon many other topics as well. I'm glad I gave Eliot a chance.