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A review by thelizabeth
George Eliot in Love by Brenda Maddox
3.0
Impulsively picked up a copy of this at The Book Barn about a year ago. Yes, it is silly.
Surprising no one, this isn't a very good book. I chose to read it because it serves the purpose of reading a George Eliot biography with a quickness -- I wanted to get through one and didn't really have time to tackle Karl -- and because I am really interested in the major romantic relationship in George Eliot's life. So, on the off-chance this book was good, or insightful or new, I was curious.
But, it is mostly dull, except for the fact that I think learning about Marian the person (as, almost, a side study of learning about Eliot the author) is always good. The tone of the book is basically set in two unsatisfying lumps: first, Marian is insecure and pathetic, and here's all the men she knew; second, then Marian met Lewes and they traveled here and here and she wrote this and this. And then this happened and then this happened. It's a book report out of an encyclopedia, except without citing any sources almost ever.
As far as the "romance" suggested by the title goes, we are basically treated with a bunch of highly unscientific speculation about who Marian may have lost her virginity to in her twenties. Thanks? That's fine I guess. I'm a little bit intrigued I guess. But give me a shred of something that isn't an eye-roller. Once she and Lewes are together, it is zero of a deduction to interpret that they were lots in love, because they talked about their happiness basically all the time.
The thing I actually disliked about the book, though, is that it paints Marian in a pretty crappy light. I am biased because she's my favorite, yet I'm sure she wasn't a saint, and probably every Victorian of her status and above was something of a pill. Still, all we get here is a picture of how clingy she was, how irrational her insecurities, how much she hung on men, how whipped Lewes was, what an idiot she was falling for guy after guy (though we don't actually know any feelings she didn't write down). She doesn't come off great, and you know that can't be the whole story. And, it's odd, because probably Brenda Maddox would say that she loves George Eliot? I think she just is not a nuanced biographer of her. Or, by being interested only in the superficiality of her personal relationships, managed to remove everything that's interesting about her thoughtfulness.
For alternative reading, the Eliot & Lewes section in Parallel Lives is only 40 pages long, but is 100x better than this whole book on the same topic. I reread it after finishing this, and still loved it.
It's a 2½, but I'm three-starring this one because it wasn't very ridiculous or offensive or inaccurate, and I learned some new things that were in fact useful to me. I wouldn't recommend it either as reading or as scholarship, though.
Surprising no one, this isn't a very good book. I chose to read it because it serves the purpose of reading a George Eliot biography with a quickness -- I wanted to get through one and didn't really have time to tackle Karl -- and because I am really interested in the major romantic relationship in George Eliot's life. So, on the off-chance this book was good, or insightful or new, I was curious.
But, it is mostly dull, except for the fact that I think learning about Marian the person (as, almost, a side study of learning about Eliot the author) is always good. The tone of the book is basically set in two unsatisfying lumps: first, Marian is insecure and pathetic, and here's all the men she knew; second, then Marian met Lewes and they traveled here and here and she wrote this and this. And then this happened and then this happened. It's a book report out of an encyclopedia, except without citing any sources almost ever.
As far as the "romance" suggested by the title goes, we are basically treated with a bunch of highly unscientific speculation about who Marian may have lost her virginity to in her twenties. Thanks? That's fine I guess. I'm a little bit intrigued I guess. But give me a shred of something that isn't an eye-roller. Once she and Lewes are together, it is zero of a deduction to interpret that they were lots in love, because they talked about their happiness basically all the time.
The thing I actually disliked about the book, though, is that it paints Marian in a pretty crappy light. I am biased because she's my favorite, yet I'm sure she wasn't a saint, and probably every Victorian of her status and above was something of a pill. Still, all we get here is a picture of how clingy she was, how irrational her insecurities, how much she hung on men, how whipped Lewes was, what an idiot she was falling for guy after guy (though we don't actually know any feelings she didn't write down). She doesn't come off great, and you know that can't be the whole story. And, it's odd, because probably Brenda Maddox would say that she loves George Eliot? I think she just is not a nuanced biographer of her. Or, by being interested only in the superficiality of her personal relationships, managed to remove everything that's interesting about her thoughtfulness.
For alternative reading, the Eliot & Lewes section in Parallel Lives is only 40 pages long, but is 100x better than this whole book on the same topic. I reread it after finishing this, and still loved it.
It's a 2½, but I'm three-starring this one because it wasn't very ridiculous or offensive or inaccurate, and I learned some new things that were in fact useful to me. I wouldn't recommend it either as reading or as scholarship, though.