George Eliot

Middlemarch is a recognized masterpiece that explores the complex social world of 19th century England. It is concerned with the lives of several ordinary people, albeit ones with high social standing. The novel explores the very fabric of Victorian society in the 1800s, showing how various human passions--heroism, egotism, love, and lust--interrelate within this society.

Brought up at Dorlcote Mill, Maggie Tulliver worships her brother Tom and is desperate to win the approval of her parents, but her passionate, wayward nature and her fierce intelligence bring her into constant conflict with her family. As she reaches adulthood, the clash between their expectations and her desires is painfully played out as she finds herself torn between her relationships with three very different men: her proud and stubborn brother,...

Deronda, a high-minded young man searching for his path in life, finds himself drawn by a series of dramatic encounters into two contrasting worlds: the English country-house life of Gwendolen Harleth, a high-spirited beauty trapped in an oppressive marriage, and the very different lives of a poor Jewish girl, Mirah, and her family. As Deronda uncovers the long-hidden secret of his own parentage, Eliot's moving and suspenseful narrative opens up a...

"Presents George Eliot's 1862 novel about Romola, a woman who, having grown up subservient to her scholar-father, and endured an unhappy marriage, has a passionate intellectual and spiritual awakening in Renaissance Florence." *** "One of George Eliot's most ambitious and imaginative novels, 'Romola' is set in Renaissance Florence during the turbulent years following the expulsion of the powerful Medici family when the zealous reformer Savonarola...

Including a large section of the author's canon, Wit and Wisdom of George Eliot includes in-depth character analyses.

Falsely accused of theft, Silas Marner is cut off from his community but finds refuge in the village of Raveloe, where he is eyed with distant suspicion. Like a spider from a fairy-tale, Silas fills fifteen monotonous years with weaving and accumulating gold. The son of the wealthy local Squire, Godfrey Cass also seeks an escape from his past. One snowy winter, two events change the course of their lives: Silas's gold is stolen and, a child crawls...

Sensitive, intelligent young Daniel is haunted by the secrets that shroud his illegitimate birth. Events bring him to choose between a beautiful gambler who married for money in desperation, and a Jewish singer, who indirectly forces him to search out his own mysterious past.