Review rosemary ashton george eliot biography

Abstract

Oxford's publication of 'Bite-sized biographies of Britain's most fascinating historical figures' brings to mind Pascal's famous apology for the length of his letter: 'I have not had time to make it shorter'.

Ashton's biography delves into the complex life of Mary Ann Evans, who adopted the pseudonym George Eliot to navigate the male-dominated literary world of.

Ashton modestly disclaims any ambition to supersede Gordon Haight's biography 'as a piece of scholarship', though she does have access to a few new letters to.

I appreciated Ashton's in-depth comments on each of George Eliot's novels, and enjoyed this biography even if at times I felt adrift, lost among the nuances and intellectual debates of the time.

Ashton provides an excellent account of the youthful reading that pushed Eliot out of the church, but she rarely returns to the question in.

Rosemary Ashton believes the anecdote reveals at an early stage George Eliot's 'wit, wisdom, imagination, and an ability to turn her own experience to good.

Would Rosemary Ashton, who has written both long and short biographies, agree that it is more taxing to produce a 'bite-sized' account that a long one? Brevity demands clear aims, selection of salient points, stringent compression.

These tests Rosemary Ashton passes with enviable ease, combining compression with elegance. She begins by summarizing her aims: 'In this study, originally written for the new Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, I hope to bring into focus the unusual qualities George Eliot possessed [ ], among which are included George Eliot's rejection of orthodox religion, her acceptance of an unconventional 'marriage’, the breadth of her learning, her command of languages, her exceptional knowledge of philosophy, history,