Rereading George Eliot Changing Responses to Her Experiments in Life

Paris, Bernard J.

ISBN 10: 0791458334 / ISBN 13: 9780791458334

Published by State University of New York Press, 2003

About this Item

Very Good with light wear to covers and no marks to text. First free page attached to back of front cover (possible publisher error) , otherwise book is in wonderful condition. ; 8.90 X 5.90 X 0.60 inches; 220 pages.

Seller Inventory # 76454

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Rereading George Eliot Changing Responses to Her Experiments in Life
• Publisher: State University of New York Press
• Publication Date: 2003
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0791458334
• ISBN 13: 9780791458334
• Binding: Hardcover
• Condition: Very Good
• Seller catalogs:
  • Literary Criticism/ Lit Theory Annex

About this title

Synopsis

In a probing analysis that has broad implications for theories of reading, Bernard J. Paris explores how personal needs and changes in his own psychology have affected his responses to George Eliot over the years. Having lost his earlier enthusiasm for her "Religion of Humanity," he now appreciates the psychological intuitions that are embodied in her brilliant portraits of characters and relationships. Concentrating on Eliot's most impressive psychological novels, Middlemarch and Daniel Deronda, Paris focuses on her detailed portrayals of major characters in an effort to recover her intuitions and appreciate her mimetic achievement. He argues that although she intended for her characters to provide confirmation of her views, she was instead led to deeper, more enduring truths, although she did not consciously comprehend the discoveries she had made. Like her characters, Paris argues, these truths must be disengaged from her rhetoric in order to be perceived.

About the Author

Bernard J. Paris is Professor Emeritus of English at the University of Florida and the author of a number of books, including Experiments in Life: George Eliot's Quest for Values and Imagined Human Beings: A Psychological Approach to Character and Conflict in Literature.