George Eliot and the Landscape of Time: Narrative Form and Protestant Apocalyptic History (Studies in Religion)

Cloth hardcover, xiii + 246 pages, NOT ex-library. Missing the dedication page; a blank sticker on the front endpaper. Pen notations and/or pencil marginalia on 5 pages (mostly in the index section and contents list); highlighting on 7 pages (some very sparse). Else interior is clean and bright, untanned, free of stamps, firmly bound. A touch of light rubbing to the boards' edges. Missing the dust jacket. -- This scholarly study explores the influence of 19th-century religious interpretation on George Eliot's narrative structures. The book argues that Eliot's later works represent a creative rewriting of Protestant apocalyptic schemes into visionary literary forms. Carpenter investigates how Eliot appropriated formal religious systems to map the "landscape of time" in her fiction. Apocalyptic Narrative Schemes: The book discusses specific apocalyptic structures in major works including Romola, Adam Bede, Middlemarch, and Daniel Deronda, as well as her poetry in The Legend of Jubal. Visionary Poetics: Carpenter demonstrates that Eliot developed a "visionary poetics" by translating 19th-century British interpretations of biblical prophecies into romantic and satiric narrative styles. Septenary Structures: A key analytical point involves "sevenfold" or septenary structures found in Eliot's work, which mirror the seven ages of time often found in Victorian family Bibles and the Book of Revelation. For example, Carpenter notes the visible seven-book division in The Mill on the Floss as a reflection of these apocalyptic frameworks. The work is recognized for offering a new approach to understanding Victorian narrative form by connecting it to contemporary religious history. It is cited as a significant exploration of Eliot's conception of history, arguing that Eliot viewed history as an "imaginary line" imposed on inchoate mass - essentially a form of fiction created through formal systems of codification. …