GEORGE ELIOT
INTRODUCTION BY GRACE RHYS
DENT London
EVERYMAN’S LIBRARY
All rights reserved
Printed in Great Britain
This edition was first published in Everyman’s Library in 1910
George Eliot, or Mary Ann Evans, was born at Arbury Farm, in the parishof Chilvers Coton, Warwickshire, on the 22nd of November, 1819. She wasthe fifth and last child of her father by his second wife—of that fatherwhose sound sense and integrity she so keenly appreciated, and who was toa certain extent the original of her famous characters of Adam Bede andCaleb Garth.
Both during and after her schooldays George Eliot’s history was that of amind continually out-growing its conditions. She became an excellenthousewife and a devoted daughter, but her nature was too large for socramped a life. ‘You may try,’ she writes in Daniel Deronda, ‘but you cannever imagine what it is to have a man’s force of genius in you, and tosuffer the slavery of being a girl.’
While her powers were growing she necessarily passed through many phases.She became deeply religious, and wrote poetry, pious and sweet, fair ofits kind. Music was a passion with her; in a characteristic letterwritten at the age of twenty to a friend she tries but fails to describeher experience on hearing the ‘Messiah’ of Birmingham: ‘With a stupid,drowsy sensation, produced by standing sentinel over damson cheese and awarm stove, I cannot do better than ask you to read, if accessible,Wordsworth’s short poem on the “Power of Sound.”’ There you have aconcise history of George Eliot’s life at this period, divided as it wasbetween music, literature, and damson cheese.
Sixteen years of mental work and effort then lay between her and herfirst achievement; years during which she read industriously and thoughtmore than she read. The classics, French, German, and Italian literature,she laid them all under contribution. She had besides the art offortunate friendship: her mind naturally chose out the greaterintelligences among those she encountered; it was through a warm andenduring friendship with Herbert Spencer that she met at last with GeorgeHenry Lewes whose wife she became.
In this way she served no trifling apprenticeship. Natural genius,experience of life, culture, and great companionship had joined to makeher what she was, a philosopher both natural and developed; and, what ismore rare, a philosopher with a sense of humour and a perception of thedramatic. Thus when her chance came she was fully equipped to meet it.
It came when, at the age of thirty-six she began to write ‘Amos Barton,’her first attempt at fiction, and one that fixed her career. The storyappeared in ‘Blackwood’s Magazine,’ and was followed by ‘Mr. Gilfil’sLove Story’ and ‘Janet’s Repentance.’ Of the three, ‘Mr. Gilfil’s LoveStory’ is perhaps the most finished and artistic; while ‘Amos Barton’ hasqualities of humour and tenderness that have not often been equalled.‘Janet’s Repentance,’ strong though it is, and containing the remarkablesketch of Mr. Tryan, is perhaps less surely attractive.
The stories, all three of them, have a particular value as records of anEnglish country life that is rapidly passing away. Moreover, it iscountry life seen through the medium of a powerful and right-judgingpersonality. It is her intimate and thorough knowledge of big things andsmall, of literature and damson cheese, enabling her and us to see allround her characters, that provides these characters with their amplebackground of