1885 George Eliot's Life

Description

First Edition, Illustrated, Leather Binding

The first edition of this work. Complete in three volumes. In a signed binding by Waters, Newcastle. Volume I with a frontispiece, and four plates. Collated, bound without plate 'Portrait of Mr Robert Evans' facing page 204. Volume II with a frontispiece, and a folding plate showing a facsimile of Eliot's handwriting. Collated, complete. Volume III with a frontispiece, and two plates. Collated, complete. Bookplate to the front pastedowns, 'John William Pease'. He was part of the Pease family, a prominent English Quaker family. He was married to Helen mary Foxm and founded the Newcastle bank Hodgkin, Barnett, Pease, Spence & Co with his brother-in-law Thomas Hodgkin. The bank eventually became part of Lloyds Bank in 1902. Prior owner's ink inscription to the recto to the front free endpaper, 'Arnold F. Judd. 23rd February 1920'. This biography was written five years after George Eliot's death. The biography was largely sourced from Eliot's letters and journals, and reflected the typical Victorian habit of sweeping less than ideal facts under the rug. As a result, the reader is left with a picture of Eliot has a literary and intellectual goddess. In fact, Eliot was known for scandal. She had lived with a married man for over twenty years until his death. Though they considered themselves to be married, George Henry Lewes was already married to Agnes Jervis, with whom he had an open marriage. In contrast to the habit of hiding affairs, Eliot and Lewes were open about their relationship, and did not try and conceal it in any way. Due to that, Eliot's novels received extra criticism, with people trying to find hints of immorality in her fiction. Written by John Walter Cross, George Eliot's husband. Cross was a long time friend and advisor of Eliot, and was twenty years her junior. The two became closer after the death of Lewes, and they married in 1880. The first edition of this interesting biography on an influential author.