Scenes of Clerical Life (Oxford World's Classics)

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Gray, Donald. 'George Eliot and her publishers' in ed. Levine, George. The Cambridge Companion to George Eliot. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2001. pp. 186–187. [2] Moulton, Charles Wells (1904). The Library of Literary Criticism of English and American Authors. Vol.7. Buffalo, New York: Moulton. p.181. This debut novel by George Eliot (Marian Evans) — actually three novellas — was written in 1857, sometimes referred to as the Age of Religious Novels. Anthony Trollope wrote Barchester Towers in the same year. "Janet's Repentance" has unusual themes for a Victorian novel: domestic abuse and a female alcoholic.

Mr Gilfil’s Love-Story” is also sad, but is more high romance than tragedy, full of chivalry and unselfish passion. Janet’s Repentance” is the final story in George Eliot’s “Scenes of Clerical Life” and it is a powerful exploration of redemption and forgiveness. The story follows the life of Janet Dempster, a woman who has been ostracized by her community due to her alcoholism and scandalous behavior. Despite her past mistakes, Janet is determined to turn her life around and seek forgiveness from those she has wronged. Through her journey, Eliot explores the themes of sin, redemption, and the power of forgiveness. The story is a poignant reminder that no matter how far one has strayed from the path of righteousness, there is always a chance for redemption and forgiveness. The Use of Symbolism in the Novella Mr. Gilfil’s Love Story” is a poignant tale of unrequited love and sacrifice. The story follows the life of Mr. Gilfil, a kind and gentle clergyman who falls in love with a young woman named Tina. However, Tina is already engaged to Captain Wybrow, a selfish and cruel man who mistreats her. Despite his love for Tina, Mr. Gilfil puts her happiness above his own and helps her to marry Captain Wybrow.Simply beautiful stories in a prose style that is both dense and poetic but also extremely readable. Doubtless a complacency resting on that basis is highly rational; but emotion, I fear, is obstinately irrational: it insists on caring for individuals; it absolutely refuses to adopt the quantitative view of human anguish, and to admit that thirteen happy lives are a set-off against twelve miserable lives, which leaves a clear balance on the side of satisfaction.” Each story has a long, drawn-out build up, and a couple of times I was confused by the timeframe or narrative point of view. Otherwise I found them gorgeous, dense, and moving, and I loved all three. I'm so wrapped up with the Victorians, not least through reading this book, that I wrote a blog about it:

One of Eliot’s most notable narrative techniques is her use of omniscient narration, which allows her to delve into the inner lives of her characters and provide insight into their motivations and desires. This technique is particularly effective in “Scenes of Clerical Life,” where the characters’ struggles with faith, morality, and social expectations are central to the plot.The emotions, I have observed, are but slightly influenced by arithmetical considerations: the mother, when her sweet lisping little ones have all been taken from her one after another, and she is hanging over her last dead babe, finds small consolation in the fact that the tiny dimpled corpse is but one of a necessary average, and that a thousand other babes brought into the world at the same time are doing well, and are likely to live; and if you stood beside that mother—if you knew her pang and shared it—it is probable you would be equally unable to see a ground of complacency in statistics.