The Marriage Question
George Eliot's Double Life
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ISBN10: 0374600457
ISBN13: 9780374600457
Hardcover
400 Pages
$30.00
CA$40.00
In her mid-thirties, Marian Evans transformed herself into George Eliot—an author celebrated for her genius as soon as she published her debut novel. During those years she also found her life partner, George Lewes—writer, philosopher, and married father of three. After “eloping” to Berlin in 1854, they lived together for twenty-four years: Eliot asked people to call her "Mrs Lewes" and dedicated each novel to her "Husband." Though they could not legally marry, she felt herself initiated into the "great experience" of marriage—"this double life, which helps me to feel and think with double strength." The relationship scandalized her contemporaries yet she grew immeasurably within it. Living at once inside and outside marriage, Eliot could experience this form of life—so familiar yet also so perplexing—from both sides.
In The Marriage Question, Clare Carlisle reveals Eliot to be not only a great artist but also a brilliant philosopher who probes the tensions and complexities of a shared life. Through the immense ambition and dark marriage plots of her novels, we see Eliot wrestling—in art and in life—with themes of desire and sacrifice, motherhood and creativity, trust and disillusion, destiny and chance. Carlisle's searching new biography explores how marriage questions grow and change, and joins Eliot in her struggle to marry thought and feeling.
Reviews
Praise for The Marriage Question
"Impassioned . . . [The Marriage Question] is different in its close focus on an idea: that the titular institution shaped Eliot’s identity and work . . . in the most meta sense, it is an ideal companion volume."—Alexandra Jacobs, The New York Times
"Magisterial . . . a book that triumphantly enlarges our understanding of [Eliot], and of her time."—Kathy O’Shaughnessy, Financial Times (UK)
"Brilliant . . . [Carlisle] guides us, by way of biography, philosophy, literary interpretation, literary history, and the histories of art and religion, through a profound consideration of Eliot’s unconventional 'marriage,' and how that emotional—and, in many ways, strategic—choice influenced her life and career . . . Ultimately, Carlisle’s thoughtful, comprehensive account of this particular liaison exquisitely probes the complex, thorny, and fascinating question: How much does our choice of partner determine who we ultimately become?"—Jenny McPhee, Air Mail
"Finally, Eliot has got the biographer she deserves, namely an ardent and eloquent feminist philosopher who shows us how and why Eliot's books, rightly read, are as philosophically profound as any treatise written by a man."—Stuart Jeffries, The Observer (UK)
"Thrilling . . . Frankly brilliant . . . In her introduction to The Marriage Question, Carlisle speaks of wanting to employ biography as philosophical inquiry and here she succeeds magnificently. With great skill and delicacy she has filleted details from Eliot’s own life, read closely into her wonderful novels and, most importantly, considered the wider philosophical background in which she was operating."—Kathryn Hughes, The Guardian (UK)
"A richly considered study that brings one close to the heart and mind of a great writer and a wise soul."—Rupert Christiansen, The Telegraph (UK)
"Like her subject, Carlisle conveys the fruits of her studies and reflection with a light, sometimes even lyrical touch."—Jacqueline Banerjee, The Times Literary Supplement (UK)
"Clare Carlisle's The Marriage Question is the best book I've read on George Eliot."—John Carey, Sunday Times (UK)
"A highly illuminating portrait of the acclaimed writer's evolution as a novelist and a wife . . . Fans of literary history will savor this book. Carlisle's empathetic exploration of a unique relationship provides a clear lens through which to view Eliot's life and work."—Kirkus Reviews
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BOOK EXCERPTS
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1Setting Sail
She had decided, she had prepared, she had waited, and finally the day arrived. Light came into her room around five in the morning, and she rose early. It was Thursday, 20 July 1854: today she would not be married...