The Marriage Question

May 1, 2023
A highly illuminating portrait of the acclaimed writer's evolution as a novelist and a wife. Carlisle, a professor of philosophy and author of Spinoza's Religion and Philosopher of the Heart, digs into the unconventional relationship between George Eliot, who was born Mary Ann Evans, and her life partner, George Lewes. "How," asks Carlisle, "does [the couple's] defiantly idealized public image connect to the very dark marital interiors portrayed in [Eliot's] novels, with their recurring scenes of ambivalence, brutality and disappointment? Do these scenes retaliate against the moralism that condemned their author, by smashing the fa�ade of respectable marriage?" If this material sounds too dry or overly academic, not to worry. Carlisle's ability to distill and connect ideas from such disparate fields as philosophy, theology, and literary analysis only brings Eliot into tighter focus. In addition to examining Eliot's relationship with Lewes, Carlisle shows her in her artistic element, visiting with such luminaries as Herbert Spencer, Thomas and Jane Carlyle, George Sand, and Franz Liszt. As the author capably demonstrates, Eliot was determined to break away from the strictures of 19th-century British life and lead the fullest possible creative and emotional life. Much of this was made possible by Lewes, who, Carlisle reminds us, exerted abundant energy in buoying her up. "He was steadfastly cheerful," writes the author, "through her recurrent depressions, relentlessly encouraging through her self-doubt," and "putting her work before his own...became a daily practice of devotion." Carlisle's descriptions of both Eliot and Lewes are engaging throughout. Regarding the latter: "Vigorous, bright, tenacious, not inclined to doubt or nuance: his personality flowed into his literary style....With his scruffy charm, dubious past, literary connections and bold ideas, he had a racy glamour." 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.

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June 5, 2023
In this captivating biography, Carlisle (Spinoza’s Religion), a philosophy professor at King’s College London, illuminates how the work of British novelist George Eliot (1819–1880) blossomed during her unsanctioned “marriage” to writer George Henry Lewes, who was already married to another woman with whom he had three children. Lewes and his wife were no longer living together when he eloped with the 34-year-old Eliot, scandalizing Victorian society. As Carlisle shows, what Eliot lost in respectability she gained in a life partner who encouraged her to become a novelist (not least because they needed the money) and acted as her de facto literary agent. Carlisle focuses on their “intellectual collaboration” and mutual devotion to each other, noting that Eliot supported Lewes’s scientific work as well as his wife and sons with the income from her successful novels Adam Bede and Middlemarch, while he was “steadfastly cheerful through her recurrent depressions, relentlessly encouraging through her self-doubt.” Carlisle’s cogent prose brings Eliot’s story to life, and astute literary analysis shows how Eliot’s biography influenced her novels; for example, Carlisle argues that in Middlemarch, the Brooke sisters’ “deep philosophical difference between idealism and empiricism” coupled with “mutual love” reflects Eliot’s dynamic with Lewes. This is a must for devotees of Victorian literature.

July 1, 2023

Carlisle (philosophy, King's College London; Spinoza's Religion) presents a focused narrative on the distinguished life of English novelist George Eliot (1819-80). Eliot was the pen name for Mary Ann Evans, and she was celebrated as soon as she published her debut novel, Adam Bede. Carlisle's book focuses on the unconventional approach to a loving relationship that Eliot followed during a particularly conservative time period in English society. When she met writer and philosopher George Henry Lewes through her social circle, the two became intimate partners and lived together for nearly 25 years. But Lewes was still married during that time and unable to get a divorce, which eventually left Eliot ostracized from "polite society." Carlisle explores, in depth, themes of philosophy and marriage in Eliot's art and life, highlighting dynamics like desire and morality, in a book that combines biography, philosophy, history, and literary interpretation. A listing of illustrations, which includes rare copies of photographs and manuscripts, is a bonus. VERDICT An intriguing study of Eliot's complex and ambiguous life and work as it relates to the institution of marriage. Ideal for literary and philosophy scholars.--Gary Medina

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