Contemporaries on George Eliot's Works
An understanding of how George Eliot’s contemporaries were reading and responding to her published works helps us appreciate her reach, her fame, and her historical significance.
In this section, you will find commentary on Eliot's works published in periodicals during and shortly beyond her lifetime.
The George Eliot Archive offers far more reviews and commentary on Eliot's works than any print volume. As a digital scholarly edition, we are able to continuously expand as new items are identified. We have relied on the work of editors of printed collections as our starting point and continued to build our collection well beyond what has been available. Our digital edition more than quadruples the number of previously collected reviews of Middlemarch, facilitating new avenues of inquiry into the novel's early reception.
We also have an extensive collection of articles reporting on and summarizing lectures presented on George Eliot’s works and on her literary influence within and outside of England. As these documents demonstrate, Eliot's writing garnered widespread acclaim from professional critics and common citizens alike, who generally praised the creativity, wit, complex characters, and the moral philosophy incorporated into her writings.
If you are unable to locate a specific review or article about Eliot's works in this section, please let us know. We'll find it, upload it, and send you the link.
George Eliot has adopted a plan with the publication of Middlemarch...
The Influence of George Eliot's Early Novels
The Book World: Women Novelists of To-Day
The Woman Question: From a Socialist Point of View
The Great English Writers from Chaucer to George Eliot: With Selections Illustrating Their Work
A History of English Prose Fiction from Sir Thomas Malory to George Eliot
George Eliot as a Novelist
George Eliot: Her Mind and Art
George Eliot and Thomas Hardy: A Contrast
The Poetry of George Eliot
"George Eliot: The Literature of Power and Cup of Strength." Charlotte Bronte, George Eliot, Jane Austin.
Charlotte Brontë, George Eliot, Jane Austen: Studies in Their Works
Bonnell, Henry H. (Henry Houston). Charlotte Brontë, George Eliot, Jane Austen: Studies In Their Works. New York [etc.]: Longmans, Green, and Co., 1902.
Letters on Men and Things: On George Eliot
Letters on Men and Things: On George Eliot (Continued)
The Bookmarker
Victorian Prose Masters; Thackeray - Carlyle - George Eliot - Mathew Arnold - Ruskin - George Meredith (George Eliot)
George Eliot, Her Life and Books
George Eliot's Poetry, and Other Studies
Studies in Poetry and Criticism
Middlemarch [A Review]
The Mill on the Floss [A Review]
Daniel Deronda [A Review]
Critical Assessments [Review of Middlemarch]
Critical Notices
George Eliot and Mrs. Humphry Ward
The Reflection of English Character in English Art
The Mill on the Floss [A Review]
Charles Dickens and "George Eliot"
Mr. Charles Dickens and George Eliot
Mr. Charles Dickens and George Eliot
Charles Dickens and George Eliot
Middlemarch and Daniel Deronda
George Eliot and the Jews
The Personal Edition of George Eliot's Works: Poems, Essays, and Leaves from a Note Book, Edited by Esther Wood
A Survey of English Literature
"George Eliot'"and Wirksworth
The Art of George Eliot in Silas Marner
Adam Bede [A Review]
George Eliot's First Romance
George Eliot on Women
Gems From George Eliot
Gems From George Eliot
Gems From George Eliot
Sayings From George Eliot
Sayings of George Eliot
George Eliot on Women
Sayings From George Eliot
Sayings From George Eliot
George Eliot on Women
Gems From George Eliot
Belles Lettres: Three Novels
George Eliot on Human Nature
George Eliot: Some Sayings from Her Novels
A Prayer by George Eliot
George Eliot on Human Nature
George Eliot: Some Sayings from Her Novels
"Sayings," by George Eliot ("Adam Bede")
George Eliot on Human Nature
George Eliot on Human Nature
George Eliot on Human Nature
George Eliot on Human Nature
George Eliot on Human Nature
Transatlantic Latter-Day Poetry
Women Writers: Their Works and Ways Volume 1
The Use of Episode in the Teaching of Fiction
Studies in Early Victorian Literature
George Eliot's 'The Mill on the Floss' [A Review]
George Eliot
The Morality of Thackeray and George Eliot
Heroines of Fiction: Scott's Jeanie Deans and Cooper's Lack of Heroines
George Eliot and Joseph Liggins
The Melancholy of "Middlemarch"
The Strong Side of Daniel Deronda
Middlemarch: A Study of Provincial Life [A Review]
Essays on Some of the Modern Guides to English Thought in Matters of Faith
Mordecai: A Protest Against the Critics by a Jew
George Eliot [Book Chapter]
About Some of the George Eliot's Novels
The Novels of George Eliot
Felix Holt, the Radical [A Review]
Daniel Deronda: A Conversation
Review of The Spanish Gypsy
Mr. Ruskin on George Eliot
A Professional Woman
The Great Four
"The Woman's Man: An Ideal and a Point of View." The Women Novelists.
"'Jane Eyre' to 'Scenes of Clerical Life.'" The Women Novelists.
George Eliot and Judaism: An Attempt to Appreciate "Daniel Deronda."
George Eliot and Judaism: An Attempt to Appreciate "Daniel Deronda" (excerpts)
George Eliot and Judaism; an attempt to appreciate Daniel Deronda
Second Edition