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.
The Poetry of George Eliot
The Art of George Eliot in Silas Marner
The Use of Episode in the Teaching of Fiction
Women Writers: Their Works and Ways Volume 1
George Eliot and Personal Responsibility
George Eliot as a Poet
Books: George Eliot Through Her Letters
George Eliot, Her Life and Books
George Eliot: Her Mind and Art
George Eliot, Prophetess
George Eliot on Human Nature
George Eliot on Human Nature
George Eliot on Human Nature
Romola: George Eliot's Novel Filmed
George Eliot's Art: Its Real Goal
Romola: Theatre Royal Attraction-- George Eliot's Novel
A Link with "Mr. Gilfil's Love Story"
George Eliot and Judaism
Diamond Jubilee of "Romola"
Interesting Link with "Adam Bede"
George Eliot: Her Best Characters
George Eliot: Her Best Characters
A Survey of English Literature
George Eliot [Essay]
The Beginning of George Eliot's Art: A Study of "Scenes of Clerical Life"
Dodsons and Tullivers
"'Jane Eyre' to 'Scenes of Clerical Life.'" The Women Novelists.
"The Woman's Man: An Ideal and a Point of View." The Women Novelists.
The Great Four
A Professional Woman
Rosamond and Lydgate
"Silas Marner:" George Eliot's Novel Filmed
George Eliot and Thomas Hardy: A Contrast
George Eliot's 'The Mill on the Floss' [A Review]
Sayings From George Eliot
Sayings From George Eliot
Sayings From George Eliot
George Eliot: Some Sayings from Her Novels
The Bookmarker
Nuneaton and the Memory of "George Eliot"
George Eliot's Novels: Cheap Reissues
George Eliot on Women
George Eliot: Some Sayings from Her Novels
George Eliot on Women
George Eliot on Women
George Eliot: Scenes and People in Her Novels
George Eliot: Some Sayings from Her Novels
George Eliot on Human Nature
George Eliot, Scenes and People in Her Novels
George Eliot: Scenes and People in her Novels
Books Received
Letters on Men and Things: On George Eliot (Continued)
Letters on Men and Things: On George Eliot
To-day's Books
George Eliot on Human Nature
Film Version of George Eliot Book
George Eliot on Human Nature
George Eliot on Human Nature
George Eliot on Human Nature
Manchester Literary Club
To-day's Books
George Eliot: Her Felix Holt
To Day's Books
Gems From George Eliot
Gems From George Eliot
Gems From George Eliot
George Eliot and Boadicea
Cambridge University Local Lectures
The True Story of George Eliot in Relation to "Adam Bede," Giving the Real Life History of the More Prominent Characters
Instinctive Horror
Boys and Girls from George Eliot
Corporation Trading: Anti-Municipal Crusade
Gems From George Eliot
Studies in Poetry and Criticism
Fiction: Past and Present
The Book World: Women Novelists of To-Day
The Popularity-monger
"George Eliot'"and Wirksworth
Mr. Herbert Spencer's Autobiography
Introduction, The Personal Edition of George Eliot's Works: Poems, Essays, and Leaves from a Note Book
The Personal Edition of George Eliot's Works: Poems, Essays, and Leaves from a Note Book, Edited by Esther Wood
George Eliot
George Eliot [Essay]
"Place and Power"
Place and Power
Old Novels and New
George Eliot as a "Man of Letters"
The Encyclopedia Britannica: The Third New Volume
The French George Eliot
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.
"George Eliot: The Literature of Power and Cup of Strength." Charlotte Bronte, George Eliot, Jane Austin.
A Reviving Fame
Victorian Prose Masters; Thackeray - Carlyle - George Eliot - Mathew Arnold - Ruskin - George Meredith (George Eliot)
Heroines of Fiction: Scott's Jeanie Deans and Cooper's Lack of Heroines
St. Paul's Literary Society: Miss Serrell's Paper
The Humour of George Eliot
George Eliot [Book Chapter]
Sayings of George Eliot
"George Eliot" in Real Life
George Eliot Criticised
Adam Bede: George Eliot Originals
"George Eliot." [Book Chapter]
George Eliot
George Eliot and Methodism
The Influence of George Eliot's Later Novels
The Influence of George Eliot's Early Novels
Books Received
Books Received
George Eliot's Characters
Some "New" Humourists
Concerning Four Great Writers
Books Received
Books Received
The Old Fiction: Some Facts about "Adam Bede"
George Eliot as a Humourist
In a Walled Garden (George Eliot Mentions)
Studies in Early Victorian Literature
Dorothea Casaubon and George Eliot
A Traveller's Experiences in the George Eliot Country
Dorothea Casaubon and George Eliot
George Eliot's "Adam Bede" [Review]
Women of Renown
A Nugget of Wisdom: George Eliot's Opinions of Swiss Watches
George Eliot and Mrs. Humphry Ward
George Eliot as a Character Artist
The Manuscripts of George Eliot's Works
A Nugget of Wisdom: George Eliot's Opinions of Swiss Watches
Authors and Their Heroes and Heroines
Wit and Humour
Mr. Ruskin on George Eliot
George Eliot [Book Chapter]
Essays on Some of the Modern Guides to English Thought in Matters of Faith
Lecture by Dr. Talbot on "Middlemarch"
Museum and Library
George Eliot
Recognition of the Rev. J. Spanswick at Longford
English Men and Women of Letters of the 19th Century
George Eliot and Her Teachings
The Great English Writers from Chaucer to George Eliot: With Selections Illustrating Their Work
A Literary Study: George Eliot
Jews in Fiction — III: Daniel Deronda
Essays on Some of the Modern Guides of English Thought in Matters of Faith [A Review]
Scenes From the "George Eliot" Country
George Eliot as a Novelist
Scenes and Characters from the Works of George Eliot
Religious Services
Dickens and the Queen
The "Globe" and the "Daily News"
Sir Theodore Martin on Books
Our Royal Jubilee and Scripture Prophecy
Contributor's Column: The Novels of George Eliot
The Novels of George Eliot
American Estimation of Popular Writers
The Woman Question: From a Socialist Point of View
George Eliot and Her Heroines: A Study
George Eliot: Thoughts Upon Her Life, Her Books, and Herself
George Eliot [Essay]
Literature of the Week
George Eliot and Joseph Liggins
The Story of a Remarkable Literary Imposture
The Authorship of "Adam Bede"
Literary and Other Notes
The Country of George Eliot
George Eliot's Poetry, and Other Studies
A Prayer by George Eliot
George Eliot: Her Life and Works
The Sunderland Equitable Industrial Society's Library
The Rev. H. J. R. Marston on Goldsmith
Literature: Essays by George Eliot
Essays and Leaves from a Note-book
Reviews: George Eliot as an Essayist
Literary and Other Notes
The Religious Teachings of George Eliot
The Future of Single Women
The Autobiography of Mark Rutherford
George Eliot: A Critical Study of her Life, Writings, and Philosophy [A Review]
Reviews: A New Work on George Eliot
George Eliot on the Management of Servants
George Eliot: The Realisticness of Dorothea
Profits of Authorship [A Review of Middlemarch]
April Magazines: George Eliot's Women
George Eliot: Characteristics of the Great Novelist
Leicester Literary and Philosophical Society
The Essays of George Eliot
English Poetesses: A Series of Critical Biographies
The Morality of Thackeray and George Eliot
Mr. G. W. E. Russell M P. on the "Genius of George Eliot"
George Eliot as a Moral Teacher
A History of English Prose Fiction from Sir Thomas Malory to George Eliot
Children in the Novels of George Eliot
Mr. Noble on "George Eliot"
Mr. Noble on "George Eliot"
Portsmouth Literary and Scientific Society
George Eliot: Sermon by Rev. Robert Collyer on the Greatest Novelist
Village Life of George Eliot
George Eliot
Charles Dickens and George Eliot
A Letter from George Eliot
George Eliot's Continental Influence
George Eliot and Dinah Bede
Mr. Charles Dickens and George Eliot
The Late George Eliot and Wirksworth
George Eliot and the Jews
George Eliot's Account of "Dinah Morris"
"George Eliot" and Wirksworth Associations
George Eliot [Review]
Literature, Science, and Art
Charles Dickens and George Eliot
Mr. Charles Dickens and George Eliot
Charles Dickens and "George Eliot"
The Moral Influence of George Eliot
The Moral Element in English Literature
The Art of George Eliot
Estimate of "George Eliot"
Estimate of "George Eliot"
Lecture on George Eliot
An Author's Blunders- Slips in the Chronology of "Adam Bede"
Feminine Fancies, Foibles, and Fashions.
George Eliot: A Roundabout Paper
Morning Herald (NSW : 1842 - 1954), 11 September 1879, p. 3.
The Impressions of Theophrastus Such
Gossip from the London Papers
The Prince Consort As a Novel Reader
Personal and Society Gossip
The Reflection of English Character in English Art
Art. VI. --- Theophrastus Such
Impressions of Theophrastus Such
Impressions of Theophrastus Such
Impressions of Theophrastus Such
George Eliot as a Novelist
George Eliot and Judaism: An Attempt to Appreciate "Daniel Deronda."
George Eliot and Judaism; an attempt to appreciate Daniel Deronda
Second Edition