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 Woman Question: From a Socialist Point of View
Dorothea Casaubon and George Eliot
Middlemarch [A Review]
The Mill on the Floss [A Review]
Daniel Deronda [A Review]
The Reflection of English Character in English Art
The Mill on the Floss [A Review]
The Melancholy of "Middlemarch"
The Strong Side of Daniel Deronda
Middlemarch: A Study of Provincial Life [A Review]
Mordecai: A Protest Against the Critics by a Jew
The Novels of George Eliot
Felix Holt, the Radical [A Review]
Daniel Deronda: A Conversation
Village Life of George Eliot
Middlemarch, a Study of Provincial Life [A Review]
George Eliot's Novels
George Eliot
Recent Novels - Scenes of Clerical Life and White Lies
Middlemarch: a Study of Provincial Life [A Review]
George Eliot's Novels
Eliot's Novels
Felix Holt, the Radical [A Review]
The Moral Element in English Literature
The Moral Influence of George Eliot
Daniel Deronda [A Review]
The Future of Single Women
The Mill on the Floss [A Review]
The Mill on the Floss [A Review]
George Eliot's New Romance
To Novelists - and a Novelist
Felix Holt, the Radical [A Review]
Felix Holt, the Radical [A Review]
Felix Holt, the Radical [A Review]
George Eliot as a Moral Teacher
George Eliot as a Novelist
Scenes of Clerical Life / Adam Bede
The Mill on the Floss [A Review]
The Mill on the Floss [A Review]
Middlemarch [A Review]
George Eliot and Judaism; an attempt to appreciate Daniel Deronda
Second Edition