Who that cares much to know the history of man, and how the mysterious mixture behaves under the varying experiments of Time, has not dwelt, at least briefly, on the life of Saint Theresa, has not smiled with some gentleness at the thought of the little girl walking forth one morning hand-in-hand with her still smaller brother, to go and seek martyrdom in the country of the Moors? Out they toddled from rugged Avila, wide-eyed and helpless-looking as two fawns, but with human hearts, already beating to a national idea; until domestic reality met them in the shape of uncles, and turned them back from their great resolve. That child-pilgrimage was a fit beginning. Theresa's passionate, ideal nature demanded an epic life: what were many-volumed romances of chivalry and the social conquests of a brilliant girl to her? Her flame quickly burned up that light fuel; and, fed from within, soared after some illimitable satisfaction, some object which would never justify weariness, which would reconcile self-despair with the rapturous consciousness of life beyond self. She found her epos in the reform of a religious order.

Middlemarch

The Lifted Veil's sickly narrator, Latimer, believes himself to be cursed with the ability to see the future and sense the thoughts and feelings of those around him. Disgusted by what he sees in the minds of others, he accepts that he will lead an unobtrusive life, constantly overshadowed by his more vigorous elder brother. That is, until he meets and becomes fascinated with Bertha, his brother's beautiful and coquettish fiancée. The Lifted Veil sits alongside works such as Mary Shelley's Frankenstein and Robert Louis Stevenson's The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde as a definitive piece of Victorian-era horror fiction, and was a departure for author George Eliot who generally focused on realism in her writing. Nonetheless, through The Lifted Veil Eliot proves skilled at incorporating the mysterious themes of the horror fiction genre into her distinctive writing style. HarperPerennialClassics brings great works of literature to life in digital form, upholding the highest standards in ebook production and celebrating reading in all its forms. Look for more titles in the HarperPerennial Classics collection to build your digital library.

The Lifted Veil

Accusé d'avoir volé de l'argent à une petite congrégation calviniste, le tisserand Silas Marner s'en défend : cependant, un couteau de poche et la bourse retrouvée chez lui semblent prouver le contraire... Rejeté par sa promise, Silas quitte la ville, le cour brisé. Quel avenir l'attend ?

Le roman, emblématique d'une Angleterre à l'aube de la révolution industrielle, a été adapté six fois pour le cinéma et deux fois pour la télévision.

George Eliot est le pseudonyme de Mary Ann Evans (1819-1880). Durant son enfance, elle reçoit une éducation très religieuse dont elle s'émancipe peu à peu lorsqu'elle rencontre le libre-penseur Charles Bray. Elle fait scandale à deux reprises, une première fois en affichant ouvertement son couple avec un homme marié, une seconde fois en se mariant avec un homme bien plus jeune qu'elle. Son ouvre, qui compte entre autres "Middlemarch" et "Daniel Deronda", est célèbre pour la fine analyse psychologique de ses personnages, que l'auteure situe toujours dans une Angleterre décrite avec la force de son écriture réaliste.

Silas Marner

George Eliot's tale of a solitary miser gradually redeemed by the joy of fatherhood, Silas Marner is edited with an introduction and notes by David Carroll in Penguin Classics.Wrongly accused of theft and exiled from a religious community many years before, the embittered weaver Silas Marner lives alone in Raveloe, living only for work and his precious hoard of money. But when his money is stolen and an orphaned child finds her way into his house, Silas is given the chance to transform his life. His fate, and that of Eppie, the little girl he adopts, is entwined with Godfrey Cass, son of the village Squire, who, like Silas, is trapped by his past. Silas Marner, George Eliot's favourite of her novels, combines humour, rich symbolism and pointed social criticism to create an unsentimental but affectionate portrait of rural life.This text uses the Cabinet edition, revised by George Eliot in 1878. David Carroll's introduction is complemented by the original Penguin Classics edition introduction by Q.D. Leavis.Mary Ann Evans (1819-80) began her literary career as a translator, and later editor, of the Westminster Review. In 1857, she published Scenes of Clerical Life, the first of eight novels she would publish under the name of 'George Eliot', including The Mill on the Floss, Middlemarch, and Daniel Deronda.If you enjoyed Silas Marner, you might like Nathaniel Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter, also available in Penguin Classics.'I think Silas Marner holds a higher place than any of the author's works. It is more nearly a masterpiece; it has more of that simple, rounded, consummate aspect ... which marks a classical work'Henry James

Romola is a historical novel by George Eliot set in the fifteenth century, and is "a deep study of life in the city of Florence from an intellectual, artistic, religious, and social point of view". The story takes place amidst actual historical events during the Italian Renaissance, and includes in its plot several notable figures from Florentine history.

Romola

Middlemarch (1871-1872) est le plus grand roman victorien, et aux yeux de certains le meilleur roman de langue anglaise, toutes époques confondues. Quête de la vérité menée de plusieurs points de vue, le livre ne saurait être réduit au destin de Dorothea Brooke, jeune fille altruiste et utopiste qui épouse un érudit desséché. Autour du couple gravitent de nombreux personnages, assujettis à des liens familiaux, conjugaux, de voisinage, d'intérêts. George Eliot entrelace les destins individuels, ménage des rebondissements dignes d'un feuilleton, sans jamais céder à la facilité : sa peinture psychologique est de la plus grande finesse lorsqu'elle décrit les désirs et les tragédies de ceux dont les vies s'entremêlent sur la trame d'une même étoffe. Son acuité peut se parer d'ironie, sans que jamais s'étiole la sympathie qu'elle éprouve pour ses créatures confrontées à la défaite de leurs aspirations. Les événements se déroulent dans l'Angleterre provinciale des années 1830, mais ce «plaidoyer pour la beauté des vies ordinaires» (Mona Ozouf) a pour sujet les passions humaines, qui sont sans âge. 
Middlemarch est ici précédé du chef-d'oeuvre de la première période de George Eliot, Le Moulin sur la Floss (1860). Eliot, née Mary Anne Evans, a mis beaucoup d'elle-même dans le personnage de Maggie Tulliver, petite fille turbulente à la nature exaltée, passionnée par les livres, «aussi affamée de savoir qu'elle l'est d'amour» (M. Ozouf). Proust avouait avoir pleuré à la lecture de ce roman du paradis perdu de l'enfance. Maggie sera victime de l'ostracisme social - comme sa créatrice, qui vécut vingt-cinq ans avec un homme qui n'était pas son mari et chercha, à travers une oeuvre littéraire liant l'intellect aux sentiments, à obtenir cette respectabilité chère aux victoriens. 
À sa mort, en 1880, elle fut célébrée comme «le plus grand romancier anglais contemporain». On ne lui permit pourtant pas d'être enterrée, comme l'avait été Dickens, dans le «Coin des poètes» de l'abbaye de Westminster.

Middlemarch / le moulin sur la Floss

Silas Marner, a weaver in the slum of Lantern Yard, stands falsely accused of stealing funds from his small Calvinist congregation. His life in tatters, Silas flees south and settles near the village of Ravenloe, only to have his life disrupted again when a local scoundrel, Dunsey Cass, steals his small fortune. It is only after becoming the guardian of an orphaned child that Silas's luck begins to change as he is transformed from an embittered man into one capable of love and forgiveness, with the means for spiritual rebirth and redemption from his ruinous past. In Silas Marner George Eliot subtly critiques the impacts of industrialization, the role of the upper class and the function of organized religion. The work has been adapted many times, most notably by the BBC with Ben Kingsley portraying Silas Marner. HarperPerennial Classics brings great works of literature to life in digital format, upholding the highest standards in ebook production and celebrating reading in all its forms. Look for more titles in the HarperPerennial Classics collection to build your digital library.

Ce grand roman politique oppose deux sortes de radicaux réclamant des changements politiques profonds, lors d'une campagne électorale dans l'Angleterre des années 1830 : Harold Transome, riche propriétaire terrien, candidat sous cette étiquette par opportunisme, et Felix Holt, homme du peuple qui n'a pas le droit de vote et dont le radicalisme est un engagement de l'être entier, désireux de changer l'organisation sociale, la répartition des richesses, de redonner à chaque individu une "part d'homme" dans la vie. Les deux hommes se disputent également l'amour d'Esther Lyon, la fille adoptive d'un pasteur. Dans cette lutte entre ancien et nouveau monde, le mérite personnel l'emportera-t-il sur la naissance, pour signer l'entrée dans le monde démocratique ? La collision des destins personnels avec l'histoire collective est le vrai sujet de ce roman peu connu de l'auteure, traduit pour la première fois en français.

Felix Holt, le radical

Maggie Tulliver and her older brother Tom live a happy, sheltered childhood at Durlcote Mill on the River Floss. Though Maggie and Tom are drastically different-he is pragmatic and rational, while she longs for intellectual gains and worldly experiences-they share a strong bond that is strengthened as they are forced to deal with a great family debt, the loss of the mill, and the eventual death of their father. When Tom leaves to earn back the family's former estate, Maggie finally gains the freedom to experience life beyond the mill. But the relationships she cultivates in her new-found independence-those with men, in particular-complicate her connection with her brother and the two find it impossible to go back to their simple life at the mill on the Floss. Encompassing filial duty, female independence and the rigid morality of early nineteenth century England, The Mill on the Floss partially reflects the scandal created by author George Eliot's relationship with the already married George Henry Lewes. The Mill on the Floss has been adapted for the stage, film, and television, including the 1997 single-episode adaptation of the novel, with Emily Watson and Bernard Hill portraying the characters of Maggie and Mr. Tulliver. HarperPerennial Classics brings great works of literature to life in digital format, upholding the highest standards in ebook production and celebrating reading in all its forms. Look for more titles in the HarperPerennial Classics collection to build your digital library.

Middlemarch

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