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Complete Works of George Eliot,
by George Eliot.
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The Criticism
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GEORGE ELIOT - My Literary Passions
by William Dean Howells
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The piece titled GEORGE ELIOT - My Literary Passions by William Dean Howells in the index, and on the page (in the Delphi collection of Complete Works of George Eliot) before the piece, is - on the page - titled "XXVI. GEORGE ELIOT, HAWTHORNE, GOETHE, HEINE", and seems to be a chapter from a book, included because he - Howells - mentions George Eliot.
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Howells begins with a very charming portrayal of Columbus, presumably Ohio, to introduce the topic.
"It was an evening paper, and I had nearly as much time for reading and study as I had at home. But now society began to claim a share of this leisure, which I by no means begrudged it. Society was very charming in Columbus then, with a pretty constant round of dances and suppers, and an easy cordiality, which I dare say young people still find in it everywhere. I met a great many cultivated people, chiefly young ladies, and there were several houses where we young fellows went and came almost as freely as if they were our own. There we had music and cards, and talk about books, and life appeared to me richly worth living; if any one had said this was not the best planet in the universe I should have called him a pessimist, or at least thought him so, for we had not the word in those days. A world in which all those pretty and gracious women dwelt, among the figures of the waltz and the lancers, with chat between about the last instalment of ‘The Newcomes,’ was good enough world for me; I was only afraid it was too good. There were, of course, some girls who did not read, but few openly professed indifference to literature, and there was much lending of books back and forth, and much debate of them. That was the day when ‘Adam Bede’ was a new book, and in this I had my first knowledge of that great intellect for which I had no passion, indeed, but always the deepest respect, the highest honor; and which has from time to time profoundly influenced me by its ethics."
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Rest of the chapter, another page and a quarter, is about the other authors mentioned in the title, who he loved and revered more. His personal fascination seems to be with punishment for a young woman for being, at most, an equal partner in an event where the other, responsible in reality for more than his half, goes scot free unless he comes forth to admit responsibility.
Even in 1980s this attitude had not changed much, as we learned when visiting Washington D.C., where we had stayed at a bed-and-breakfast run by a Mennonite family or institution; a fellow guest, a woman, spoke about disapproval of behaviour of the then young women. When pointed out that the said girls didn't get pregnant all by themselves, she agreed, but didn't see that it was unjust to penalise them solely while letting the male responsible scot free.
If pregnancy is the crime, then all of life other than birds and reptiles and bees is not only guilty of it but has life due yo it, and as such, whoever disapproved of this crime ought to feel free to pay for it, by ending it simply - the Jain way. Just stop eating, period. Pretend it's Lent, or whatever name suits your particular branch of abrahmic religion, and the fast isn't to be a pretence but real, for forty days. Then extend it to another forty. And another. Stop penalizing the young female with an eyebrow lifted or gossip, if she's missing the ring on the finger telling you the coming life is sanctioned. After all, nobody can ever prove anybody's parenthood by scientific tests to 100% satisfaction of general public - if you cant take the word of a mother, what proof does anyone have that a lab test isn't giving a false answer? - and so the ring merely says " space rented, babies sold".
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October 12, 2021 - October 12, 2021.
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