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Complete Works of George Eliot,
by George Eliot.
Delphi Classics
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The Criticism
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GEORGE ELIOT - Views and Reviews,
by William Ernest Henley
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This seems to be a collection of excerpts, from several places, of views and reviews of George Eliot, collected or written by William Ernest Henley. The whole chapter is small enough to quote, all of it, verbatim. What is interesting is that, unlike various such quotes seen before this, and the almost homage level book by Cooke, this collection of views and reviews is not only mostly negative, but bitingly so.
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"The Ideal.
"It was thought that with George Eliot the Novel-with-a-Purpose had really come to be an adequate instrument for the regeneration of humanity. It was understood that Passion only survived to point a moral or provide the materials of an awful tale, while Duty, Kinship, Faith, were so far paramount as to govern Destiny and mould the world. A vague, decided flavour of Liberty, Equality, and Fraternity was felt to pervade the moral universe, a chill but seemly halo of Golden Age was seen to play soberly about things in general. And it was with confidence anticipated that those perfect days were on the march when men and women would propose — (from the austerest motives) — by the aid of scientific terminology."
If that isn't bitingly sarcastic, what is? But wonder why. Is it because her intellect, her learning frightened males - not because one woman could, but because, just imagine, what if every woman could? Worse, what if they insisted their right to do so, and desired? Who'd then be convenient for males to use for- not only one, but most purposes? There was not just housekeeping, but objects targeted with various needs, such as lust, or ridicule, contempt, disdain, rage, ....
This was the era before Mme. Curie destroyed the almost biblical myth about women lacking material in the top floor, and just because some males questioned reality of her having done anything at all to deserve her share of the Nobel prize (they really thought a husband, however loving, would share credit for a humongous scientific discovery, like sharing a cup of coffee? And then offer her half of his Nobel prize, instead of a bouquet of roses, as a proof of love? And that a woman would prefer this as proof of love, instead of roses and diamonds and chocolates?) - Mme Curie went ahead and got her own second Nobel prize, after his having passed away in an accident, so nobody coukd accuse her of having stolen hus credit. What's more, this is the only family so far to have five Nobel prizes between four members, if one includes a son-in-law; else, it's four Nobel prizes in the family between three members out of four.
So George Eliot doesn't surprise one by being intelligent despite being a woman, after one has grown up knowing about discovery of radium. She surprises one only pleasantly, very often, as one reads her works, with flashes of her intellectual abilities.
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"The Real.
"To the Sceptic — (an apostate, and an undoubted male) — another view was preferable. He held that George Eliot had carried what he called the ‘Death’s-Head Style’ of art a trifle too far. He read her books in much the same spirit and to much the same purpose that he went to the gymnasium and diverted himself with parallel bars. He detested her technology; her sententiousness revolted while it amused him; and when she put away her puppets and talked of them learnedly and with understanding — instead of letting them explain themselves, as several great novelists have been content to do — he recalled how Wisdom crieth out in the street and no man regardeth her, and perceived that in this case the fault was Wisdom’s own. He accepted with the humility of ignorance, and something of the learner’s gratitude, her woman generally, from Romola down to Mrs. Pullet. But his sense of sex was strong enough to make him deny the possibility in any stage of being of nearly all the governesses in revolt it pleased her to put forward as men; for with very few exceptions he knew they were heroes of the divided skirt. To him Deronda was an incarnation of woman’s rights; Tito an ‘improper female in breeches’; Silas Marner a good, perplexed old maid, of the kind of whom it is said that they have ‘had a disappointment.’ And Lydgate alone had aught of the true male principle about him."
What did Daniel Deronda ever do that a member of clergy would not? He heard her problems, most of the time, counselled her, and married someone else, in case his manhood is in doubt.
If that certifies all members priesthood, of every church, as "heroes of the divided skirt", how does anyone explain the scandulous conduct of a huge number of them over decades, probably centuries, raping small boys, apart from nuns? Church covers it up, mostly protecting perpetrators rather than victims, latter being threatened and punished in every way possible just so they not only shut up but also cooperate further, with the offenders.
What did Daniel Deronda ever do that a decent, non predatory member of clergy would not? He heard her problems, most of the time, counselled her, and married someone else, in case his manhood is in doubt. Or does this critic expect every man to defile every woman he sees? Or was it precisely his non predatory behaviour that certifies him in the mind of this critic as "heroes of the divided skirt"?
Taliban much?
Have these critics not seen men so very like those in Middlemarch - dozens, arent there? - such as Casaubon (oh, just look at faculties of not top universities of U.S., there are some), or Dorothea's uncle, or Celia's husband, or Bulstrode, or the low life blackmailer whose death causes aspersions on Lydgate?
And wonder why this critic thought Lydgate was the only genuine male? Most men are far less chivalrous with women, including their wives; most can help ruining their lives quite well, and ruin others instead, chiefly those with much less power - including any females they have power over.
Silas Marner is rare. Granted.
Tito, not so much. He's so ordinary, so common among males, there's only his history that's unique. Most Titos of this world are brought up lovingly by their mom's, and have a dad who aren't dominating enough, or fail to impress the boy with values while growing up, and instead let him grow up with an exaggerated esteem for his own worth, while at the same time imparting him not wisdom but skills of getting along with ladder climbing via honey and usefulness offered to those who'd help you climb those rungs.
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"Appreciations.
"Epigrams are at best half-truths that look like whole ones. Here is a handful about George Eliot. It has been said of her books — (‘on several occasions’) — that ‘it is doubtful whether they are novels disguised as treatises, or treatises disguised as novels’; that, ‘while less romantic than Euclid’s Elements, they are on the whole a great deal less improving reading’; and that ‘they seem to have been dictated to a plain woman of genius by the ghost of David Hume.’ Herself, too, has been variously described: as ‘An Apotheosis of Pupil-Teachery’; as ‘George Sand plus Science and minus Sex’; as ‘Pallas with prejudices and a corset’; as ‘the fruit of a caprice of Apollo for the Differential Calculus.’ The comparison of her admirable talent to ‘not the imperial violin but the grand ducal violoncello’ seems suggestive and is not unkind."
Misogynistic.
Quite comparable, in the level of misogyny, with the propaganda, almost campaign, during 1970s- 1980s, in U.S., about inability of female brain to "do math", even as post graduate classes in India major cities had an even division (without reservations) between male and female students, and at some of the top research institutions (- not in West, of course-) females were in not very insignificant numbers, at younger levels, but senior enough for us beginners.
It's the damned-either-way gas chamber route that abrahmic faiths of non-stone-pelting variety reserve for females - brand women as trivial because they are soft, or maternal, or not uninterested in marrying, dressing up, et al; scream and brand them unfeminine if they do not hide their intelligence, actually dare to be doctors or lawyers or scientists, or anything non trivial or something males aren't supposed to be unable to do; thwart them in any way possible from any life that involves survival without going into slavery of one kind or other, preferably between three of the oldest routes.
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October 12, 2021 - October 12, 2021.
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