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The World Before Her
A stunning novel about two women and two marriages -- George Eliot at the end of her life, and another woman a century later.
The year is 1880 and the setting is Venice. Marian Evans -- whose novels under the pen name George Eliot have placed her among the famed Englishwomen of her time -- has come to this enchanted city on her honeymoon. Newly married to John Cross, twenty...more
The year is 1880 and the setting is Venice. Marian Evans -- whose novels under the pen name George Eliot have placed her among the famed Englishwomen of her time -- has come to this enchanted city on her honeymoon. Newly married to John Cross, twenty...more
Hardcover, 288 pages
Published
May 13th 2008
by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
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What I learned from this book? For starters, Deborah Weisgall is a new and wonderful world of an author. Then, I learned to love George Eliot as a person and author more than before. Ms. Weisgall makes an attempt to score an 11 on a 10 vault and lands it with no problem. One thread of the book begins with Marian Evans Lewes Cross on her honeymoon in Venice with her very virginal husband, twenty years her junior, who she calls Johnnie. Johnnie is virginal and married to an adored Mother surrogat...more
The World Before Her is that rare book on my reading list: one that I found on the shelf at the library, with no recommendation from a friend, blog or newsletter. It started well enough, but didn't deliver enough on the themes that held promise.
The book alternates between a tale of George Eliot during the months of her marriage late in life to a much younger man and the story of the marriage of a young sculptor to a financier. As a friend of mine pointed out, this is a difficult style of book to...more
The book alternates between a tale of George Eliot during the months of her marriage late in life to a much younger man and the story of the marriage of a young sculptor to a financier. As a friend of mine pointed out, this is a difficult style of book to...more
I was convinced i would like this because it is partly biographical of Marian Evans (who wrote as George Eliot), and her latter day trip to Venice. But i didn't like it. For a very interesting premise, it read terribly pedestrian and predictable. The premise, then: There are two stories that flip back and forth, Marian Evans as an older woman when she finally "legitimated" her life by getting married...unfortunately to someone she wasn't remotely in love with.
the second story was 100 years late...more
the second story was 100 years late...more
I have a hard time resisting novels set in Venice; this, combined with a parallel story line evocative of Byatt's Possession, and a recommendation from a dear friend, prompted me to open The World Before Her.
I was fascinated by Weisgall's recreation of George Eliot's late marriage and last years. However, despite the author's captivating imagined recreation of a literary luminary, I found this novel to be a disappointment. Weisgall contrasts the lives and choices of two women; one historic, and...more
I was fascinated by Weisgall's recreation of George Eliot's late marriage and last years. However, despite the author's captivating imagined recreation of a literary luminary, I found this novel to be a disappointment. Weisgall contrasts the lives and choices of two women; one historic, and...more
The book starts with Marion Evans and then each chapter alternates thereafter. I thought that would be confusing but the length of the chapters is perfect. Just enough information about the woman and her particular situation before pausing for the other woman's installment.
Although these women are separated by 100 years, they are experiencing the same situation. Their marriages have 20 year age differences, and both have learned things about their spouses that causes them to reflect on their liv...more
Although these women are separated by 100 years, they are experiencing the same situation. Their marriages have 20 year age differences, and both have learned things about their spouses that causes them to reflect on their liv...more
Excellent novel with parallel stories of the marriages of two women, both artists, who visit Venice 100 years apart. In 1880 Marian Evans Cross, better known to the world as George Eliot, is on her honeymoon. She has, to the world's surprise, married her much-younger financial adviser relatively soon after the death of her longtime partner, George Lewes. In 1980, Caroline Spingold is in Venice at the behest of her much older and controlling husband, Malcolm, who is afraid she is reclaiming her i...more
I have heard mixed things about this book (including one friend who passionately explained why I should skip it). As I had already selected it for a book club, I was sort of stuck reading it (for this bookworm at least, one of the worst feelings in the world is having someone tell you you’ve subjected friends to reading a horrible book).
I think I read a different book.
This is an enchanting novel about two women at different points in their lives, marriages, and careers. One is set in 1880, the...more
I think I read a different book.
This is an enchanting novel about two women at different points in their lives, marriages, and careers. One is set in 1880, the...more
Since I would read a matchbook cover if it was about either Venice or George Eliot, the combination won me immediately. The book, however, alternating chapters between Eliot's visit to Venice with her new icky husband John Cross, and that of an immature American artist with her Madoff-like spouse, is inconsistently written. Because Weisgall has done biographical research, she packs her Eliot chapters with a huge cast of characters (Herbert Spencer, John Chapman, Liszt, Clara Schumann) whose rela...more
Apr 10, 2009
Rita
marked it as to-read
Have just started this but am slow getting into to it. Hope the pace picks up.
I've chosen to read this book a second time, as the first was not a very good experience. Will provide more feed back when I'm done. Book club read. I changed the rating from two to three, and I enjoyed it more than I did the first time. It seemed to make more sense. I still have issues with dual plots, but I got it better this time than the first time. I dove right in after finishing Milo and told myself I can't read anything until this book is finished, and glad I did. Thanks for your encourag...more
This book started out so brilliantly that I was convinced it was going to end up being one of my favorite novels. Weisgall re-imagines author George Eliot's honeymoon in Venice following the death of her longtime lover George Lewes and her subsequent marriage to a young admirer. What made this premise intriguing was the contrast between her new relationship and the old, underscored by Eliot's memories of her past visit to Venice with Lewes. Eliot had shared a joyful relationship with George Lewe...more
AMAZON
From Publishers Weekly
Two women in Venice, separated by a century, search for love and identity in the latest from novelist (Still Point) and memoirist (A Joyful Noise) Weisgall. It opens as Marian Evans—aka Mary Ann Evans, aka the novelist George Eliot (1819–1880)—is on her 1880 honeymoon in Venice with Johnnie Cross, who is 20 years her junior. Evans is trying, after a long and scandalous love affair with fellow author George Lewes, to have a normal marriage. One hundred years later, in...more
From Publishers Weekly
Two women in Venice, separated by a century, search for love and identity in the latest from novelist (Still Point) and memoirist (A Joyful Noise) Weisgall. It opens as Marian Evans—aka Mary Ann Evans, aka the novelist George Eliot (1819–1880)—is on her 1880 honeymoon in Venice with Johnnie Cross, who is 20 years her junior. Evans is trying, after a long and scandalous love affair with fellow author George Lewes, to have a normal marriage. One hundred years later, in...more
A moving exploration of fading love and the bitterness of endings. George Eliot discovers the man she married doesn't understand who she is, and she struggles with the various social and personal pressures he brings to bear to make her conform to his image of her as a wise and proper Victorian lady. In 1980, the entirely fictional Caoline Spingold struggles with her emerging maturity as a woman and a sculptor agains her dominating husband's desire that she stay "soft" and trusting. Both stories...more
The primary setting for the book is Venice, with two stories; one set in 1880 involving George Eliot (Marian Evans) and her marriage to John Cross on their honeymoon, and one contemporary tale with a sculptor, Caroline, reluctantly returning to Venice as an anniversary trip. While both women have marriages that have failed to meet their expectations, in some ways they are opposites. Caroline married a much older man who is disappointed in her growth from a naive woman to someone with more confid...more
Love in Venice: The City as Character & Catalyst - I was 'amused' to read reader reviews of this on Amazon which ALL seemed to focus on the character 'George Eliot' and completely MISSED/IGNORED the 'character' of Venice ... One CANNOT, just cannot read of Venice and not understand that it is not happenstance that the author would use this to place the story. Perhaps the readers have not been there - alas.
I picked this up at the Gardner Museum and read it because it contains several elements I find intriguing in a novel: a basis in art, parallel stories between a current and an historical figure, Venice locations, etc. It is beautifully written and I enjoyed much of it but the overwhelming bleakness of the women's marital states wore on me and I ended up not liking it as much as I'd hoped.
The plot was interesting, but the passages were to flowery for me. I prefer short and concise thoughts. The thought processes of the characters are too jumpy and ill-contrived. It is sometimes difficult to understand when and where or even what they are doing.
If you are interested in reading about Marian Evan/George Eliot--you might find this interesting. But I didn't.
If you are interested in reading about Marian Evan/George Eliot--you might find this interesting. But I didn't.
Serendipitously - as often happens with books, for instance, McCarthy's The Rpad and Craces The Pesthouse - this appeared at the same time as Kathryn Walker's A Stopover in Venice. Weisgall's imagining of Marian Evans' brief second marriage parallels a sculptor's marriage in the recent past. The scenes of George Eliot (as she is better known) are wel-researched and ring true; the scenes of Venice are tantalizing as well as accurate, and the story of Caroline Edgar Spingold, Weisgall's wholly fic...more
Aug 10, 2011
Lesley Potts
added it
The premise of this novel - art, love, and marriage, sounded so promising. However, it failed to deliver. I think that's the danger of writing fiction about real people - the story is already written. I wanted George Eliot to have a hot steamy Venetian affair with Whistler, but all that happened in Venice was her new husband fell into a canal.
An interesting read. Mary Ann Evans aka George Eliot on her honeymoon in Venice paralelled with a modern American woman in Venice with her husband. It is not the first time in the city for either woman. I enjoyed the chapters about Evans because of the history and the other real people interspersed into the story. Not sure if I would read anything else by this author but this was worth my time.
An interesting look at two women who once were happy and now are not -- and their thoughts and efforts towards making peace with themselves.
This book made me want to know more about the real George Eliot, and also to hope that Weisgall will write a book on the history of the Jews of Venice, of which she weaves tiny glimpses throughout the story.
This book made me want to know more about the real George Eliot, and also to hope that Weisgall will write a book on the history of the Jews of Venice, of which she weaves tiny glimpses throughout the story.
Parallel stories of George Elliot and a modern day protagonist visiting Venice. Both are artists in unhappy marriages: Elliot (now Mrs Cross) in a sexless union with a man who wants to worship her, but is attracted to boys, Caroline with a possessive, controlling brute. Both get out of these relationship in different ways.
This book was ok, it wasn't an easy read. It jumped between the story of George Eliot (Marian Evans) at the end of her life and her marriage, along with a tenuous marriage of a modern couple. The common thread was that each couple visited Venice. I guess the concept was how 2 different women viewed a marriage that wasn't really about who they were. It was just ok, not the worst book but not the best book I've read.
I think the author is a gift writer, and initially, I thought I'd love the book. But....as someone has already posted, I kind of got tired of the couples (especially the 1980's couple) and found the book a bit tedious after a while. Nevertheless, I am not sorry I read it. The evocation of Venice and Venetian art and architecture made it worthwhile.
I'm into Venice these days - can't wait to go! I found this book a bit slow going, but still was interested in it. It's about George Eliot at the end of her life and another woman a century later. I took that off the cover. Venice helps weave the two lives and marriages together.
The George Eliot parts were very interesting, but the 20th C. character was a little annoying and the story a bit contrived in order to seem "parallel" to Eliot's. Still, I couldn't put it down, and want to read a real biography of Eliot.
I picked this up because it was about (a) George Eliot and (b) Venice. While I enjoyed it (and motored through it), I felt like it was a bit obvious at times, and I think the author has trouble writing convincing male characters.
A fascinating book, two main characters set at several times in their lives. I had to accept the author's biography of George Eliot. I was able to visit Venice again in the pages of this book.
This book started off very promisingly, but just didn't hold my interest. It's about two couples, one in 1880 -- Johnnie and Marian (the novelist George Eliot) and one in 1980 -- Caroline and Malcolm. I never cared about the modern couple at all -- found them annoying, selfish, and self-involved. I wanted to give them a good kick in the rear and say, "Work it out, or get divorced, but leave me out of it." The Victorian couple's story intrigued me at first, but after a while I lost interest in th...more
Two tense marriages 100 yrs apart - one of them Marian Evans's (George Eliot) - both involving Venice and an art wife paired with a money husband. I found the tension tiring, even tho the book was well written.
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Jun 30, 2008 05:07am