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Felix Holt
Archived Group Reads 2023
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Felix Holt: Background, Schedule and Resources
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Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reform_...
UK National Archives: https://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/e...
A short video on its passage: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=js_Ka...
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The book has 50 chapters plus a short introduction and epilogue as well as an address by Felix that appears at the end in my edition; I’ve spread our read out across 7 weeks, with most instalments around 50 pages other than the first and last which are somewhat longer. Please note that the second and last instalments have 8 chapters each while the rest are 7 chapters. (The dates are when I will post the discussion)
Week 1: February 12: Introduction and Chapters 1–6
Week 2: February 19: Chapters 7–14
Week 3: February 26: Chapters 15–21
Week 4: March 5: Chapters 22–28
Week 5: March 12: Chapters 29–35
Week 6: March 19: Chapters 36–42
Week 7: March 26: Chapters 43–50, Epilogue and Address
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George Eliot or Mary Ann Evans Cross was a novelist but also a poet, essayist, and translator. Between 1859 and 1876, she published seven novels, and was known for her realistic approach to character, skilful development of plot, and psychological insight. Themes she explores in her books include politics, women, religion, and rural life. As a child she was intelligent and a voracious reader, which along with her being thought as having little chance at marriage, led her father to give her an education not usually afforded women at that time. In 1850, she moved to London to become a writer. In 1856, she published an essay critiquing works by female writers of the day entitled 'Silly Novels by Lady Novelists'. Her first work of fiction, 'The Sad Fortunes of Revd. Amos Barton' appeared in 1857, and later formed part of Scenes of Clerical Life. Her first complete work of fiction was Adam Bede, published in 1859.
Find bios here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_...
Here https://www.notablebiographies.com/Du...
And various biographical articles here: http://www.victorianweb.org/authors/e...
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George Eliot Archive: https://georgeeliotarchive.org/items/... (pdf)
Project Gutenberg (various formats): https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/40882
Audio: https://librivox.org/search?title=Fel...
Really looking forward to re-reading this novel with the group!I am still glad I picked up this book by chance as my second title by Eliot - after Middlemarch (of course? ;-)), which is set around the same period - about 30 years in the past from the time of its writing. It was challenging for me to keep these three points in time separate in my mind: the reader's, the author's, and the novel's.
I came to the book also via an interest in the history of the concept 'radical' throughout the 19th century and up to its modern (somewhat degenerated, often pejorative) meaning. ... maybe because of having been called a 'radical' in different (non-English) contexts myself?
(sorry - not adding anything useful to the background, just my two cents of personal perspective)
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I am still glad I picked up this book by chance as my second title by Eliot - after Middlemarch (of course? ;-)), which is set aroun..."
Glad to hear that Sabagrey. I've read this one only once and that too very long ago, so looking forward to reading it. You're right about having to bear the different perspectives in mind.
Incidentally, on Middlemarch I happened t read this volume, Middlemarch and the Imperfect Life: Bookmarked
which was both a reflection on the relevance of the book and the author's personal experience reading the book over time.
One of the events that eventually led to the 1832 Reform Act occurred thirteen years previously in 1819. It was known as ‘The Peterloo Massacre.’ Here is a condensed summary of what happened and what the consequences were.https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2...
I have a personal interest in this event because one of my direct descendants was one of a group of men who worked at a calico printers mill in Bury, a small town six miles from Manchester. On the day of the meeting the calico printers at the mill stayed away from work and marched into Manchester to attend the meeting. I don’t know if my ancestor was one of the injured or even if he was definitely there but it was most probable that he was one of the group that marched into Manchester. It is ironic that even though the Reform Bill was passed it still didn’t give working class men and women the vote and the vast majority of people at the meeting in St Peters Fields were working class. This is relevant to the story of Felix Holt.
There is an excellent recent film ‘Peterloo’ directed by Mike Leigh and starring Maxine Peake and Rory Kinnear, which was made to commemorate the two hundredth anniversary of the event. As well as describing the event it portrays the conditions of the time so authentically.
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt4614612/
Trev wrote: "There is an excellent recent film ‘Peterloo’ ... ."Oh, thank you for the hint! - it goes on my wishlist of English DVDs.
(I only saw the trailer and loved that it quotes Shelley's lines 'you are many - they are few'. Both his poems on the event are fascinating)
It must be fascinating to have a personal connection to such an event in history.
I have always found it fascinating - and not easy to understand - that the English workers fought for voting rights at that time. You think they would have fought for a more immediate improvement of their conditions (wages or working hours) - but that came much later, with the unions. Instead they went for democracy, identifying the root of their problems - but they could not have expected short-time improvements from such a long-term campaign, or could they?
The Reform Act was indeed a poor compromise, increasing the number of voters only very moderately. I am looking forward to see how this change was played out in Felix Holt.
You may or may or may not be aware that Vincent van Gogh was inspired to paint one of his most famous works of art after reading Gerge Eliot’s Felix Holt: The Radical‘It was in the final months of his life during which his mental health declined and his art soared, that these early London associations flooded back most insistently into Van Gogh’s work. Take The Bedroom, the famous rendition of his room at the “Yellow House” in Arles where he lived for a short, tumultuous time with Paul Gauguin. In 1889, and working on a version of the painting for his mother, he wrote to his sister Wilhelmina from the Saint Paul asylum at Saint-Rémy:
“You’ll probably find the interior the ugliest, an empty bedroom with a wooden bed and two chairs ... I wanted to arrive at an effect of simplicity as described in Felix Holt.”
The full article is here - https://www.theguardian.com/books/201...
Trev wrote: "You may or may or may not be aware that Vincent van Gogh was inspired to paint one of his most famous works of art after reading Gerge Eliot’s Felix Holt: The Radical.."Thank you, this is truly fascinating - and I knew nothing about it. I was not even aware that van Gogh had stayed in London. I'll see the painting as 'Felix Holt's Bedroom' from now on.
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https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00f...
Lady Clementina wrote: "Audio: https://librivox.org/search?title=Fel... "
adding to: audiobooks
if you are on audible, there's a free audiobook.
there is also a version on youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wv7rs...
I tried all three, and I like the narrator of the youtube version best.
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Thanks everyone! I will start this once I´ve finished some others books. :P
something we may have overlooked when focusing on the Reform Act 1832: another (greater) reform of the election system was being discussed at the time when Eliot wrote Felix Holt - and passed in 1867, shortly afterwards. So her historical novel was published in the middle of another Reform debate about voting rights and boroughs. Her reference to this second reform must have been even clearer with the publication of the "Address" in 1868 - after the act had been passed.
BTW, the project Gutenberg text does not contain the Address. I found it in the Eliot Archive:
Address by Felix Holt, 1868:
https://www.georgeeliotarchive.org/fi... (facsimile)
https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Essays...
(I haven't read it - but from its length it looks rather like a sermon by Rufus Lyon ;-))
It is hard for us to know what the political debate of the day was when the book was published. It could be that Felix Holt was a too 'topical' novel to be interesting to later readers, and that was why it has remained one of the less read works of George Eliot.
... I was curious about the election that takes much room in the book. There is a wikipedia article '1832 United Kingdom general election'. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1832_Un...
The election was held between 8 Dec. 1832 and 8 Jan. 1833. The Liberal side (Whigs, Radicals ... ) won by a vast margin.
sabagrey wrote: "... I was curious about the election that takes much room in the book. There is a wikipedia article '1832 United Kingdom general election'. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1832_Un......"
That is well worth knowing in the context of reform and this novel.
I don’t normally go in for humorous and possibly flippant (or untruthful) historical facts, but this semi-serious article about general elections has some interesting information.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/arti...
Trev wrote: "I don’t normally go in for humorous and possibly flippant (or untruthful) historical facts, but this semi-serious article about general elections has some interesting information."thank you! hilarious ... in fact, the debate over the 'ballot' (somewhere in the book) had me in a puzzle, and I had to look up what it meant there. And I learned a (for me) new English word - 'plumper'
the date of the election was interesting to me because we are told a date right at the outset of the novel: 1st of September, 1832. I like to have a feel of the time covered.
Victorians!
Books mentioned in this topic
Felix Holt: The Radical (other topics)Felix Holt: The Radical (other topics)
Middlemarch and the Imperfect Life: Bookmarked (other topics)
Amidst this, a young nobleman, Harold Transome returns to England from the colonies, with a fortune he has made for himself, and shocks everyone by deciding to contest elections as a radical rather than the Tory traditions his family have followed. But when the idealistic Felix Holt returns to town, the difference between Holt’s genuine beliefs and Transome’s opportunistic ones start to become clear. Bringing the romantic thread to the story is the clergyman’s daughter Esther Lyon, who is caught between whether to choose the wealthy Transome or Felix, who may be brusque but is honest and passionate about his beliefs.
This is a novel that has been the subject of much academic analysis from its social relevance and handling of themes like power and democracy to the role of its heroine.