George Eliot and Italy: Literary, Cultural and Political Influences from Dante to the Risorgimento

253 Pages·1998·14.233 MB·English

by  Andrew Thompson (auth.)

GEORGE ELIOT AND ITALY

George Eliot and Italy
Literary, Cultural and Political
Influences from Dante to
the Risorgimento
Andrew Thompson
University of Genoa, Italy
First published in Great Britain 1998 by
MACMILLAN PRESS LTD
Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire RG21 6XS and London
Companies and representatives throughout the world
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
ISBN 978-1-349-40175-8 ISBN 978-0-230-39018-8 (eBook)
DOI 10.1057/9780230390188
First published in the United States of America 1998 by
ST. MARTIN'S PRESS, INC.,
Scholarly and Reference Division,
175 Fifth Avenue, New York, N.Y. 10010
ISBN 978-0-312-17651-8
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Thompson, Andrew, 1962-
George Eliot and Italy: literary, cultural, and political
influences from Dante to the Risorgimento I Andrew 1l10mpson.
p. em.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-0-312-17651-8 (cloth)
I. Eliot, George, 1819-1880-Knowledge-ltaly. 2. Eliot, George,
1819-1880-Political and social views. 3. Political fiction,
English-History and criticism. 4. Eliot, George, 1819·-1880.
Daniel Deronda. 5. Dante Alighieri, 1265-1321-lnflucnce.
6. English fiction-Italian influences. 7. Eliot, George,
1819-1880. Romola. 8. Italy--In literature.
PR4692.182T47 1997
823'.8-dc21 97-16082
CIP
© Andrew Thompson 1998
Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1st edition 1998 978-0-333-69456-5
All rights reserved. No reproduction, copy or transmission of this publication may be made
without written permission.
No paragraph of this publication may be reproduced, copied or transmitted save with
written permission or in accordance with the provisions of the Copyright, Designs and
Patents Act 1988, or under the terms of any licence permitting limited copying issued by
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Any person who docs any unauthorised act in relation to this publication may be liable to
criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages.
The author has asserted his right to be identified as the author of this work in accordance
with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
This book is printed on paper suitable for recycling and made from fully managed and
sustained forest sources.
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 I
07 06 OS 04 03 02 01 00 99 98
This book, che m'ha fatto per piii anni macro, is for my parents

Contents
List of Abbreviations viii
Acknowledgements ix
Introduction 1
1 Dante, the Risorgimento and the British: the Italian
Background 6
2 George Eliot's Contact with Italian Life and Culture
1840-61 30
3 Eliot's Italian Exile in 'Mr Gilfil's Love Story'
(Scenes of Clerical Life) 50
4 Italian Mythmaking in Romola 68
5 Dante in Romola 84
6 Dante and Moral Choice in Felix Holt, the Radical 98
7 Italian Culture and Influences in Middlemarch 120
8 Gwendolen's 'Other Road': Dante in Daniel Deronda 145
9 Italian Poetry and Music in Daniel Deronda 161
10 Daniel Veranda, Italian Prophecy, Dante and George
Eliot 173
Notes 196
Bibliography 227
Index 235
vii
List of Abbreviations
Biography Haight, G.S., George Eliot: a Biography, Penguin,
Harmondsworth 1985 (1968)
Cross George Eliot's Life as Related in Her Letters and
Journals. Arranged and Edited by Her Husband,
J.W. Cross, (3 vols), Edinburgh and London:
Blackwood & Sons 1885
Extracts 'Interesting Extracts' manuscript 14, The Folger
Shakespeare Library, Washington 3, DC
GE George Eliot
GE Diary MS diary for 1879 (Berg Collection, New York
Public Library)
MS diary for 1880 (Yale)
GE Journal MS Journal, 'Recollections of Italy' 1860 (Yale
MS2)
GHL George Henry Lewes
GHL Journal MS journal, number XI, Aprillst, 1859-January
1st, 1866 (Yale)
Letters The George Eliot Letters, G.S. Haight (ed.), 9 vols,
New Haven and London 1954-78
Notebook 1854-79 George Eliot: A Writer's Notebook 1854-1879, and
Uncollected Writings edited by J. Wiesenfarth
(Charlottesville, Virginia: University of Virginia,
1981)
Theophrastus Theophrastus Such; Essays and Leaves from a Note
book Blackwood, Edinburgh and London 1901
WR The Westminster Review
viii
Acknowledgements
The best guide to the many debts I owe in the writing of this book
will be found in the Bibliography, though there were many other
influences, of some of which I am probably not even aware. I would,
however, like to single out a number of works as being of particular
importance and without which the task facing me would have been
far more daunting. I am particularly indebted to Romana Cortese's
unpublished Ph.D. thesis George Eliot and Dante and to the invalu
able painstaking work of Joseph Wiesenfarth, William Baker, J.C.
Pratt and V.A. Neufeld in producing annotated editions of George
Eliot's notebooks. I hope my debt to these scholars has been suffi
ciently acknowledged. I would like to thank my father, Professor
Doug Thompson of the Italian Department of the University of Hull
UK, for his comments and suggestions concerning Dante and the
nineteenth-century Italian context and for the many discussions
which helped stimulate and focus some of the ideas in the book,
as well as for much help and advice of a practical nature. I am
grateful to both my parents for being patient, supportive and critical
readers of the various drafts of the manuscript. I would also like to
thank Dr Graham Handley for his valuable comments on the later
drafts of some chapters and Professor Giuseppe Sertoli of the Uni
versity of Genoa for his interest and encouragement throughout the
project. Thanks, too, to Charmian Hearne, Sheila Chatten and the
staff at Macmillan for seeing the work smoothly through the press.
Special thanks are due to Patrizia Vadala and to Nadia Santini. Any
faults and shortcomings in the book are of course entirely my own.
ANDREW THOMPSON
ix