George Eliot's "Felix Holt, the Radical": a Portrait of an Age in Transformation

Abstract

George Eliot’s “Felix Holt, the Radical” is set in the aftermath of the Great Reform Act of 1832 and investigates the consequences of the great changes that Britain was experiencing, both from a private and from a public perspective. The present dissertation aims to defend the novel’s significant role in the panorama of Victorian literature, despite it being considered one of the weakest works by George Eliot. In “Felix Holt”, Eliot provides a portrait of the England of 1830 and that of 1860s, capturing successfully the spirit of the age, its great changes, as well as its core issues and fears. The first chapter of the dissertation contains an account of the life of George Eliot, with the purpose of reviewing the events and people that influenced her work. The second chapter offers an historical account of the decades from 1830s to 1860s, with the goal of portraying a clear panorama of the socio-political transformations of that period, as well as the thought of some contemporary intellectuals, to better understand the age. The last section investigates how George Eliot explored and addressed the fundamental concerns of the Victorian intellectuals - politics and morals, the importance of the past and women’s rights - through her characters, their vicissitudes, and choices. This analysis explores how Eliot weaved such themes into her narrative, providing insights on intellectual and social debates of the Victorian era.