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The Marriage Question: George Eliot's Double Life Hardcover – August 15, 2023
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Named one of the ten Best Reviewed Nonfiction Books of 2023 by Literary Hub
A startling new portrait of George Eliot, the beloved novelist and a rare philosophical mind who explored the complexities of marriage.
In her mid-thirties, Marian Evans transformed herself into George Eliot―an author celebrated for her genius as soon as she published her debut novel. During those years she also found her life partner, George Lewes―writer, philosopher, and married father of three. After “eloping” to Berlin in 1854, they lived together for twenty-four years: Eliot asked people to call her "Mrs Lewes" and dedicated each novel to her "Husband." Though they could not legally marry, she felt herself initiated into the "great experience" of marriage―"this double life, which helps me to feel and think with double strength." The relationship scandalized her contemporaries yet she grew immeasurably within it. Living at once inside and outside marriage, Eliot could experience this form of life―so familiar yet also so perplexing―from both sides.
In The Marriage Question, Clare Carlisle reveals Eliot to be not only a great artist but also a brilliant philosopher who probes the tensions and complexities of a shared life. Through the immense ambition and dark marriage plots of her novels, we see Eliot wrestling―in art and in life―with themes of desire and sacrifice, motherhood and creativity, trust and disillusion, destiny and chance. Carlisle's searching new biography explores how marriage questions grow and change, and joins Eliot in her struggle to marry thought and feeling.
Includes black-and-white images
- Print length400 pages
- LanguageEnglish
- PublisherFarrar, Straus and Giroux
- Publication dateAugust 15, 2023
- Dimensions6.4 x 1.25 x 9.35 inches
- ISBN-100374600457
- ISBN-13978-0374600457
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Praise for The Marriage Question: George Eliot's Double Life by Clare Carlisle
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Editorial Reviews
Review
"Eloquent and original . . . [Carlisle] combines a biographer’s eye for stories with a philosopher’s nose for questions . . . Masterly and enriching . . . The ideal historian [of marriage] will need great tact and an impious curiosity. Carlisle has both." ―James Wood, The New Yorker
"Carlisle conveys [Eliot's] shades of emotion and temperament while expertly charting both the intellectual and artistic development of her subject and the dramas that beset Eliot’s personal life. With formidable erudition and insight, this sympathetic author paints her own memorable portrait of the soft-spoken woman who quietly revolutionized the English novel―and who scandalized society by never marrying her husband . . . [Carlisle] shrewdly illuminates Eliot’s consciousness and, in turn, her fiction." ―Anna Mundow, The Wall Street Journal
"Careful but impassioned . . . [Carlisle's biography] is different in its close focus on an idea: that the titular institution shaped Eliot’s identity and work . . . One need not have read all [Eliot's] works to appreciate The Marriage Question, but, in the most meta sense, it is an ideal companion volume." ―Alexandra Jacobs, New York Times
"A fascinating new biography . . . Carlisle is an empathetic and ambitious interpreter. She delves beneath the surface of marriage in Eliot’s novels, finding a world that hums with big questions―about 'desire, freedom, selfhood, change, morality, happiness, belief, the mystery of other minds.'" ―Ann Hulbert, The Atlantic
"Brilliant . . . [Carlisle] guides us, by way of biography, philosophy, literary interpretation, literary history, and the histories of art and religion, through a profound consideration of Eliot’s unconventional “marriage,” and how that emotional―and, in many ways, strategic―choice influenced her life and career . . . Ultimately, Carlisle’s thoughtful, comprehensive account of this particular liaison exquisitely probes the complex, thorny, and fascinating question: How much does our choice of partner determine who we ultimately become?" ―Jenny McPhee, Air Mail
"Fascinating . . . Carlisle’s reading of Eliot’s marriage informs and imbues her reading of the novels. As a biographer, Carlisle does not seek to draw parallels between Eliot’s life and art or to establish her fiction’s autobiographical roots. Rather, she probes how Eliot’s experience of marriage played out across her books and her life―how it shaped the concerns she interrogated through her fiction." ―Francesca Wade, The Nation
"Eliot’s imaginative attraction to violently cruel and thwarting marriages, in contrast with her personal investment in a trustful, lasting intimacy, is a fascinating paradox that Clare Carlisle’s interesting book sets out to investigate . . . Carlisle aims to turn George Eliot’s real and fictional marriages into an examination of her philosophy of life . . . [Carlisle's] philosophical approach provides a clear guide to the workings of the novelist’s mind." ―Hermione Lee, New York Review of Books
"A wonderfully intimate portrait [of marriage]. Eliot described her marriage as 'this double life, which helps me to feel and think with double strength.' Carlisle’s captivating biography brilliantly examines that life and how those feelings and thoughts produced a run of remarkable novels that 'still open our eyes and stretch our souls.'" ―Malcolm Forbes, Washington Examiner
"A deep examination of long partnership―how it affects us, how it is negotiated . . . Carlisle has written a book that seems to tell us a story about others but instead deeply informs us about ourselves." ―Anna Spydell, BookPage
"A richly textured and absorbing biographical study Carlisle’s intense, empathetic study reflects Eliot back to us, echoes her and rises up to meet her in order to give Eliot her philosophical due." ―Marina Benjamin, Prospect
"Carlisle, a brilliant philosophical mind herself, is perfectly matched to her subject here. The kind of book you savor page by page." ―Sophia Stewart, The Millions
"A dazzling intellectual prism . . . Presenting revelatory glimpses into her subject's social and domestic life, Carlisle employs biography as a philosophical enquiry into the Victorian author's romantic life, her craft, and her characteristic use of marriage plots as a literary device . . . The Marriage Question is an eloquent, elegant tribute to the brilliant Victorian novelist who gave voice to hidden female fears and desires." ―Shahina Piyarali, Shelf Awareness
"A highly illuminating portrait of the acclaimed writer’s evolution as a novelist and a wife . . . Carlisle’s ability to distill and connect ideas from such disparate fields as philosophy, theology, and literary analysis only brings Eliot into tighter focus . . . Fans of literary history will savor this book. Carlisle’s empathetic exploration of a unique relationship provides a clear lens through which to view Eliot’s life and work." ―Kirkus
"Captivating . . . Carlisle’s cogent prose brings Eliot’s story to life, and astute literary analysis shows how Eliot’s biography influenced her novels . . . This is a must for devotees of Victorian literature." ―Publishers Weekly
"Clare Carlisle's The Marriage Question is the best book I've read on George Eliot." ―John Carey, Sunday Times (UK)
"Magisterial . . . a book that triumphantly enlarges our understanding of [Eliot], and of her time." ―Kathy O’Shaughnessy, Financial Times (UK)
"Finally, Eliot has got the biographer she deserves, namely an ardent and eloquent feminist philosopher who shows us how and why Eliot's books, rightly read, are as philosophically profound as any treatise written by a man." ―Stuart Jeffries, The Observer (UK)
"Thrilling . . . Frankly brilliant . . . In her introduction to The Marriage Question, Carlisle speaks of wanting to employ biography as philosophical inquiry and here she succeeds magnificently. With great skill and delicacy she has filleted details from Eliot’s own life, read closely into her wonderful novels and, most importantly, considered the wider philosophical background in which she was operating." ―Kathryn Hughes, The Guardian (UK)
"A richly considered study that brings one close to the heart and mind of a great writer and a wise soul." ―Rupert Christiansen, The Telegraph (UK)
"Like her subject, Carlisle conveys the fruits of her studies and reflection with a light, sometimes even lyrical touch." ―Jacqueline Banerjee, The Times Literary Supplement (UK)
“A luminously warm and intelligent reading of the courageous life, writing and philosophy of the 19th century’s wisest novelist.”―Daily Telegraph, Books of the Year
“As subtle and silent as a Dutch still life . . . Beautifully balancing literary interpretation with biographical and philosophical reflection, Carlisle explores the gamble of yoking your happiness to “the open-endedness of another human being.’”―Frances Wilson, Daily Telegraph
“[Carlisle] carves out a space somewhere between biography and literary criticism in a most satisfying way. Carlisle is a philosopher and reads Eliot like an expert witness, recreating her dynamic, ambitious reading and lifelong commitment to intellectual growth and showing its impact in and out of the novels. It finds another layer of Eliot to contemplate and admire, and is thoroughly absorbing.”―Claire Harman, The Times Literary Supplement, Books of the Year
“Its grander subject isn’t just that suggested by its title―what women, in particular, stand to gain and lose in marriage―but also what it means to lead the moral, rewarding life in general. With this and her previous book on Søren Kierkegaard, Carlisle has confirmed herself as one of the most deep-thinking writers about deep thought.”―Prospect, Books of the Year
“[A] thoughtful book . . . a clear-eyed, if slightly melancholy, portrait of one of our finest novelists.” ―The Times, Books of the Year
“Gripping and insightful . . . A brilliant aspect of this book is that Carlisle takes us deep into the world of each of Eliot’s novels, reminding us what masterpieces they are.” ―Ysenda Maxtone Graham, Daily Mail
“Clare Carlisle brings the work of perhaps our finest English novelist into a brilliant new light. This book manages to be both engrossing and rigorous, inhabiting an intimate and expansive vision of creativity and the lived life. Following the pulsing and ever-vital questions of love, desire, compromise and companionship, The Marriage Question is both a thrilling work on Eliot and a probing, illuminating reflection on modern love.” ―Seán Hewitt, author of Rapture’s Road
"Carlisle, a seasoned researcher, biographer, and philosopher, wisely emulates Eliot’s own reluctance to make definitive pronouncements . . . A brilliant and important biography." ―Beverley Park Rilett, The George Eliot Review
About the Author
Product details
- Publisher : Farrar, Straus and Giroux (August 15, 2023)
- Language : English
- Hardcover : 400 pages
- ISBN-10 : 0374600457
- ISBN-13 : 978-0374600457
- Item Weight : 1.34 pounds
- Dimensions : 6.4 x 1.25 x 9.35 inches
- Best Sellers Rank: #541,182 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #396 in Philosopher Biographies
- #2,588 in Author Biographies
- #2,796 in Marriage
- Customer Reviews:
About the author
Clare Carlisle is Professor of Philosophy at King’s College London, and the author of seven books including Spinoza’s Religion, On Habit, and Philosopher of the Heart: The Restless Life of Søren Kierkegaard. Clare is also the editor of Spinoza’s Ethics, translated by George Eliot. Her latest book is The Marriage Question: George Eliot's Double Life (2023), out in paperback in 2024. She grew up in Manchester, studied philosophy and theology at Trinity College, University of Cambridge, and now lives in London.
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I was also a bit curious about how Carlisle was going to handle Eliot's "marriage" when it wasn't actually a marriage. But she handles that well too, showing how Eliot's relationship with George Lewes was both similar to and different from an actual marriage, and tracing its effects on their perspective and characters for -- well, for better and for worse. One intriguing angle that is touched on, but could have been explored more, is Eliot's takeover of the "mother" role with Lewes's sons, apparently with no serious thought or concern about how their own still-living mother might have felt about it. (Granted, Agnes hadn't been a faithful wife, but then Lewes hadn't been a faithful husband.) What Carlisle does say about Eliot's actions and Agnes Lewes's position is intriguing; I wish she had said more.
One more thing (minor, but important to me): Lewes deserved to be kicked around the block for what he said about Dickens, after Dickens had been friendly to Eliot, and at a time when she badly needed friends!
You may be wondering by now why I read about Eliot at all. Sometimes I wonder myself. :-) I suppose it's just because she was an interesting person living in an interesting time. And because some writers, the ones who don't get too caught up in hagiography, have very interesting things to say about her, her writing, and her era. Count Clare Carlisle as one of those writers.
(Cross-posted from Goodreads.)
Top reviews from other countries
The author teaches philosophy, no wonder her way of approachig Eliot’s life and literary work is pregnant with a more ”philosophical” touch than othrr biographies but, I had a wonderful time poring over all the different aspects of the book.