The Marriage Question

By Clare Carlisle,

Book cover of The Marriage Question: George Eliot's Double Life

Book description

An exceptional new biography that shows how George Eliot wrestled with the question of marriage, in art and life

When she was 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…

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Why read it?

1 author picked The Marriage Question as one of their favorite books. Why do they recommend it?

Eliot was never married to her not-quite husband, the biographer and scientist G.H. Lewes, but pretended that she was.

This elegant study of Eliot’s life and writing and the scandals surrounding her every move is written by a philosopher who has studied Eliot for decades. Courtship, marriage, and its vicissitudes are central to all of Eliot’s writing.

Carlisle’s book is gripping, original – and fun to read. At one point, she has an argument with her editor. Lewes has died, and Eliot is in mourning but about to marry her financial advisor, a sporty, muscular type, twenty years younger. Carlisle…

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