George Eliot

George Eliot's major achievements include her pioneering use of psychological insight and social realism in the English novel. She contributed significantly to the development of the novel as a...

Chapter 17 of Adam Bede provides a good explication of Eliot's ideas about realism. Eliot begins by saying that readers often want an idealized picture of characters, especially "good" characters...

A major theme in Middlemarch is Eliot's exploration of the way the web of society is both necessary and restrictive. Eliot argues that we are not simply individuals pursuing our own desires but...

George Eliot's work often contains agnostic elements, reflecting her skepticism about organized religion and traditional beliefs. Her novels, such as Middlemarch and Silas Marner, explore themes of...