George Eliot's 1866 novel follows Felix Holt, an idealistic young man who returns to his English industrial town during the political upheaval of the 1832 Reform Bill. The fiction explores class conflict, political reform, and moral conviction as Felix champions the working class while navigating complex relationships with the aristocratic Esther Lyon and the broader community tensions of a rapidly changing society.
He left me when the down upon his lip Lay like the shadow of a hovering kiss. "Beautiful mother, do not grieve," he said; "I will be great, and build our fortunes high. And you shall wear the longest train at court, And look so queenly, all the lords shall say, 'She is a royal changeling: there is some crown Lacks the right head, since hers wears naught but braids.'" O, he is coming now--but I am gray: And he---- On the first of September, in the memorable year 1832, some one was expected at Transome Court. As early as two o'clock in the afternoon the aged lodge-keeper had opened the heavy gate, green as the tree trunks were green with nature's powdery paint, deposited year after year. Already in the village of Little Treby, which lay on the side of a steep hill not far off the lodge-gates, the elder matrons sat in their best gowns at the few cottage doors bordering the road, that they m…Continue reading →
Born Mary Ann Evans in 1819, this brilliant Victorian novelist adopted a male pseudonym to ensure her work received serious consideration. Her psychologically complex novels like Middlemarch and Silas Marner revolutionized English literature by exploring moral dilemmas with unprecedented depth and realism, establishing her as one of literature's greatest voices. All works by George Eliot →
Browse all Fiction · 19th Century works