Publisher:
Oxford Univ. Press, New York, NY [u.a.]
In this stimulating history of the ideas behind George Eliot's novels, Bernard Semmel explores her imaginative use of the theme of inheritance, as a metaphor for her political thinking Through detailed analyses of Eliot's novels and other writings,...
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In this stimulating history of the ideas behind George Eliot's novels, Bernard Semmel explores her imaginative use of the theme of inheritance, as a metaphor for her political thinking Through detailed analyses of Eliot's novels and other writings, and a study of the intellectual currents of the time, Semmel demonstrates how and why Eliot's views on inheritance provided central ideas for her fiction Semmel uncovers Eliot's intent when she wrote of the obligations of inheritance both in the common meaning of the term, as in the transfer of goods and property from parents to children, and in the more metaphoric sense of the inheritance of both the benefits and burdens of the historical past, particularly those of the nation's culture and traditions