A biography of the nineteenth-century novelist examines her transformation from shy Midlands girl to London intellectual and discusses her development as a novelist

George Eliot: A Life

Biographies & Memoirs

Ashton, Rosemary

Arts & Literature

Penguin??Books

In the mid-19th century, England became the home of a group of German exiles seeking refuge from political repression in their own country. The group--which included Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, Friedrich Althaus, Lessner and Eccarius, and the remarkable Johanna Kinkel and Malwida von Meysenbug--shared a common quest for political freedom. The outcome of their search, and the exiles' ability to come to terms with it, is the subject of this book. Drawing on a rich store of letters, memoirs, and articles written by the exiles, Ashton lucidly charts the fortunes of this diverse group and presents a new perspective on Victorian England through the eyes of foreigners seeking asylum there. Their views of English liberties and restraints, fairness and prejudice, and tolerance and tradition in matters of politics, religion, class, and sexual relations offers an unusual insight into Victorian life.

Little Germany: Exile and Asylum in Victorian England

History

Oxford University Press

Robert Elsmere was the most successful novel of its age. Published in 1888, it tells movingly of a young clergyman whose loss of faith puts a great strain on his marriage to a staunchly evangelical wife. Tolstoy thought Mrs. Ward the greatest English novelist of her time.

Robert Elsmere (The ^AWorld's Classics)

Ward, Humphry

Ward, Mrs. Humphrey

Literature & Fiction

In the mid-19th century, England became the home of a group of German exiles seeking refuge from political repression in their own country.  The group--which included Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, Friedrich Althaus, Lessner and Eccarius, and the remarkable Johanna Kinkel and Malwida von Meysenbug--shared a common quest for political freedom. Drawing on a rich store of letters, memoirs, and articles written by the exiles, Ashton charts the fortunes of this diverse group and presents a new perspective on Victorian England through the eyes of foreigners seeking asylum there.  Their views of English liberties and restraints, fairness and prejudice, and tolerance and tradition in matters of politics, religion, class, and sexual relations offers an unusual insight into Victorian life.

Little Germany: German Refugees in Victorian Britain

Europe

Traces the life of the nineteenth-century British novelist, discusses her major writings, and assesses her place in modern literature

George Eliot (Past Masters)

A journalist, novelist, playwright, and actor, Lewes was an unconventional Victorian, friend of Dickens, Thackeray, and Darwin, and author of Life of Goethe. A radical, freethinking Bohemian, he enjoyed an open marriage with Agnes Jervis, causing a scandal by condoning her relationship with his best friend. The first section of the book discovers new facets of Lewes's early life. The middle section discusses his elopement with Marian Evans while the final section concentrates on their emotional and intellectual companionship until Lewes's death in 1878. This section covers the years of Marian Evans's success as George Eliot, the acceptance of their unconventional union in society, and his science fiction work and support for Darwin. Throwing new light on a wide circle of important figures in the Victorian era, this biography draws on new material to illuminate the life of this extraordinary man of letters.

G.H. Lewes: A Life

Very definitive, very concise, and very interesting...   From William Shakespeare to Winston Churchill, the Very Interesting People series provides authoritative bite-sized biographies of Britain's most fascinating historical figures--people whose influence and importance have stood the test of time.   Each book in the series is based upon the biographical entry from the world-famous Oxford Dictionary of National Biography.

George Eliot (Very Interesting People Series)

This biography of Eliot sets her vividly in the political, social and religious context of the time. She arrived in London in 1851, determined to make her way as a journalist on the "Westminster Review", a paper until then exclusively dominated by men. It was whilst she was working on this journal that she found her writer's voice - ironic, sceptical and broadly sympathizing. The author examines her relationship with Lewes (the subject of a previous biography), his encouragement, battling both against her pride and her fear of failure, her unrequited love for Chapman, her employer on the Review and her love for Spencer, the recipient of her extraordinary love letters, begging attention, yet at the same time strong, self-aware and witty at her own expense. This is a sensitive and revealing portrait of a modern and highly unorthodox life, giving a fuller treatment than any other biography on George Eliot, by an author who has been studying Eliot for 15 years.

Hamish Hamilton

While Bloomsbury is now associated with Virginia Woolf and her early-twentieth-century circle of writers and artists, the neighborhood was originally the undisputed intellectual quarter of nineteenth-century London. Drawing on a wealth of untapped archival resources, Rosemary Ashton brings to life the educational, medical, and social reformists who lived and worked in Victorian Bloomsbury and who led crusades for education, emancipation, and health for all. 
Ashton explores the secular impetus behind these reforms and the humanitarian and egalitarian character of nineteenth-century Bloomsbury. Thackeray and Dickens jostle with less famous characters like Henry Brougham and Mary Ward. Embracing the high life of the squares, the nonconformity of churches, the parades of shops, schools, hospitals and poor homes, this is a major contribution to the history of nineteenth-century London.

Victorian Bloomsbury

Yale University Press

A unique, in-depth view of Victorian London during the record-breaking summer of 1858, when residents both famous and now-forgotten endured “The Great Stink” together While 1858 in London may have been noteworthy for its broiling summer months and the related stench of the sewage-filled Thames River, the year is otherwise little remembered. And yet, historian Rosemary Ashton reveals in this compelling microhistory, 1858 was marked by significant, if unrecognized, turning points. For ordinary people, and also for the rich, famous, and powerful, the months from May to August turned out to be a summer of consequence. Ashton mines Victorian letters and gossip, diaries, court records, newspapers, and other contemporary sources to uncover historically crucial moments in the lives of three protagonists—Charles Dickens, Charles Darwin, and Benjamin Disraeli. She also introduces others who gained renown in the headlines of the day, among them George Eliot, Karl Marx, William Thackeray, and Edward Bulwer Lytton. Ashton reveals invisible threads of connection among Londoners at every social level in 1858, bringing the celebrated city and its citizens vibrantly to life.

One Hot Summer: Dickens, Darwin, Disraeli, and the Great Stink of 1858

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Ashton, Rosemary. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Books by Ashton, Rosemary

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Ashton, Rosemary. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

George Eliot: A Life

Little Germany: Exile and Asylum in Victorian England

Robert Elsmere (The ^AWorld's Classics)

Little Germany: German Refugees in Victorian Britain

George Eliot (Past Masters)

G.H. Lewes: A Life

George Eliot (Very Interesting People Series)

George Eliot: A Life

Victorian Bloomsbury

One Hot Summer: Dickens, Darwin, Disraeli, and the Great Stink of 1858