In August 1872, Benjamin Jowett (the head of Oxford's Balliol College and one of the century's most eminent scholars) wrote George Eliot a fan letter. In it, Jowett not only identified Middlemarch, the novel Eliot published earlier that year, as her “great work,” but also reported that “It is a bond of conversation and friendship everywhere.” And so it has been ever since. In this course, we will explore the great novels of the greatest novelist of the Victorian period. In addition to reading Eliot's novels, we will take up critical responses to them, beginning with those of Eliot's contemporaries. In particular, we will consider readers' objections to her representations of religion, female autonomy, and sexuality. As we ourselves become part of Eliot's readership, we will think about her development as a novelist and critic who reimagined the novel as central to the moral and intellectual lives of the reading public. Eliot wanted her novels to make a deep and lasting impression on her readers, as indeed they do. Novels will include Scenes of Clerical Life, Adam Bede, The Mill on the Floss, The Lifted Veil, Middlemarch, and Daniel Deronda.

Units: 1

Max Enrollment: 20

Prerequisites: Open to all students who have taken two literature courses in the department, at least one of which must be 200 level, or by permission of the instructor to other qualified students. Not open to students who have taken this class as a topic of ENG 345.

Instructor: Rodensky

Distribution Requirements: LL - Language and Literature

Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Not Offered

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