by Sir Frederick Leighton. She went through a course of reading for this story which would have qualified her to write a history. The necessity of being ready for periodical appearance tried her occasionally, and Mr. Cross tells us that it ‘ploughed into her more than any of her other books.’ She said that it marked a transition in her history. She ‘began it a young woman—she finished it an old woman.’ The results have been differently judged. ‘Romola’ has been regarded as her masterpiece, and it certainly represents her reflective powers at their ripest. Whether any labour could make the reproduction of literary studies equal to her previous reproductions of personal experience is another question. No one can deny the intellectual powers displayed, but the personages are scarcely alive, except Tito Melema, who is one of her finest feminine characters.
In 1860 the Leweses left Wandsworth, and after an interval settled at 16 Blandford Square in December. On 15 Nov. 1863 they moved to the Priory, 21 North Bank, Regent's Park, the house especially associated with her memory by the wider circle of friends—attracted by her fame or her great personal charm—who gathered round her in later years. Her Sunday receptions, described by Mr. Cross (iii. 295) and by Miss Blind (p. 205), were the occasions on which she was seen by those who did not belong to the most intimate circle. Her gentle and serious conversation was always full of interest; but she shrank from crowds and display, and was glad to escape from London to the country.
After ‘Romola’ she appears to have rested for a time. In September 1864 she had taken up the subject afterwards treated in the ‘Spanish Gypsy.’ She became ill, and in the following February Lewes insisted upon her abandoning the task for a time. She then began ‘Felix Holt’ (March 1865). She finished it on 31 May 1866, and it was published soon afterwards; but in spite of much excellence has not ranked with her previous performances. Her early memories had given their best results. She then took up the ‘Spanish Gypsy,’ and in the beginning of 1867 went to Spain to get impressions for the work. It cost her much labour and was not finished till 29 April 1868. It was intended, as the author tells us, to illustrate certain doctrines of duty and hereditary influence (Cross, iii. 34–40), and she compares the situation of Fedalma to that of Iphigenia. Dr. Congreve appears to have called it ‘a mass of positivism,’ and it was clearly written under the influence of positivist ideas. A third edition was reached in 1868 and a fifth in 1875. Neither critics nor general readers have been convinced that George Eliot was properly a poet, though she may be allowed to represent almost the highest excellence that can be attained in verse by one whose true strength lies elsewhere. She began the ‘Legend of Jubal’ in September 1869, and a volume of poems in which it was included appeared in 1874.
In August 1869 she happily returned to more congenial scenes by beginning ‘ Middlemarch.’ The first part was published on 1 Dec. 1871, the writing was finished in August 1872, and the last part published in the following December. The success was remarkable. Nearly twenty thousand copies had been sold by the end of 1874. It appeared in eight parts, forming four volumes for two guineas. The mode of publication was novel, and she states (ib. iii. 237) that it brought in a larger sum than ‘Romola.’ She received 1,200l. from America. ‘Middlemarch’ may be taken to represent her experiences of the Coventry period, as the first novels represented her earlier memories. If the singular charm of the first period is wanting—and there are obvious faults of composition and some jarring discords—the extraordinary power of the book was felt at once, and raised her reputation, already sufficiently high. She was now alone among novelists as a representative of first-rate literary ability, having survived all her greatest contemporaries. ‘Daniel Deronda,’ her last novel, contains some most admirable satire and character, though the generous desire to appreciate the Jewish race can scarcely be said to have produced satisfactory results. It was begun at the end of 1874, and published on the same plan as ‘Middlemarch’ in 1876. The sale was from the first greater than that of ‘Middlemarch.’
Her first successes had placed George Eliot above any pecuniary difficulty, and enabled Lewes to devote himself to the production of the philosophical and scientific works in which he was interested. They made frequent excursions to the continent and in England, and were welcomed at Oxford and Cambridge by enthusiastic admirers. They made occasional stays in the quiet country places which she especially loved, and at the end of 1876 bought a house at Witley, near Godalming, with some thoughts of settling there entirely. During 1878 she wrote the ‘Impressions of Theophrastus Such.’ The manuscript had been sent to Blackwood when Lewes had a serious attack, which ended in his death, 28 Nov. 1878.
For many weeks she saw no one, and neither read nor wrote letters. She occupied herself in preparing Lewes's unfinished writings for the press, and founded to his memory the
