The Transferred Life of George Eliot

Reviews / Votes

Davis comes as close as one could to imagining that mysterious process through which a living historical person becomes a writing voice on a page. Anyone who knows what it means to write for her life will honor his achievement. * Rosemarie Bodenheimer, Victorian Studies * The strength of Davis's superbly written work of "the great transmitter," as he calls her, lies in the readings of the fiction and discussion of the impact of George Lewes's work on Eliot ... Summing Up: Highly recommended. Lower-division undergraduates through faculty; general readers. * W. Baker, Choice * The Transferred Life of George Eliot makes its case with impressive force and eloquence. In doing so, it leaves aside many of the standard elements of a biography: an orderly sequence of life-events, financial affairs, contacts with other cultural figures, and so forth. Davis's narrative sticks to Eliot's emotional and intellectual development, as revealed in her fiction and letters. It presents Eliot's life as the heroic overcoming of the multiple oppressions inflicted on a brilliant but awkward and misunderstood provincial girl. * Paul Delany, Los Angeles Review of Books * There have been several good new biographies of George Eliot in recent years but none quite like this... Davis has a magisterial command of all her writing. * John Rignall, George Eliot Review: Journal of the George Eliot Fellowship * A dense and revelatory study. * Rohan Maitzen, Times Literary Supplement * Thoughtful and searching account of the writer we know as George Eliot, Philip Davis undertakes a project of which his subject would have approved... acute on the psychology of the novels, both in their content and on their connection to their authors life. * Salley Vickers, The Observer * Davis's book is a celebration of her "realism", which allows us to see minutely the differences in consciousness of different characters - before we return to our sole selves. * John Mullan, The Guardian * Anyone who has read and loved Middlemarch will appreciate Davis's devotion to his subject * Claire Lowdon, Sunday Times * How many books of erudite, intellectual biography and closely argued literary criticism can ever be described as an enthralling, lucid, page-turning read? ... Philip Davis is the searching, perceptive critic this great novelist deserves. * Patricia Duncker, Literary Review * I came away from his book more full of admiration and awe for his subject matter than ever before. * On: Yorkshire Magazine *