paterGeorge Eliot
Virago (UK); Pantheon Books (USA) 1987

‘A fascinating study of George Eliot’s writing and life that should send you scuttling back to read her novels’,
Claire Tomalin, The Times.

One of the most brilliant writers of her day, George Eliot (1819-1880) was also one of the most talked about: intellectual and independent she had the strength of spirit to defy polite society with her highly unorthodox private life. So why did she apparently deny her fictional heroines the same opportunities? This thought-provoking appraisal – frequently reprinted – explores George Eliot’s ambivalent attitude to choice and change, and shows how she confronts the inner tensions of Victorian life to create a vision of a more generous way of life inspired by the imagination and the power of feeling. ISBN 0860684008

Walter Pater : Essays on Literature and Art
Everyman’s Library, 1990.

Walter Pater was a major influence on the aesthetic movement, the writing of the ‘Nineties and early British modernism. This invaluable collection gathers together a unique selection of his literary and aesthetic criticism, including much material in its original periodical form, not easily found elsewhere. With a substantial introduction and notes on divergent texts, it takes us from Pater’s early essays to the influential studies of his middle period and his revealing criticism of his contemporaries in his later work. ISBN 0460870092