Introduction

Abstract

The introduction lays the foundations for the Handbook’s commitment to exploring George Eliot’s interest in, and handling of, literary form. The volume opens with a brief discussion of Eliot’s reviews of the fiction and poetry written by her contemporaries, which show her repeated use of organic imagery and ongoing preoccupation with what different literary genres and forms were best suited to do. It then discusses the short, hybrid piece ‘Story of a blue-bottle’, part translation and part adaptation, as a stepping-stone between her career as an essayist and a novelist. The clarifying effect, for Eliot, of engaging with contemporary literature is in turn mirrored by the Handbook’s aim to offer over fifty perspectives on Eliot. The introduction concludes with an overview of the book’s five sections: Life and Networks, Influences, Works, Form, and Reception.