George Eliot’s Romola and Its Shattered Ideals

The Italian theme in Romola is very strong, which is unsurprising given Eliot’s love for that country, its language and literature, and the production process of the novel. Not only did she learn the language (she started learning Italian in 1839), she also developed a strong interest in the contemp...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Nineteenth-Century gender studies 2008-04, Vol.4 (1)
Main Author: Straub, Julia
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
British & Irish literature
Culture
Eliot, George (Mary Ann Evans) (1819-1880)
English literature
Literature
Mythology
Novels
Poets
Positivism
Reading
Visual arts
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Summary:The Italian theme in Romola is very strong, which is unsurprising given Eliot’s love for that country, its language and literature, and the production process of the novel. Not only did she learn the language (she started learning Italian in 1839), she also developed a strong interest in the contemporary political situation in Italy and was familiar with its music and visual arts. The Eliot-Lewes-Library-Catalogue mentions a copy of Dante’s Vita Nuova as part of his Opere Minori published in 1856-57, yet it is not a comprehensive or reliable source when analyzing Eliot’s knowledge of Dante or finding reliable dates for her readings. [ 5 ] In Romola, the total number of direct references to Dante, in the form of quotations from his works or allusions to his person, is limited, and his presence in the novel is less immediately perceptible than one could expect given the firm alliance of the city of Florence with his life and works and Eliot’s heavy use of Dantean images in her other texts (Thompson, Eliot and Italy 84-97).
ISSN:1556-7524