Romola George Eliot Rare 2V Set Florentine Edition 1st Thus Antique Classic

Description: Romola by George Eliot 1890 ~ Rare 2 Volume Edition Beautifully Bound & Illustrated w/ gold gilt decorations, edges and lettering Porter & Coates, 1890. VG+ for age. Surface flaws, stains on boards, edge and rub wear. Clean, bright and tight. Florentine edition. Two 8vo volumes bound in deep crimson cloth backed in cream-white cloth, gilt-titled and blocked in gold, Top edge gilt with ribbon marker. A solid square copy of this masterpiece. Romola (1862–63) is a historical novel by George Eliot set in the fifteenth century, and is a deep study of life in the city of Florence from an intellectual, artistic, religious, and social point of view. It first appeared in fourteen parts published in Cornhill Magazine from July 1862 (vol. 6, no. 31) to August 1863 (vol. 8, no. 44). The story takes place amidst actual historical events during the Italian Renaissance, and includes in its plot several notable figures from Florentine history.Literary scholars have drawn comparisons between the setting of the novel and George Eliots contemporary Victorian England: Philosophically confused, morally uncertain, and culturally uprooted, [Florence] was a prototype of the upheaval of nineteenth-century England.[1] Both Renaissance Florence and Victorian England were times of philosophical, religious and social turbulence. Renaissance Florence was therefore a convenient setting for a historical novel that allowed exotic characters and events to be examined in Victorian fashion. Romola is the female protagonist through whom the surrounding world is evaluated. Contemporary and modern critics have questioned the likelihood of the level of scholarship attributed to women such as Romola in Renaissance Italy, and have pointed to the possible role of the title character as a Victorian critique of the constrained lot of women in that period, as well as in Eliots contemporary period. Felicia Bonaparte speculated about the title character as a thoroughly contemporary figure, the Victorian intellectual struggling to resolve the dilemmas of the modern age. In a similar vein, the story also deals with the dilemma of where the duty of obedience for women ends and the duty of resistance begins. The psychological and religious introspection seen in Eliots other novels is also seen in Romola. Richard Hutton, writing in The Spectator, observed that [t]he greatest artistic purpose of the story is to trace out the conflict between liberal culture and the more passionate form of the Christian faith in that strange era, which has so many points of resemblance with the present., in The spiritual journey undertaken by the title character in some ways emulates Eliot’s own religious struggle. In Romola, the title character has a non-religious and scholarly, yet insular, upbringing. She is gradually exposed to the wider religious world, which impacts her life at fortuitous moments. Yet continued immersion in religious life highlights its incompatibility with her own virtues, and by the end of the story she has adopted a humanist, empathic middle-ground.[edit] Literary significance & criticism Romola is George Eliots fourth published novel. Set in Renaissance Italy, it is isolated from her other novels, which were set in 19th-century England. Also for the first time, George Eliot published her story in serialised format and with a different publisher. Smith, Elder & Co. reportedly paid Eliot £7,000 for the novel, but was less than satisfied at the commercial outcome. Richard Hutton acknowledged that Romola would never be one of her most popular novels, and indeed it remains one of her most underrated works. Nevertheless, Hutton described the novel as one of the greatest works of modern fiction … probably the authors greatest work. George Eliot herself described her labour in writing the novel as one about which she could swear by every sentence as having been written with my best blood, such as it is, and with the most ardent care for veracity of which my nature is capable. She reportedly spent eighteen months contemplating and researching the novel,including several excursions to Florence. The attention to detail exhibited in the novel was a focus of both praise and criticism. Anthony Trollope, having read the first instalment of Romola, expressed wonder at the toil Eliot must have endured in getting up the work, but also cautioned her against excessive erudition, urging her not to fire too much over the heads of her readers.

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End Time: 2025-01-04T02:40:38.000Z

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