George Eliot, Felix Holt, the Radical

Nathan Uglow (Trinity All Saints, Leeds)
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George Eliot's novel,

Felix Holt

is set against the backdrop of the general election of 1832 as it apparently occurred in the fictional town of Treby Magna. During the composition of the work, Eliot pursued three main lines of research. First she consulted the Annual Register for 1832 and the Times newspaper as far back as 1829, when the proposed Bill for Catholic Emancipation led to an increase in religious dissension, and up to the reports of the 1832 polling day rioting. These accounts she filled out by reading memoirs such as Samuel Bamford's

Passages in the Life of a Radical

. Second, she dipped into Blackstone's famous codification of English law to create a complex legal argument about the ownership of the Transome estates, the reversion of which to their proper owner constitutes a…

2177 words

Citation: Uglow, Nathan. "Felix Holt, the Radical". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 21 March 2002 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=5168, accessed 19 March 2024.]

5168 Felix Holt, the Radical 3 Historical context notes are intended to give basic and preliminary information on a topic. In some cases they will be expanded into longer entries as the Literary Encyclopedia evolves.

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