George Eliot has not given us in this volume much new matter of a kind likely to add to her great reputation; The four longest poems -- 'Jubal, ' 'Armgart, ' 'Agatha, ' and 'How Lisa Loved the King, ' have previously appeared in magazines, and they form 186 out of the 240 pp. which compose it. Different as they are in structure and intention, they are so dominated by certain radical ideas, that none acquainted with present day literature could well mistake their authorship. Properly it is the fatality of the past. 'Jubal' ...
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George Eliot has not given us in this volume much new matter of a kind likely to add to her great reputation; The four longest poems -- 'Jubal, ' 'Armgart, ' 'Agatha, ' and 'How Lisa Loved the King, ' have previously appeared in magazines, and they form 186 out of the 240 pp. which compose it. Different as they are in structure and intention, they are so dominated by certain radical ideas, that none acquainted with present day literature could well mistake their authorship. Properly it is the fatality of the past. 'Jubal' represent Genius clinging to a Past consecrated by its necessary self-sacrifice, yet condemned to a more painful sacrifice -- that of the loss of personal identification with the gift conferred -- from the dull misery of which death is the only door of escape; and the lesson is wrapt up in the stateliest strain of blank verse we have read for a long time. Then 'Armgart.' whose being is song, losing which power 'We should lose The whole we call our Armgarturt.' also loses her gift, to find at last fulfillment of her ambitions in the lowliest sphere of duty; a lesson which George Eliot is so fond of teaching through her heroines -- witness Dorothea in her last great novel -- that we may well regard it as being in her mind one of the most essential of human disciplines, that special gifts are mere will-o'-wisps till consciously consecrated to common service, with no thought or desire of fame. 'Agatha' is quaint and rich in picture, and 'Lisa' is brighter than George Eliot usually is. Of the new matter, 'A Minor Prophet' is satirical in bent, bat weighted, too, with her peculiar ideas, here taking a form that clearly hinders the fusing of imaginative forms, and now and again we have very faulty lines. 'Stradivarius' is a study a little in the manner of Browning. 'Brother and Sister' is full of music, and 'Two Lovers' comes as near to the 'lyrical cry' as George Eliot has ever reached- '0, may I join the choir invisible, ' with which the volume ends, is the utterance of the main element of her pantheistic creed, and with some fine lines, almost worthy of Wordsworth, ends rather tamely, as we think, with a hope to 'Be the sweet presence of a pood diffused And in diffusion ever more intense, ' which might have stood for a motto to prose, had she not added -- 'So shall I join the choir invisible, Whose music is the gladness of the world.' But this again can be read not otherwise than as a sort of poetic figure in view of the burden of Jubal. --The British Quarterly Review, Vol. 59
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This is an ex-library book and may have the usual library/used-book markings inside. This book has hardback covers. In good all round condition. No dust jacket. Octavo, brown cloth binding, gilt lettering on backstrip, backstrip reinforced with clear tape, age toned, text clean Please note the Image in this listing is a stock photo and may not match the covers of the actual item, 400grams, ISBN:
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PLEASE NOTE, WE DO NOT SHIP TO DENMARK. New Book. Shipped from UK in 4 to 14 days. Established seller since 2000. Please note we cannot offer an expedited shipping service from the UK.
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PLEASE NOTE, WE DO NOT SHIP TO DENMARK. New Book. Shipped from UK in 4 to 14 days. Established seller since 2000. Please note we cannot offer an expedited shipping service from the UK.
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Seller's Description:
PLEASE NOTE, WE DO NOT SHIP TO DENMARK. New Book. Shipped from UK in 4 to 14 days. Established seller since 2000. Please note we cannot offer an expedited shipping service from the UK.
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Seller's Description:
PLEASE NOTE, WE DO NOT SHIP TO DENMARK. New Book. Shipped from UK in 4 to 14 days. Established seller since 2000. Please note we cannot offer an expedited shipping service from the UK.
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Seller's Description:
PLEASE NOTE, WE DO NOT SHIP TO DENMARK. New Book. Shipped from UK in 4 to 14 days. Established seller since 2000. Please note we cannot offer an expedited shipping service from the UK.
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Seller's Description:
PLEASE NOTE, WE DO NOT SHIP TO DENMARK. New Book. Shipped from UK in 4 to 14 days. Established seller since 2000. Please note we cannot offer an expedited shipping service from the UK.
