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Description
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Biographical note
Excerpt
User Reviews
Romola is a historical novel penned by the renowned British author George Eliot, the pseudonym of Mary Ann Evans. Published in 1863, it stands as a compelling literary work set in fifteenth-century Florence, Italy, during the Italian Renaissance. This intricate narrative artfully weaves themes of love, politics, religion and the evolving role of women in society.
At its core, Romola revolves around the life of the eponymous character, Romola de’ Bardi. Romola is a young woman of noble birth, characterized by her intelligence and strong moral compass. She finds herself trapped in a loveless marriage to Tito Melema, a charismatic scholar who is seemingly driven by ambition rather than moral principles.
Tito Melema is a complex character central to the novel’s plot. His journey takes him from a promising scholar to a man consumed by political intrigue and personal ambition. As he makes choices that lead to his moral deterioration, the readers are made to think in the line of ethics and character development.
Against the backdrop of Tito’s descent into moral darkness, Romola’s character takes centre stage. She becomes a symbol of strength and resilience as she navigates the challenges of her own life, including her conflicted emotions regarding Tito’s actions. Romola’s evolution from a sheltered young woman to an independent and determined individual is a central theme in the novel.
What sets Romola apart from other historical novels is George Eliot’s meticulous attention to historical and cultural detail. Eliot’s vivid descriptions transport the reader to the Florence of the Italian Renaissance, immersing them in the political upheaval and intellectual mayhem of the time. The novel is replete in Renaissance Florence’s art, politics and society, offering readers a unique peep into this fascinating period of history.
Additionally, Romola delves deeply into character psychology and morality. It explores how individuals are shaped by their choices and the consequences of those choices. Tito’s moral decline and Romola’s steadfastness provide a thought-provoking contrast that forces readers to reflect on the nature of virtue and vice.
While Romola may not be as widely recognized as some of George Eliot’s other works, it is highly regarded for its literary quality and its portrayal of a strong female protagonist within a historical context. The novel’s exploration of complex characters and its vivid historical setting continue to captivate readers and offer valuable insights into human nature and the historical period it depicts. In Romola, George Eliot masterfully combines history, psychology and morality to create an eternal work of literature.
Romola is a historical novel penned by the renowned British author George Eliot, the pseudonym of Mary Ann Evans. Published in 1863, it stands as a compelling literary work set in fifteenth-century Florence, Italy, during the Italian Renaissance. This intricate narrative artfully weaves themes of love, politics, religion and the evolving role of women in society.
At its core, Romola revolves around the life of the eponymous character, Romola de’ Bardi. Romola is a young woman of noble birth, characterized by her intelligence and strong moral compass. She finds herself trapped in a loveless marriage to Tito Melema, a charismatic scholar who is seemingly driven by ambition rather than moral principles.
Tito Melema is a complex character central to the novel’s plot. His journey takes him from a promising scholar to a man consumed by political intrigue and personal ambition. As he makes choices that lead to his moral deterioration, the readers are made to think in the line of ethics and character development.
Against the backdrop of Tito’s descent into moral darkness, Romola’s character takes centre stage. She becomes a symbol of strength and resilience as she navigates the challenges of her own life, including her conflicted emotions regarding Tito’s actions. Romola’s evolution from a sheltered young woman to an independent and determined individual is a central theme in the novel.
What sets Romola apart from other historical novels is George Eliot’s meticulous attention to historical and cultural detail. Eliot’s vivid descriptions transport the reader to the Florence of the Italian Renaissance, immersing them in the political upheaval and intellectual mayhem of the time. The novel is replete in Renaissance Florence’s art, politics and society, offering readers a unique peep into this fascinating period of history.
Additionally, Romola delves deeply into character psychology and morality. It explores how individuals are shaped by their choices and the consequences of those choices. Tito’s moral decline and Romola’s steadfastness provide a thought-provoking contrast that forces readers to reflect on the nature of virtue and vice.
While Romola may not be as widely recognized as some of George Eliot’s other works, it is highly regarded for its literary quality and its portrayal of a strong female protagonist within a historical context. The novel’s exploration of complex characters and its vivid historical setting continue to captivate readers and offer valuable insights into human nature and the historical period it depicts. In Romola, George Eliot masterfully combines history, psychology and morality to create an eternal work of literature.
George Eliot was the pen name of Mary Ann Evans who was born on 22 November 1819 in provincial England. She was also known as Mary Anne or Marian. She is the famous author of several popular works such as Adam Bede (1859), The Mill on the Floss (1860), Silas Marner (1861), Romola (1862–63), Felix Holt, the Radical (1866), Middlemarch (1871–72) and Daniel Deronda (1876). Eliot was a poet, novelist, journalist and a translator with psychological insight and realism as her primary strengths. Her works magnificently explore the beauty and value of the countryside.
Though Eliot was an intelligent girl and a voracious reader she lacked physical beauty. Thus her father thought it wise to invest in her education which was not the norm for women belonging to that era. Eliot studied at Miss Latham’s school in Attleborough, Mrs. Wallington’s school in Nuneaton, and Miss Franklin’s school in Coventry. At Miss Franklin’s school, Eliot came across a disciplined belief opposed to evangelicalism and was influenced by it later in life. She was brought up within a low church Anglican family.
Eliot’s novels were primarily inspired by Greek tragedy and religion. She chose to publish under her pen name to be recognized as a serious writer and for her fiction to be consumed and judged independent of her already published and famous work as an editor, translator and critic. During her time, the prevalent societal belief was that the writing of women authors was limited to light-hearted romances and not to be taken very seriously. Eliot also wanted to shield her private life from public scrutiny and avoid her relationship with the married George Henry Lewes from becoming a scandal. Evans began to refer to Lewes as her husband after their trip to Germany and legally changed her name to Mary Ann Evans Lewes after his death.
Thomas Carlyle was Eliot’s favourite author, and it was his work that sparked Eliot’s interest in German thought. This interest encouraged her to turn from Christian orthodoxy, and prompted her to write her first complete novel, Adam Bede, in 1859, inspired by Dutch visual art and focusing on duty, realistic aesthetic, sympathy and evolution of the self. Adam Bede was an instant success and raised curiosity regarding the author’s identity leading to Marian Evans Lewes unveiling herself as the real author behind the pen name George Eliot. Queen Victoria herself was an avid reader of all of Eliot’s novels. Her fascination with Adam Bede led her to commission the artist Edward Henry Corbould to paint scenes from the book.
For the next fifteen years after the success of Adam Bede, Eliot continued to write popular novels. She published her last novel, Daniel Deronda, in 1876. Soon after in 1878, her partner Lewes died and on 16 May 1880 Eliot married John Walter Cross, a Scottish commissioning agent. This time she changed her name to Mary Ann Cross. The marriage was short-lived as Eliot fell ill with a throat infection, along with suffering from kidney disease, afflicting her for several years. Finally, Eliot died on 22 December 1880 at the age of 61.
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Also from Trove
1. Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare
2. Arms and the Man by George Bernard Shaw
3. The Invisible Man by H.G. Wells
4. The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson
5. The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes by Arthur Conan Doyle
6. David Copperfield by Charles Dickens
7. Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen
8. A Portrait of the Artist As a Young Man by James Joyce
9. The Mill on the Floss by George Eliot
10. The Return of the Native by Thomas Hardy
11. Moby Dick or The Whale by Melville Herman
12. Mrs. Dalloway by Virginia Woolf
13. Animal Farm by George Orwell
14. Journey to the Centre of the Earth by Jules Verne
15. War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy
16. She Stoops to Conquer by Oliver Goldsmith
17. Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad
18. The Diary of a Young Girl by Anne Frank
19. Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte
20. Three Men in a Boat by Jerome K. Jerome
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