Looking for Mr. Right: the two suitors formula in George Eliot’s “Felix Holt, the radical” (1866)

• Authors: Gutowska Anna
• Languages of publication: EN

Abstracts

EN

The article seeks to analyse the deployment of the two suitors formula, which was perfected by Jane Austen (and thus is sometimes called “the Austenian romance”) in a somewhat underresearched novel by George Eliot entitled “Felix Holt: the radical.” The article presents the formula and its consequences for characterisation and analyses the three main characters in Eliot’s novel with regard to the convention, paying special attention to the contrasting characterisation of the two romantic rivals, Harold Transome and Felix Holt, and to the characterisation of the novel’s heroine. The article also analyses George Eliot’s references to the heroine’s reading tastes, which can be seen both as an element of characterisation and an interpretative clue, allowing careful readers to predict the development of the plot.

Keywords

EN

George Eliot; Felix Holt: The Radical; Jane Austen; Victorian novel; romance

• Publisher: Wydział Neofilologii, Uniwersytet Warszawski
• Journal: Acta Philologica
• Year: 2016
• Issue: 49
• Pages: 175-187

Contributors

author

Gutowska Anna

• Uniwersytet Jana Kochanowskiego

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