Eliot

George Eliot Grade Level:  9-12 On the subject of George Eliot, Oscar Wilde maintained, "[She] is the embodiment of philosophy in fiction." Virginia Wolfe branded Eliot's Middlemarch "one of the few English novels for grown-up people." High praise from literary giants, and no wonder: Eliot is the genius behind such novels as The Mill on the Floss, Adam Bede, and, yes, Middlemarch. This Victorian Web entry features biographical materials and commentary on her works--specifically, issues of history, religion, politics, and science; characterization; imagery; themes; and more. Topic: Eliot, George,--1819-1880 URL: http://www.victorianweb.org/authors/eliot/eliotov.html Eliot, George Grade Level:  6-8  9-12 The real person behind George Eliot was English novelist Mary Ann Evans. Born in 1819, she rebelled against her strict Protestant roots. She was more concerned with moral choices and responsibility than with organized religion. Life in a small town was the usual setting of her novels, where characters struggled with choices in their lives. She was encouraged to write stories by her common-law husband G.H. Lewes, and he was responsible for the pseudonym George Eliot. Topic: Eliot, George,--1819-1880 URL: http://www.bartleby.com/65/el/Eliot-Ge.html Thomas Stearns Eliot: Biography Grade Level:  6-8  9-12 T.S. Eliot won the Nobel Prize for literature in 1948. On this web site, part of the Nobel e-Museum, you can find out information on both the poet and on his award. Biographical information on Eliot is available, as is a synopsis of his writing career. In addition, students can read a transcript of his Nobel Prize presentation and of his acceptance speech. Topic: Eliot, T. S.--(Thomas Stearns),--1888-1965 URL: http://www.nobel.se/literature/laureates/1948/eliot-bio.html Biography of George Eliot (1819-1880) Grade Level:  9-12 Mary Ann Evans exhibited many of the same qualities that Dorothea of George Eliot's novel Middlemarch displayed: bookish, introspective; in short, as this entry explains, an anomaly among other Victorian women. This is no surprise, of course, since Eliot was the pseudonym of Evans! GradeSaver offers both an image and an insightful biographical essay, as well as links to GradeSaver study guides for three of Eliot's novels: Adam Bede, Middlemarch, and Silas Marner. Topic: Eliot, George,--1819-1880 URL: http://www.gradesaver.com/classicnotes/authors/about_george_eliot.html George Eliot Country Grade Level:  9-12 This BBC features offers a tour in images of George Eliot's homes and the places around Nuneaton that appeared in her novels as Milby; a discussion of the rumors and scandals that still swirl about the writer who refused to conform to Victorian rules; and an archive of photographs. Eliot was born in 1819 on the Arbury Estate in Warwickshire and baptized Mary Anne Evans. "George Eliot" is just one of five names she used during her lifetime; it is, in fact, the name with which most of us are familiar. Topic: Eliot, George,--1819-1880 URL: http://www.bbc.co.uk/coventry/history/george_eliot/ George Eliot: Biography Grade Level:  9-12 This excellent biography of George Eliot (pen name of Mary Anne Evans) comprises seven sections: Mary Anne Evans: The Early Years, The World of Ideas, Alone, George Henry Lewes, "Married" Life, George Eliot Is Born, and Alone Again. Two images complement the text. Born in 1819, the English writer penned such enduring works as Silas Marner, Adam Bede, The Mill on the Floss, and Middlemarch, the latter of which is considered her finest work. Eliot's insightful and psychological novels led to more modern character portrayals. Topic: Eliot, George,--1819-1880 URL: http://etext.lib.virginia.edu/collections/projects/eliot/middlemarch/bio.html George Eliot : A Brief Biography Grade Level:  6-8  9-12 Daughter of Robert Evans and Christina Pearson, Mary Ann Evans was born in England in 1819. She served as her father's assistant after her mother's death, and then moved to London and became an editor for the Westminster Review. She took the pen name of George Eliot, and began writing short stories and novels in 1967. As George Eliot became popular, people wanted to know who was behind the pseudonym. She continued to write acclaimed novels. Topic: Eliot, George,--1819-1880 URL: http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/masterpiece/archive/programs/middlemarch/tg_biography.html 'George Eliot' by Virginia Woolf Grade Level:  9-12 The editors of Celebration of Women Writers maintain that works by and about women writers are often difficult to locate. This online resource archives all sorts of work--novels, poems, religious commentaries, letters, travel books, histories, biographies, economic and scientific works--with the goal of promoting the "breadth and variety of women's writing." This entry comprises the complete text of Virginia Woolf's essay on George Eliot (the pen name of novelist, translator, and religious writer Mary Ann Evans). Topic: Eliot, George,--1819-1880 URL: http://digital.library.upenn.edu/women/woolf/VW-Eliot.html Ahead of Her Time - George Eliot 1819-1880 Grade Level:  6-8  9-12 Mary Ann Evans was a woman ahead of her time, a social novelist of the 1800s. She broke Victorian taboos as she became a literary editor and novelist, taking the name George Eliot for her writings. The youngest of five children, she missed her brother terribly when they were sent to different boarding schools. She found solace in books. She was respected by colleagues for her sharp intellect, and wrote many book reviews before writing fiction herself. She became a renowned English novelist, in spite of criticism about her personal life and breaking cultural stereotypes. Topic: Eliot, George,--1819-1880 URL: http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/masterpiece/deronda/ei_eliot.html George Eliot's Daniel Deronda - Jews in 19th-Century England Grade Level:  9-12 George Eliot's final novel explores the theme of Judaism in 1860's England. Investigate the characters, setting, and plot of Daniel Deronda. A dramatic love story, this novel takes a look into the world of the Jewish people of England. Although this part of the culture made up only a small portion of English society, and most perceived them through negative stereotypes, this novel explores their identity, aspirations, communities, and social status. The book became rather prophetic, as Jewish people fleeing Russia and trying to go to America ended up in England just a few years after it was published. Topic: Eliot, George,--1819-1880 URL: http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/masterpiece/deronda/ei_judaism.html T.S. Eliot Grade Level:  9-12 Perhaps best known for the poems "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock" and "The Waste Land," Nobel Laureate T.S. Eliot also penned the poetic drama Murder in the Cathedral and other works. Project CROW (Course Resources on the Web) features a biographical chronology of Eliot's career, including related external links. Maintained by Dr. Michael O'Conner of Millikin University, Project CROW comprises major site reviews, global resources, syllabi and assignments, and annotated links, in addition to author chronologies. Topic: Poets, American URL: http://www.millikin.edu/aci/crow/chronology/eliotbio.html T.S. Eliot Grade Level:  6-8  9-12 This web site on T.S. Eliot is part of the Academny of American Poets site, and contains a variety of information about the famed poet. Biographical information is included, as well as a summary of his most famous works. Information about his influences and Nobel Prize is included as well. Topic: Poets, American--Biography URL: http://www.poets.org/poet.php/prmPID/18 T.S. Eliot Grade Level:  9-12 Read about one of the most distinguished literary figures of the 20th century at this page that covers the work of T.S. Eliot. Choose from a list of poetry, literary criticism, or quotations by the Nobel Prize wining poet and literary critic. This page is part of the Bartleby.com site, which publishes classic works of literature online for free. There is a link to a more complete biography, an audio file that provides the pronunciation of his name, and a link to his most famous work, "The Waste Land." Topic: Eliot, T. S.--(Thomas Stearns),--1888-1965 URL: http://www.bartleby.com/people/Eliot-Th.html Chronological list by date of publication of George Eliot's novels, short stories and poems Grade Level:  9-12 View a chronological list by date of publications of George Eliot's novels, short stories, and poems. Novels like "Silas Marner" and "Brother Jacob" can be viewed in their entirety. Unable to locate a particular work by Eliot? There is also a search engine available to review even some of his more obscure works. Topic: Eliot, George,--1819-1880 URL: http://www.princeton.edu/~batke/eliot/ T.S. Eliot Grade Level:  9-12 "April is the cruellest month, breeding / Lilacs out of the dead land, mixing / Memory and desire, stirring / Dull roots with spring rain." So begins "The Waste Land," T.S. Eliot's masterpiece, which comprises five sections: The Burial of the Dead," "A Game of Chess," "The Fire Sermon,""Death By Water," and "What the Thunder Said." HarperAudio Recordings, available as 8 kHz computer sound files on Internet Town Hall through Harper Collins and Internet Multicasting Service, includes four audio clips of Eliot reading his poem "rich in symbolic, literary, and historical references as [it] explores the struggles of a soul in despair." Topic: Poets, American  URL:  http://town.hall.org/Archives/radio/IMS/HarperAudio/011894_harp_ITH.html    T.S. Eliot  Grade Level:  9-12  Classic Reader's free online collection of classic stories currently comprises more than three thousand works of literature (including nearly two thousand short stories) by more than three hundred authors. New works are added regularly. The entry on American-English poet T.S. Eliot, "a leader of the modernist movement in literature," features a biographical sketch ("Eliot's principal purpose in his literary-critical essays was 'the elucidation of works of art and the correction of taste'"), an image, and the complete text of a collection of his poems. Topic: Poets, American URL: http://www.classicreader.com/author.php/aut.7/ T.S. Eliot Grade Level:  9-12 Humanities Web comprises such resources as biographies, timelines, chronologies, images, electronic texts of primary sources, articles, and recommendations for further research and reading, all of which "show the interconnections, the web, the links, between history, the arts, and culture--and how each plays off and influences the others." The entry on American-English poet, playwright, literary critic, and editor T.S. Eliot features an image, brief biography, chronology, quotations, and the complete text of a selection of his poems. According to Eliot, "The progress of an artist is a continual self-sacrifice, a continual extinction of personality." Topic: Poets, American URL: http://www.humanitiesweb.org/human.php?s=l&p=c&a=i&ID=38 T. S. Eliot (1888-1965) Grade Level:  9-12 The entry on T.S. Eliot in the online guide to Houghton Mifflin's Heath Anthology features information arranged under the following headings: Classroom Issues and Strategies; Major Themes, Historical Perspectives, and Personal Issues; Significant Form, Style, or Artistic Conventions; Original Audience; Comparisons, Contrasts, Connections; Questions for Reading and Discussion / Approaches to Writing; and Bibliography. "For the uninitiated reader," notes the entry, "Eliot's poems present a number of difficulties: erudite allusions, lines in a number of foreign languages, lack of narrative structure compounded by startling juxtapositions, a sense of aloofness from the ordinary sensory universe of day-to-day living." Topic: Poets, American URL: http://college.hmco.com/english/heath/syllabuild/iguide/eliot.html Influences: The power of T. S. Eliot by Seamus Heaney Grade Level:  9-12 Taken from the "Boston Review", this article by the famous Nobel Prize poet, Seamus Heaney, describes how he was influenced by T. S. Eliot: "One did not need to know any literary thing in particular in the 1950s to know that Eliot was the way, the truth, and the light, and that until one had found him one had not entered the kingdom of poetry." Read Heaney's examples and comparisons to Eliot's poetry. Finally, Heaney concludes with the fact that there is no end to the learning one can get from poetry. Topic: Poets URL: http://www.bostonreview.net/BR14.5/heaney.html T.S. Eliot Grade Level:  9-12 Pearson Education, Inc., publishing as Longman Publishers, maintains a web complement to Literature: An Introduction to Fiction, Poetry, and Drama by X. J. Kennedy and Dana Gioia. The entry on T.S. Eliot observes, "[I]n strange and impersonal-seeming poems written out of his own private torments, he did as much as anyone to redirect the course of twentieth-century poetry in English." The material is arranged under four main headings: Biography (Introduction, Early Years, Literary Career, and Legacy), Critical Archive (Critical Overview), Bibliography (Principal Works, Biography, and Selected Criticism), and Links. Topic: Poets, American URL: http://wps.ablongman.com/long_kennedy_lfpd_9/0,9130,1490009-,00.html George Eliot Grade Level:  9-12 Classic Reader's free online collection of classic stories currently comprises more than three thousand works of literature (including nearly two thousand short stories) by more than three hundred authors. New works are added regularly. The entry on Victorian writer George Eliot, "whose insightful psychological novels paved way to modern character portrayals," features a biographical sketch ("Middlemarch, her greatest novel, was probably inspired by her life at Coventry"), an image, and the complete text of five works: Adam Bede, Brother Jacob, The Lifted Veil, Middlemarch, and Silas Marner. Topic: Women novelists, English URL: http://www.classicreader.com/author.php/aut.67/ George Eliot Grade Level:  9-12 The Literary Heritage web site, which links the literature and writers of the West Midlands region of England, comprises information about the people and places featured in the West Midlands Creative Literature Collection held at Shrewsbury Library, Shrewsbury, Shropshire. A catalogue of related e-texts, discussions of unifying themes, and a timeline complement such entries as the one on George Eliot, in which it is observed, "Lewes's love, however, so fulfilled her that she was persuaded to try to write fiction, and became the successful author of [eight] novels, all of them hugely popular...." Works, references, and related links supplement the biography. Topic: Women novelists, English URL: http://www3.shropshire-cc.gov.uk/eliotg.htm T.S. Eliot (1888-1965) Grade Level:  9-12 The Department of English at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign maintains Modern American Poetry, the online journal and multimedia companion to the Oxford University Press publication Anthology of Modern American Poetry. The entry on T.S. Eliot features both a biographical (or "bio-critical") essay and timeline, literary analyses of several of his poems (including "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock" and "The Waste Land"), a collection of critical commentary entitled, "General Statements on Eliot," and a gallery of images. Topic: Poets, American URL: http://www.english.uiuc.edu/Maps/poets/a_f/eliot/eliot.htm George Eliot (1819-1880) Grade Level:  9-12 The University of Adelaide Library maintains eBooks@Adelaide, a free virtual collection of classic works in literature, philosophy, science, and history. The texts, most of which are complemented by biographical notes and related links, can be read online or downloaded for later use. English novelist Mary Ann Evans, whose pseudonym was George Eliot, is represented in this collection by several works, including Adam Bede, The Mill on the Floss, and Silas Marner. The entry includes an essay culled from the 1910 publication A Short Biographical Dictionary of English Literature by John W. Cousin. Topic: Women novelists, English URL: http://etext.library.adelaide.edu.au/e/eliot/george/ George Eliot (1819-1880) Grade Level:  9-12 Born in 1819, Mary Ann Evans was the young daughter of a man with two teenage children. She was well-educated in languages and music, and attended boarding school in Coventry until her mother's death in 1936. Then she ran her father's household, taking care of the domestic duties of a large estate. Although she respected her father, they often argued about her continued self-education. She continued to challenge cultural traditions and values with her convictions. Topic: Eliot, George,--1819-1880 URL: http://www.litencyc.com/php/speople.php?rec=true&UID=1408 George Eliot, 1857-1876: A Biographical Introduction Grade Level:  9-12 Literary novels can go beyond simply being entertaining. They can convey a philosophy, the author's beliefs about the human condition. Mary Ann, or Marion, Evans was George Eliot talented author. She wrote only one book under her real name. She was an assistant editor for the Westminster Review, and examined the literature of Dickens and Austen from a modern perspective. She believed in expressing the reality of life and the environment in stories, rather than following literary conventions. Topic: Women authors, English--19th century--Biography URL: http://www.victorianweb.org/authors/eliot/pva92.html Prufrock and Other Observations by T. S. Eliot Grade Level:  9-12 This web site provides the viewer with a collection of poems authored by the famous American writer, T.S. Elliot. View over a dozen poems in their entirety. T.S. Elliot was most famous for his insight and introspection into the social world that encompassed him. Annotations are not included for any of the poems that are included on this site. Topic: Eliot, T. S.--(Thomas Stearns),--1888-1965 URL: http://www.bartleby.com/198/index.html Middlemarch Grade Level:  9-12 Epics ordinarily chronicle heroic adventures with grand consequences. Middlemarch turns the idea of an epic on its ear. Subtitled "A Study of Provincial Life," Middlemarch, widely considered to be George Eliot's finest work, narrates the lives of ordinary people against the background of larger social transformations. The SparkNotes study guide for Middlemarch includes a plot summary and discussion of the novel's context; a character list and analyses of the primary characters; a review of the key themes, symbols, and motifs; a chapter-by-chapter review; explanations of important quotations; and study questions, essay samples, and an online quiz. Topic: Eliot, George,--1819-1880 URL: http://www.sparknotes.com/lit/middlemarch/ Middlemarch - A Study of Provincial Life Grade Level:  9-12 A serious and sensitive child, Mary Anne Evans spent the earliest years of her life playing with her favorite brother. She became a shy and introspective child who quietly watched others after they were sent to separate schools. She did not conform to popular beliefs and cultural traditions, and became close friends with the Brays, who were open-minded and respected her ideas. She worked anonymously for the Westminster Review. She soon followed her dream to write her own novels, full of drama, dialogue, and descriptions, and became George Eliot. Topic: Eliot, George,--1819-1880 URL: http://etext.lib.virginia.edu/collections/projects/eliot/middlemarch/ The Historical Context of Middlemarch Grade Level:  9-12 Middlemarch, a novel by George Eliot, is set in historical England, in the rapidly changing time of the 1830s. Examine the social and political issues that the characters in the story are dealing with. Political reforms extended voting privileges to middle-class men, but not yet women or the working class. Darwin's theory of evolution was introduced, but rejected by most. The Industrial Revolution turned farming villages into factories, where even children worked 12 to 14-hour days. Scientific knowledge about medicine was increasing, but doctors trained in the latest knowledge were rare. Topic: Eliot, George,--1819-1880 URL: http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/masterpiece/archive/programs/middlemarch/tg_context.html Edwin Arlington Robinson Grade Level:  9-12 Meet Edwin Arlington Robins who became one of the most important poets in the United States in the first half of the twentieth century, being ranked by one recent scholar with Hardy, Yeats, Frost, Pound, Eliot, Stevens, Crane, and Williams. View many of his works and visit his childhood home. Brief biographical information is also included. Topic: Robinson, Edwin Arlington,--1869-1935 URL: http://www.gpl.lib.me.us/ear.htm Amy Lowell (1874-1925) Grade Level:  9-12 T.S. Eliot called her the "demon saleswoman of poetry," but Amy Lowell said of herself "God made me a businesswoman and I made myself a poet." Born into wealth and prominence, Lowell did not become a poet until several years into her adulthood. She was nearly forgotten until recent gender studies revived interest in her poetry. This web site presents a fairly detailed account of her life and works, including her controversial relationship with a woman and her eventual feud with English poet Ezra Pound. The site lists and offers links to the text of 152 of her poems. Topic: Lowell, Amy,--1874-1925 URL: http://www.americanpoems.com/poets/amylowell Elizabeth Gaskell Grade Level:  9-12 Although she enjoyed great popularity during her lifetime, Elizabeth Gaskell's literary reputation now pales in comparison to that of George Eliot or the Brontë sisters. Gaskell, the daughter and wife of Unitarian ministers, wrote several novels, beginning with Mary Barton, that focused on the misery of the working poor. In this attention to the so-called "Condition of England," she joined such writers as Charles Dickens and Benjamin Disareli. The biography at this site includes an image and insights into Gaskell's life and work. Topic: Women novelists, English URL: http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/masterpiece/wives/writers/gaskell.html Elizabeth Gaskell's Resurrection Grade Level:  9-12 She enjoyed critical and popular acceptance during her lifetime, but in twentieth-century literary circles, Elizabeth Gaskell's reputation has not endured as well as that of George Eliot or Charlotte Brontþ. According to this Times Literary Supplement article, Gaskell was all but dismissed by scholars in the 1970s and 1980s. Since the early 1990s, however, they have been reevaluating her novels--their value, voice, and message. Read Heather Glen's discussion of the rediscovery (or resurrection) of Gaskell. Topic: Women novelists, English URL: http://tls.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,25341-2443558,00.html Imagism Grade Level:  9-12 If you are studying the Imagist movement in poetry and want a clear and concise explanation, this site is an excellent place to begin. You will learn about the founders and practitioners of the movement and about their overall aim clarity of expression through the use of precise visual images. In addition to the major Imagist poets themselves, you will also learn about major poets, such as T.S Eliot and D.H. Lawrence, who were influenced by the Imagists. There is also a list of six of the characteristics of Imagist poetry from an "Imagist manifesto." Topic: Poetry URL: http://www.writing.upenn.edu/~afilreis/88/imagism-def.html Matthew Arnold as a Literary Critic Grade Level:  6-8  9-12 The first modern critic was Matthew Arnold (1822-1888). He is described as being a champion for great poetry and literary criticism. The method he founded for sociological school of criticism introduces scientific objectivity to critical evaluation. Sections of interest include the social role of poetry and criticism, return to classical values, preface to poems of 1853, the function of criticism, the study of poetry, Arnold on Shakespeare, limitations, and Arnold's legacy. T. S. Eliot praised Arnold's objective approach to critical evaluation, especially his tools of comparison and analysis. Topic: Arnold, Matthew,--1822-1888 URL: http://www.literature-study-online.com/essays/arnold.html Selected Poetry of H. D. (Hilda Doolittle; 1886-1961) Grade Level:  9-12 With themes of Greek goddesses, cities after war, and the sea, Hilda Doolittle created vivid images through her poetry. She repeatedly used images of flowers and gardens to convey other messages in her works. She saw mythological figures from a new perspective. Well known for her poetry, she also wrote prose fiction, plays, and for film. Born an American, she settled in London in 1911. She became acquainted with many other poets there, including Ezra Pound, Richard Aldington, T.S. Eliot, and D.H. Lawrence. Topic: H. D.--(Hilda Doolittle),--1886-1961 URL: http://rpo.library.utoronto.ca/poet/99.html Shakespeare, William. Bartleby.com Grade Level:  6-8  9-12 This comprehensive site features author William Shakespeare's writings and also contains biographical and critical information. Included are full text versions of 37 plays, 154 sonnets, and miscellaneous sonnets. Over 1500 quotations from Shakespeare's plays are accessed by title of the play and then in order of occurrence. The biographical section is particularly rich, including many chapters from the "Cambridge History of English Literature," and essays by T.S. Eliot and Ralph Waldo Emerson. Charles and Mary Lamb's lighthearted versions of Shakespeare are also included in full text. Topic: Shakespeare, William, --1564-1616 URL: http://www.bartleby.com/people/Shakespe.html The Cambridge History of English and American Literature- Volume 13 Grade Level:  9-12 The English fiction of the Victorian era is the focus of this encyclopedia volume, which includes critical essays about the novels of Charles Dickens, Charlotte and Emily Bronte, and other lesser-known English novelists. In addition, the site contains a section devoted to political and social novels of the Victorian period, including the works of George Eliot, Benjamin Disraeli, and Charles Kingsley. Critical resources for other genres of literature, such as drama and poetry, are also offered. Topic: English fiction--History and criticism URL: http://www.bartleby.com/223/index.html The Ensemble Sospeso New York Grade Level:  6-8  9-12 The Ensemble Sospeso New York presents information about a new song cycle Tempo e Tempi is the works by Eugenio Montale (1896-1981). The songs were performed by soprano Lucy Shelton. Montale was an Italian poet, editor, translator, and prose writer, and won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1975. Before Montale became a writer, he worked at training to be an opera singer. It is interesting that his words were put to music. Montale translated such writers as William Shakespeare, T.S. Eliot, Eugene O'Neill, and others into the Italian language. Topic: Montale, Eugenio,--1896- URL: http://www.sospeso.com/contents/composers_artists/montale.html Counter-Attack Grade Level:  K-5  6-8  9-12 This web site takes a brief look at Richard Aldington's life. There are embedded links for the important people in his life such as Ezra Pound and T.S. Elliott, important terms such as Imagists, and other web sites that have information on him. The text discusses the major events in his life including his early years, popular works and his service in the military. Topic: Aldington, Richard,--1892-1962 URL: http://www.sassoonery.demon.co.uk/aldington.htm