Felix Holt: The Radical (Penguin Classics)

by George Eliot (Author), Lynda Mugglestone (Introduction), George Eliot (Author), Lynda Mugglestone (Introduction), George Eliot (Author)

• New

  Paperback
  1995

  $12.91

  When the young nobleman Harold Transome returns to England from the colonies with a self-made fortune, he scandalizes the town of Treby Magna with his decision to stand for Parliament as a Radical. But after the idealistic Felix Holt also returns to the town, the difference between Harold's opportunistic values and Holt's profound beliefs becomes apparent. Forthright, brusque and driven by a firm desire to educate the working-class, Felix is at first viewed with suspicion by many, including the elegant but vain Esther Lyon, the daughter of the local clergyman. As she discovers, however, his blunt words conceal both passion and deep integrity. Soon the romantic and over-refined Esther finds herself overwhelmed by a heart-wrenching decision: whether to choose the wealthy Transome as a husband, or the impoverished but honest Felix Holt.

• Used

  Paperback
  1997

  $3.35

  This title includes introduction and notes by Dinny Thorold, University of Westminster. Felix Holt is set, like Middlemarch in the Midlands at the time of the Great Reform Bill of 1832. This novel brings social and political history vividly to life with its magnificent rendering of provincial England in the ferment of electioneering. Against this background Eliot tells a love story and weaves a plot which has many elements of the sensation novel, such as illegitimacy, blackmail, and the discovery of an heiress, where suspense is maintained until the end.