George Eliot

Scenes of Clerical Life George Eliot

"We are poor plants buoyed up by the air-vessels of our own conceit: alas for us, if we get a few pinches that empty us of that windy self-subsistence." Eliot's first published work of fiction, Scenes of Clerical Life is remarkable for its representation of the lives of ordinary men and women, and initiated an entirely new era of nineteenth-century fiction. Scenes of Clerical Life, a collection of three short stories was released in book form; it was the first of her works to be released under her famous pseudonym. Each of the three stories that make up the book, 'Amos Barton', 'Mr Gilfil's Love-Story', and 'Janet's Repentance', is notable for its psychological penetration, and together they treat of love, grief, and domestic violence. The three stories are set during the last twenty years of the eighteenth century and the first half of the nineteenth century over a fifty year period. The stories take place in and around the fictional town of Milby in the English Midlands. Each of the Scenes concerns a different Anglican clergyman, but is not necessarily centred upon him. Eliot examines, among other things, the effects of religious reform and the tension between the Established and the Dissenting Churches on the clergymen and their congregations, and draws