Felix Holt, the Radical (Penguin Classics)

I am a fan of George Eliot, but enjoy some of her novels more than others. This lengthy work got a bit tedious at times as I was not as interested in the political aspects as I was of the various relationships and secrets.

This is the 4th book I have read by George Elliott. This was a good story but not as good as her other better known works. If you like her other works, then this is a good read but this would not be a good one to begin reading George Elliott’s works.

After she'd more or less exhausted her childhood and young adult memories in her first four novels, Mary Ann Evans began to write novels less autobiographical and with greater social import.ROMOLA, the historical novel that preceded FELIX HOLT, is the most lifeless book she ever wrote. FELIX HOLT is a return to form, but it's not entirely successful. There's a very good explanation of why this is the case in Leavis' GREAT TRADITION. While HOLT is worth reading for the complete picture of George Eliot's novelistic career, her genius is best discovered in MIDDLEMARCH, her next novel, and in the "Gwendolyn Harleth" part of DANIEL DERONDA.

I'm a huge George Eliot fan and devoured her other books but even I found the long expository prose sections of this one hard to get through. Absolutely fantastic mind you - every sentence, practically, containing a gem of insight or description. If you have the same problem I HIGHLY recommend starting with the audiobook where Nadia May gives an absolutely amazing performance. In some scenes, she's reading five or seven characters and gives each of them a distinct voice and personality. She's a genius, and she finally helped me get through FH after a couple of attempts.As for Felix himself: wonderful character, wonderful book, just wonderful, wonderful.

Photocopied version of an undated edition. No footnotes. No critical commentary. A brief Editor's note assures the reader this is the "complete and unabridged version of the original English text." Maybe so, but I'd need a bit more convincing. Text is tightly packed on each page and chapters run poorly spaced and unseparated except by chapter number. If you need this title for any kind of school report or study, find another edition.

Good story and well worth reading although not as good as Middlemarch.

I had never heard of this book before, but l'd read everything else George Eliot put out & wanted more. This book didn't disappoint. Very astute depictions of the various characters, social classes, political viewpoints, etc.

A little too much political rhetoric but interesting story

Both myself and my husband have read this now and what a good read. Political views expressed are almost timeless and as relevant today as they were at the time of the Reform Act! The speech which Eliot was asked to write for Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine and headlined in January 1868 is included in the appendix - what an excellent piece of writing by a woman in those days albeit in the voice of Felix Holt.

As described & promptly delivered.

I really don't like Jane Austen, and I thought that this might be similar. But no, this was a very enjoyable read, with some strong characters. The tories haven't really changed in 200 years have they ?

This is Eliot limbering up for the masterwork that is Middlemarch. It's not her best book, but it's still streets ahead of the competition and compulsively readable. Felix Holt: The Radical, like many books of the time, features religious controversy, an inheritance plot requiring several scarcely believable coincidences with much legal debate and a political theme as well as the obligatory central romance. What many of the other books, or rather their authors, lack, however, is Eliot's extraordinary empathy and moral breadth. Felix himself is in danger of being a bit of a self-righteous prig, and Esther starts out as the usual selfish, trivial-minded anti-heroine. But Eliot has this unwavering belief that people can grow, and change for the better, and that other people can help them do that, and Felix will be enriched and softened by love and Esther will discover what is really important in life through the example of a selfless nature. Eliot is the great purveyor of realism: she researched every aspect meticulously (she corresponded with a lawyer about the precise details of her intricate legal plot, and one of the great attributes of Eliot as a novelist and omniscient narrator is that she can share with you the depth of her knowledge of what makes her characters tick - there wasn't a fleeting thought in their heads of which she was unaware; she knew everything that had ever happened to them and what it had done to them. She can make us sympathise with characters who appear to have very little to commend them, like Mrs. Transome. She is wholly assured with all levels of society and has their various speech patterns down pat. The political theme here is very interesting. Eliot believed the vote was useless unless men were educated sufficiently to know how to use it wisely. Education was the key to everything for men and women, to help them learn how to be part of a larger society. Politicians should be made to read Eliot. She believed the individual can make a difference. There are some wonderful minor characters in this book - the Reverend Lyon, a genuinely good man, Jermyn the evil Dickensian lawyer, the oily Mr. Johnson the election fixer and so forth. And there are some splendidly funny parts, especially the set piece where the bible-spouting Mrs Holt braves the Transomes at home. So - all human life is here, you feel like a better person after reading it, and it's thoroughly enjoyable too.

All satisfactory