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Title: Romola by George Eliot, Dorothea Barrett ISBN: 0-14-043470-4 Publisher: Penguin Books Pub. Date: 01 January, 1997 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $12.00 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.7 (10 reviews)
Rating: 5
Summary: Great Historical Fiction
Comment: George Eliot spent two years preparing "Romola", and the result is a rich, densely detailed "Tale of the Renaissance". Never a facile writer, here she is concerned with one of the most intellectually challenging (not to mention politically complicated) periods in history; and she paints the panoply and power struggles as a background for the personal tragedy which is the novel's crux. While not an "easy read" in the Sir Walter Scott sense, "Romola" presents in sumptous detail the banquets, the festivities, and the famous bonfire of vanities that one associates with late 15th Century Florence.But from a purely literary viewpoint, the most important thing about the book is its delineation of Tito Melema, the young man who in the opening chapters is the story's hero, but slowly, irrevocably becomes its villain. Neither Sir Walter nor Charles Dickens has psychological insight (in the modern sense) as sharp as George Eliot's, and this study of a fictional character's downfall is one of the most stunning depictions of corruption in English literature. That he is the husband of the heroine, a sensitive, finely sensual woman, makes the tragedy all the more poignant. Scenes involving historical characters (including Savonarola and Machiavelli) tend to be a little stiff in costume movie style. Oh, and because the story takes place in the 1490's, one must imagine the Piazza della Signoria without Michelangelo and Cellini. This must really have frustrated a connoisseur like George Eliot.
Rating: 4
Summary: A hard book to read, but worth the effort
Comment: Romola was a difficult book to read. If I did not happen to be on a business trip that left me long hours on seemingly endless international flights, I doubt if I would have had the perseverance to stick with it. In writing this book, Eliot spent six months in exhaustive research on fifteenth century Florence, and she is going to give it all to you whether you like it or not. This made it difficult to enjoy because I was constantly going to the back of the book get the translation of Italian and Latin phrases, reference to obscure historical characters, and other minutia which would only be clear to someone with a doctorate in Italian history. I was frustrated by this throughout the book. Having said that, the book is worth the wade! As always Eliot's writing is a pure joy to read. Some of her description is so beautiful that I have to step back in wonder that someone can create narrative so rich and inviting. Her characters are complex, intriguing and well developed. First, Tito was the most original antihero I have run across in years: a man who avoids unpleasantness and discomfort to the point that he betrays anyone he has ever loved while intending only to take the easy way in all his dealings. Romola is a women deeply learned, but raised only by her aging father and the classics, is unprepared for what the fates have brought her: love, duplicity, and purpose. And lastly, Savonarola, Tito's opposite: a religious visionary who strives to lead Florence to a new order, and is willing to give up church, state---anything but his place in the order, to see his prophecy fulfilled. This is Eliot's favorite book. I can see why.
Rating: 5
Summary: One of my best surprises as a reader.
Comment: When one starts reading a Victorian novelist, one prepares before hand to face a certain amount of wooden, heavy-handed moralizing, as every great narrative of the epoch is fraught with the opposition between the calls of pleasure and the calls of duty, between seeking for one's private advantage and sticking to one's role, with the writer making the latter to win overwhelming. This novel is no different, in that it's the dutiful Romola that has the upper hand over her nice and debauched husband Tito Melena in the end. However, the novel being set in late Renaissance Italy- a country with which George Eliot had an enduring love affair - it captures the atmosphere of the time and place in such a beautiful way that this enormous, throughly reserched historical novel has such a flowing, luxurious style that takes an almost liquid quality, like a fresh, transparent scream flowing along a summer Mediterranean landscape. Also, in the person of Savonarola, Eliot menaged to introduce the figure of the idealist turned evil through his attachment to his call. In short: a gorgeous novel. Loved it!
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Title: Daniel Deronda by George Eliot, Terence Cave ISBN: 0140434275 Publisher: Penguin Books Pub. Date: 01 January, 1996 List Price(USD): $9.95 |
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Title: Felix Holt, the Radical by George Eliot, Lynda Mugglestone ISBN: 0140434356 Publisher: Penguin Books Pub. Date: 01 December, 1995 List Price(USD): $14.00 |
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Title: Scenes of Clerical Life by George Eliot, Jennifer Gribble ISBN: 0140436383 Publisher: Penguin Books Pub. Date: 01 October, 1999 List Price(USD): $8.95 |
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Title: Adam Bede by George Eliot ISBN: 0140431217 Publisher: Penguin Books Pub. Date: 01 June, 1980 List Price(USD): $8.95 |
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Title: The Mill on the Floss (Oxford World's Classics) by George Eliot, Gordon S. Haight, Dinah Birch ISBN: 0192833642 Publisher: Oxford University Press Pub. Date: 01 June, 1998 List Price(USD): $8.95 |
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