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Happy birthday, George Eliot

Photo by Henry Be on Unsplash

The author of Middlemarch, Silas Marner, and Adam Bede among others, George Eliot remains a household name (at least for those of us invested in classic literature).

But, of course, George Eliot was a pseudonym employed by Marian Evans when she began writing fiction. Born on 22 November, 1819, Evans would have turned 203 today — though she passed away at a much less supernatural 61 years.

To celebrate her life and legacy, we’ve put together some Scribe books that pay tribute to her life and that examine some fascinating moments in literary history.

In Love with George Eliot

To begin with, we have In Love With George Eliot by Kathy O’Shaughnessy: a ‘beautifully tender’ (Tessa Hadley) work of metafiction which weaves between the nineteenth century life of Marian Evans and two contemporary scholars competing to arrive at an interpretation of her both as a writer and as a woman. 

The novel begins as Adam Bede’s fame is on the rise, bringing curiosity with it. Gradually, it becomes apparent that the moral genius ‘George Eliot’ is none other than Marian Evans, a woman who had scandalised polite society. It is at this point that her tremendous celebrity begins.

A beautifully written novel dedicated to the life and study of one of England’s greatest woman novelists, In Love With George Eliot is the perfect book for any lover of George Eliot or classic British literature and its legacy on our canon. 

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Literary Lion Tamers

Of course, fiction isn’t the only way to explore our fascinating literary histories. In Literary Lion Tamers, Craig Munro reveals ‘an exciting tale about writers wielding tatty but brilliant manuscripts, editors with sharp blue pencils, and ragtag publishers with outsized ambitions’ (Patrick Mullins).

Through a unique and entertaining blend of memoir, biography, and literary detective work, Munro recreates the lives and careers of a group of renowned Australian editors and their authors in a narrative spanning from the 1890s to the 1990s. Despite — or perhaps due to — the reverence that we often view writers and editors with, the uncovering of some of the most eccentric and quarrelsome moments and characters in Australian literary hisory provides the background for a fascinating story. 

Literary Lion Tamers is a delight for anyone interested in the world of books and those who create them.

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The Trials of Portnoy

Moving back into the realm of literary history through the lens of nonfiction, The Trials of Portnoy by Patrick Mullins is the first full account of the audacious publishing decision that forced the end of literary censorship in Australia. 

For more than seventy years, the goal had been simple: keep Australia fre of the moral contamination of impure literature. Under this, books were banned, seized, and burned; bookstores were raided; publishers were fined; and writers were charged and even jailed. But in 1970, Penguin Books Australia’s resolution to publish Portnoy’s Complaint by Philip Roth — a frank, funny, and profane bestseller about a boy hung up about his mother and his penis — Penguin spurred a direct confrontation with censorship authorities, culminating in an unprecedented series of court trials across the country. 

The Trials of Portnoy is essential reading to understand how Australians were granted the freedom to read what they wished, reshaping our literature and culture forever.

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Devil House

Narratives about writers are always fascinating to read about in fiction, and John Darnielle’s Devil House — which follows a true crime writer, Gage Chandler — is no exception.

When Chandler is invited to move into a house wher a pair of briefly notorious murderes occured, he finds the story leading him to a puzzle he never expected, back into his own work and what it means, to the core of what he does and who he is. 

Blurring the line between fact and fiction, this book combines formal experimentation with a spellbinding tale of crime, writing, memory, and artistic obsession. Exploring the dangers of storytelling in gripping narrative form, Devil House is a spectacularly ambitious novel, and a ‘visceral and bravura subversion of the true crime genre’ (Chris Flynn).  

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In Love with George Eliot

Kathy O’Shaughnessy

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In Love with George Eliot

Kathy O’Shaughnessy

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Literary Lion Tamers

Craig Munro

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Devil House

John Darnielle

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The Trials of Portnoy

Patrick Mullins

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