SOURCE: Booth, Alison. “Not All Men Are Selfish and Cruel: Felix Holt as a Feminist Novel.” In Gender and Discourse in Victorian Literature and Art, edited by Antony H. Harrison and Beverly Taylor, pp. 143-60. DeKalb, Ill.: Northern Illinois University Press, 1992.

In the following essay, Booth discusses elements of feminism in Felix Holt, claiming that the novel criticizes injustices related to gender as well as to class.

Once George Eliot had established herself as a great woman of letters in such works as the unpopular but authoritative Romola, she found herself in a difficult position. The stakes were higher perhaps even than they had been when she vindicated the fallen, strong-minded woman, Marian Evans “Lewes,” in the wise reminiscences of the clerical George Eliot. That gentleman had now been promoted to the position of Victorian sage, which could easily take the fun out of the novelist's job. Yet...